I knew it would be horrible. I put on my cheerful face. I was patient, maneuvering my cart around people, blocking aisles while bullshitting with others, people who stop in the middle of a main aisle for no apparent reason, you know, just a typical trip to WalMart times ten because it's December 22.
I was polite. I was cheerful until I could take no more. I followed a mother and her two children along the ENTIRE length of WalMart to get to the section that had my three items. During this long walk, her son bounced a ball. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. Bouncing it off of shelves. Bouncing it off of the mother, bouncing off of other people. I stopped counting the bounces at 252, because that is when I snapped.
I turned into the cat food aisle and she came in behind me. Even after giving her "The Look" twice, she was clueless. I told her that it was annoying. She replied "The ball?", I said yes, to which she replied, "Tough, deal with it". Then I really snapped.
I told her that it was annoying everyone and that this is not a playground, it was a store. She looked at me and said "YOU are not everyone". I told her, lady, did you not notice the looks that just about everyone that passed you gave you, because I did. It is annoying many people.
She didn't say "Kids will be kids" not "Honey, don't bounce the ball" no, she said "Your UGLY". I think I would have had more respect for her had she said "You're a bitch!" At which point I said, well you are a crappy mother, allowing your kid to act like an asshole in public. I told her that people like her are what's wrong with this world. You need to teach your kids to have respect for others while in public.
At this point, the boy had already put the ball into the cart. I looked at him and smiled and thanked him for doing so. See, was this so hard? The child obviously knows things and just needs some guidance.
I am sick to death of people, who have kids, and just turn a blind eye to them, it's like they ignore them. This is just the beginning, they are young and not respecting others, next it will be them doing heroin, all while the mother turns a blind eye to it.
Parents are responsible for giving their children a moral compass. They need to teach them the difference between right and wrong. They need to teach them to have respect for others. I guess it is kind of hard to teach your children that, when you, yourself, don't possess those things.
My mother ruled me with an iron fist. I was not allowed to act like that in public and if I did, she beat my ass. Guess what? I've never been arrested. I've never shot and killed anyone. I've never taken drugs, hell I've never even assaulted anyone, unless you count that one time I slapped Gin Harmon across the face while working at Jamesway, but she asked for it.
Start parenting. Stop the promotion of delinquency in America. Your children want your guidance and attention. You birthed them, you owe it to them to give them at least that.
1 comment:
amen sista' !!!! you said it! I get so sick of it when I go into stores. People always assume its because I do not have kids--wrong! that's not how I was raised. Like you, we did not "play" in the stores. Mom had no problem smacking us if we started to act up. That's the problem, society has decided that parenting should be dictated by society and frown upon discipline. But then again this generation of parents should be smacked too!
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