Are People Laughing at Me?

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I like all these necropost-bumps this morning. I am new enough to not have ever seen these conversations yet.

So, one of the best things about entering my 40s was that I somehow magically stopped caring about what other people think for the most part, except if their opinion of me is going to actually affect me (like if my doctor thinks I'm a hypochondriac because of having a flat affect and not looking him in the eyes - which was the reason I decided to let my psychiatrist send over my diagnosis to my regular doctor - so he understands my mannerisms and doesn't waste time or effort interpreting them).

But last year I had my daughter with me who was 11 at the time and she was wearing an outfit that is trendy in her middle school but not at all a common style in our little conservative town. Basically goth/emo type clothes, but appropriate for a kid her age. We were at a hoity-toity home goods store and I saw two young female employees walk past us then one leaned into whisper something in the other one's ear and both began to laugh. I said loudly to my daughter "come on, we aren't going to spend a dime in this place, their employees are rude and I'm going to report them to corporate when we get home!"

Then I walked out past the women who had stopped and turned to look at us with their jaws dropped, went home, and posted about it on social media, tagging the company. That generally gets a response of some sort, but in this instance it did not. I didn't really care because the big thing I wanted to do was show support for my daughter, show her a way to stand up for yourself that is appropriate within the context that it occurs, and purge myself of the negative feelings it had created.

I think I accomplished all of those things. I know my daughter appreciated me saying that and leaving, she was visibly upset at being made fun of like that and never did wear those particular clothes again. I still feel bad for her. (she's "like me").