I wasn't meaning to be funny actually, but sometimes my brain is faster than my fingers OR the reverse!

To make my point a little (I hope) clearer - there isn't much point assuming or speculating about WHY someone responds a certain way, not thinking how 'dare' they talk to me like that.
I mean if you want to speculate, why stop at assuming the receptionist doesn't have children OR she would think you would send a sick kid to school. You could stretch it right out and think......maybe the Principal just buzzed her out for not finishing something she tried hard to do, or she got a flat tyre that morning, or that she got home early last night to find her husband wearing her french knickers and heels. You could go on and on and on thinking about why she had the attitude and/or what she thought about you, but I think that's either stewing/overthinking it.

Same as deciding what an appropriate response was on the EQ scale. To me it a bit of a waste of time - esp if I could be daydreaming about Johnny Depp instead