Sam's Club

Candice and I went to Garden City yesterday to do a little shopping. We were in Sam's when what do I hear? A screaming kid! My biggest pet peave has to be an unruly child! So I looked around for a parent and to my surprise (*note the sarcasm) there was not an adult to be found. The kid kept screaming... and screaming... and screaming. Still no parent. I stared the kid down and waited for him to look at me. When he did I held my finger up to my mouth and quietly told him to "Shhh." He stopped screaming and we kept looking at the display next to us. Then I hear, "Mam!! Mam... You got a problem? You got a problem?" Aaaaah, there's the parent in all of her tummy-roll-hangin-out glory (literally hanging out under one shirt that she apparently stole from her 12 year old sister while the over shirt was tucked into the abyss of the top roll.)!!! Momma had to come rescue her son from the mean lady that was trying to make her son maintain some sort of order and act like a civilized human being. I turned to her and said, "Yah, I do. There's no reason for him to be acting that way." When she said, "He's free, he can do whatever he wants." I replied, "He still doesn't need to be acting that way and you are free to discipline him anytime you'd like!" Then she started telling me to be quiet and to "Shhhh." Wow! I said, "That's great! You're gonna tell me to be quiet but your son can scream all over the store? Pretty ridiculous!" And I turned and walked away.

Candice is used to this by now. She knows that I don't put up with that. First, I was never allowed to act like that (public or private) so it automatically rubs the wrong way. Second, after working several years in retail it starts to wear the nerves a little thin. Third, what else are they going to let their kids get away with because it's a "free" country? The best thing we learned in government class was, "My freedom ends where your rights begin." And lastly, people take for granted our "safe" small communities. There are still weirdo perps out there that can take their child, but no one wants to pay attention to them.

I will admit that I probably shouldn't have interacted with the mom. It only fueled her fire, and she obviously did not want to listen to anything I had to say. But maybe I said what other people will not. Maybe as she is in a store later she will think twice when letting her kid scream to the end of the earth... Probly not!!