I really embarrassed some woman today

I really embarrassed some woman today

Much to my dismay, I had to go to the grocery store today. I am the poster girl for poor college student now so it hit me hard in the pocket book.

So, I do my shopping (got some pretty good deals in the process) and headed to the checkout. In front of me is a lady with her 2 year old son and 6 week old infant. She has WIC coupons. She was using the whole lot at once. I have absolutely no problem with WIC coupons..I have a problem with what she did.

She put the wrong type of cheese in her buggy. She decided to go and get the correct type. That is fine and dandy. She took her 2 year old but left her infant at the end of the checkout line in the infant seat. She walked away and my mouth dropped open. How the hell do you just leave your infant in the carrier at the checkout? The cashier and bagger were just as amazed as I was. When she came back, I told her that was not a good thing to do. That is worse than leaving the infant in a locked car while paying for gas. You left your child in a populated area with strangers.

She gave me a nasty look and left.

I just don't understand people.

 

I'm glad you did this Zodi. :thumbsup: Hopefully next time the woman will think before doing something so stupid/reckless with her child.

If only more people would speak up about the way that children get treated (or the lack of treatment), perhaps our world would be slightly better.

edit: Crap! on reading your other post in the "tell us about you" thread, I see I may not be qualified to refer to you as Zodi. :cry:

 

My fiancee and I are constantly amazed by the way people look after their children in public places. Seems a day can't go by without us seeing a parent with a small child trailing along far behind them while they just go about their business not paying any attention.

Or worse yet, seeing a small child wandering about a store with no discernable parent in sight.

 

You should've hid the kid. That would've been fun. The cashier could've stashed him/her behind the register.

 

I see mom's doing this crap all the time. I just don't get what people are thinking or if they even are thinking at all for that matter.

 

Tell me about it..

I was so angry at her actions. Maybe it is just me..but there is no way that I would even leave my 13 year old at the checkout. He hoofs with me. Samara hoofs with me.

That whole episode just baffles me. Children are the greatest gift ever...and to leave them at the checkout so you can get cheese?

I was a *****. Funny thing, she was not a young mother.

I was just shocked at what she did. It was like she didn't even think twice about her infant.

See, it was me..with cranky toddler. Would I ever leave her at the checkout..lord no. When Samara was born..did I ever think cheese was more important...no.

I am starting to let go a tad with Liam..he is almost 14. But I would never, ever leave Samara alone..anywhere.

The whole thing just makes me wonder about parents.

 

I agree with Pat, you should have hidden the child behind the register, or perhaps behind the M&Ms.

 

That would be me at age 4. Not irresponsible parents, just inquisitive child.

You did the right thing Zod, now if only we could do that to all the parents I see with a 1-2 yr old child in the back seat of a car without a carseat, flopping all over the place...

 

Better yet, go to the produce aisle and find the cauliflowers. Stick the child in there and cover everything but the head up with cauliflowers. When the mother asks where the brat is, say s/he wanted to play hide-and-seek.

 

I read that as "you should've hit the kid", and thought that you were a horrible person. Shame on you.

 

You don't understand her carelessness, or you don't understand the dirty look?

Warmer... warmer... colder... oh, ice cold...

Yeah, me too.

 

I guess if somebody kidnapped the kid she'd lose about a 1/3 of her welfare money, so yeah, that was pretty irresponsible.

 

OMG!!!! That would have been hysterical! I'd never have the nerve to do it, but I'd love to watch it happen.

 

The mother probably wouldn't have noticed until she was halfway home.

 

Do you know how much a healthy baby goes for nowadays? You could have solved your money problems right then and there. :wink2:

 

Or saved money on the grocery bill by eating the nutritious baby!

 

How'd you get banned the first time again, I forget.

 

Hi All,

Interesting reading all your comments, but I couldn't help wondering if the topic should be "bad parenting" or "the dangers of living in American".

Now before you all get you panties in wad, and accuse me of being anti-american .... I live in a country where it is an accepted practise for mothers (or fathers) to leave their babies outside of shops in prams while they go inside to do whatever they need to do.

I don't mean when they go into a department store of many floors, where the actual pram can enter the building, but rather the little basement boutiques where the steps are too steep to take a pram down. In this situation it is quite normal to leave the baby outside. Actually it was more common 10 years ago, but nowadays with the world getting more paranoid this habit is becoming less common.

Which country does this happen in ...... Denmark. In the 15 years I've been living in this country I have not heard of a single case of the baby being kidnapped, or interferred with in any way. It is an accepted danish tradition, and if the police saw an unattended pram outside shop with a baby onboard, they wouldn't blink an eye at it.

Any of you remember the case a year or 2 ago, when a danish mum left her baby in pram outside a New York Restuarant while she had her lunch inside, and someone called the police and she was arrested for child endangerment ? The charges were eventually dropped when the Danish Ambassador was contacted and he explained that leaving babies outside was a common practise 'back home'. Ofcourse she was told that doing this in New York was not the same as doing it in a Danish city ...

I wonder what you all think of the another danish traditon, where a baby / young child is wrapped up warmly in clothes, placed under a doona in their pram then put outside in the middle of winter (-10 degrees) for an afternoon nap ? I must admit the first time I saw a pram outside in snow with a 6 month old baby (my godson) having his afternoon nap, I was like wtf .... then my wife and the baby's mother explained that it was quite a normal thing to do in Denmark. Something about fresh air being good for the kid. Hehe, no wonder the vikings are such hardy folks.

.... so just because the situation Zodi described in the original post might be considered child endangerment in America, its certainly isn't in some other countries.

Regards
Syxx

 

I doubt it would be considered child endangerment here in Australia either, a bit careless maybe.

Nobody said the mother was black...

 

Kidnapping and bad people in general aside, I still wouldn't leave my baby unattended. There's a whole host of things that can happen to them that aren't anyone's fault. These are babies- they're completely defenseless from say, a falling tree branch. Maybe a shopping cart got away from someone or a person feel asleep at the wheel. I don't know- there's a million things that can go wrong and while I realize you can't be totally paranoid and protect your child from every possibility, not being out of view of them when in a public place seems like an obvious one to me. Why take the chance? Look at it this way- if leaving your kid out was an accepted practice, and you did and something horrible happened to them... would you ever be able to forgive yourself? Would it being 'acceptable' make any difference?