Shopping with parents
May. 21st, 2007 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichI would re-phrase that as "shopping with inconsiderate, lazy, ineffective people who also have a child" but I won't. This is a rant.
I went to the Commissary today. It's a large one, not quite the size of a Target store, but close. As I entered, I could hear the faint agonised screams of a child. I thought someone had fallen and gotten hurt. The cries continued unabated...
I didn't have much to buy so was going through the store quickly. Of course that meant that I was approaching the screaming child quickly, too. And as luck would have it, the areas where I had to pause and think about what I was choosing to purchase were in the last three aisles, along side that red-faced, wild boy who was climbing out of the shopping cart, running down the aisles pulling items off of the shelves, throwing himself under shelves and displays and fighting and kicking at the arms of his ponderous mother, who simply kept saying, "you're going in Time Out" as she ignored the mess her child had created to plop him back into the cart and continue her leisurely shopping. The screaming did not ever cease. It was full-stop "I am in PAIN" hysteria. The father trailed about 12 feet behind his wife, picking up the scattered goods and trying to look invisible.
I had to force myself to skip the last of my shopping so I'd not be Rude Bitch. It was all I could do not to walk over to that couple and shout, over the screaming of that kid, "YOU! Take that child to the car where he can scream without disturbing the rest of the world." " And You! Yes, you, Appalling Mother! GET A BOOK ON PARENTING. What DO you think you are teaching your child with this outrageous behavior? That there are no punishments for public displays like this? That there are no consequences for acting out? WE didn't make the child. WE don't deserve the adrenaline burst that his agonising screaming is setting off in every adult in this store. GET OUT until you know how to be fit for public company!"
But instead I headed for the checkout line. Where I learned that the family came in 45 minutes earlier and the child had been screaming and fighting as they entered the door. By the time I left, they were in the checkout line and the little boy was exhausted, still managing jags of screaming but lower in volume as his weary little lungs and over-stressed voice fought the process. I'm sure the parents will enjoy the silence his exhaustion will grant them when they are in the privacy of their car and their home. I wish they had granted us the same boon.
I know some folks don't agree that an occasional pop on the butt is appropriate. I admit, it's what I did when my children were too young to reason with and they attempted such displays (only about once or twice in their lives, actually) before they were taken home and put to bed for a nice behavior-modifying nap, "Obviously, you are too tired to be fit for polite company.". So I'm not sure what the most effective method is for dealing with such things in a non-spanking parenting way. What I do know is that if those same parents want to shop in the same establishments as the rest of society, they'd damned well better learn how to be an effective parent and keep their children under control. Or someday, I swear, the 'pop' everyone hears will be my hand across some complacent mother's face.
(Okay, no, I wouldn't do that. But, but, I'd sure want to!)
I went to the Commissary today. It's a large one, not quite the size of a Target store, but close. As I entered, I could hear the faint agonised screams of a child. I thought someone had fallen and gotten hurt. The cries continued unabated...
I didn't have much to buy so was going through the store quickly. Of course that meant that I was approaching the screaming child quickly, too. And as luck would have it, the areas where I had to pause and think about what I was choosing to purchase were in the last three aisles, along side that red-faced, wild boy who was climbing out of the shopping cart, running down the aisles pulling items off of the shelves, throwing himself under shelves and displays and fighting and kicking at the arms of his ponderous mother, who simply kept saying, "you're going in Time Out" as she ignored the mess her child had created to plop him back into the cart and continue her leisurely shopping. The screaming did not ever cease. It was full-stop "I am in PAIN" hysteria. The father trailed about 12 feet behind his wife, picking up the scattered goods and trying to look invisible.
I had to force myself to skip the last of my shopping so I'd not be Rude Bitch. It was all I could do not to walk over to that couple and shout, over the screaming of that kid, "YOU! Take that child to the car where he can scream without disturbing the rest of the world." " And You! Yes, you, Appalling Mother! GET A BOOK ON PARENTING. What DO you think you are teaching your child with this outrageous behavior? That there are no punishments for public displays like this? That there are no consequences for acting out? WE didn't make the child. WE don't deserve the adrenaline burst that his agonising screaming is setting off in every adult in this store. GET OUT until you know how to be fit for public company!"
But instead I headed for the checkout line. Where I learned that the family came in 45 minutes earlier and the child had been screaming and fighting as they entered the door. By the time I left, they were in the checkout line and the little boy was exhausted, still managing jags of screaming but lower in volume as his weary little lungs and over-stressed voice fought the process. I'm sure the parents will enjoy the silence his exhaustion will grant them when they are in the privacy of their car and their home. I wish they had granted us the same boon.
I know some folks don't agree that an occasional pop on the butt is appropriate. I admit, it's what I did when my children were too young to reason with and they attempted such displays (only about once or twice in their lives, actually) before they were taken home and put to bed for a nice behavior-modifying nap, "Obviously, you are too tired to be fit for polite company.". So I'm not sure what the most effective method is for dealing with such things in a non-spanking parenting way. What I do know is that if those same parents want to shop in the same establishments as the rest of society, they'd damned well better learn how to be an effective parent and keep their children under control. Or someday, I swear, the 'pop' everyone hears will be my hand across some complacent mother's face.
(Okay, no, I wouldn't do that. But, but, I'd sure want to!)
