Dr Sir,
Yes, you. The jerk who made a snide remark to the Walmart employee about the crying child at the front of the store.
I am not sure when you decided it was okay to ask an employee to ‘tell that woman to get her kid under control’ when her daughter was clearly upset and mom had been trying to calm her down. As a mother of a young girl myself, I am pretty sure that in the same situation I would have left the store because as obnoxious as that child may have been to you, I promise you the mom was likely much more uncomfortable about the situation than you were. And frankly, she may have been dealing with crying and screaming all day as it was.
Maybe mom was waiting with the child while dad picked up a medication – mail order pharmacy isn’t instantaneous, and if the child needs an antibiotic, well that could cause the fit you were so easily irritated with. Maybe the child was crying because mom told her ‘no’. I guess in that situation there is an easy solve, mom could just give in … but then you would be upset because mom raised a self-entitled child who was draining all of societies resources or being a productive member of society.
Here is the thing – parent’s can’t win.
No matter what we do, or how we parent, someone like you is waiting around the corner to make sure we know how badly we are failing. And almost without fail it will be in a moment when we already feel like we are the biggest failures that have existed in parenthood.
Here is my snide suggestion for you: at your age, you should probably not wear shorts that were clearly designed to be deemed hip to the late teen early twenty-something crowd. But since that isn’t useful (sucks when someone cuts you down without offering help doesn’t it?), let me give you a serious suggestion:
Look around, you are in Walmart. Families shop there. Beyond that Walmart is known for some silly things … like the behavior and people that can be seen there. Don’t believe me? Check out this site. Sure you can see that kind of craziness pretty much anywhere … but usually not in great enough quantities that a whole website is dedicated to the oddities seen in one location. My point is that maybe you should adjust your expectations. Between families and the crazy stuff that can go on, you should count your blessings that the biggest disruption to your shopping experience was at checkout where a little girl was crying.
Secondly, you are in a public place. And I am pretty sure you don’t own Walmart. If you really have such an issue getting along with others, there is this crazy little invention that has been helping out the most antisocial of us since 1991. Actually, online shopping was ‘invented‘ in 1979 … so it has been around for awhile. It just took some time for it to become commercially available. Today, you can even shop online for your groceries and have them delivered to your door … crying kids not included.
Just so we are clear, I know you don’t and won’t have any shame in your disgraceful behavior. I am not disillusioned enough to believe that my words will make you snap out of your poor behavior and change the way you treat others. I don’t expect this will ever even fall under your judgmental glare – but it sure makes me feel better.
I do hope that if I should ever knowingly cross your path again, your behavior has upgraded from matching that of a tantruming two year old to that of at least a semi-respectful seven year old.
Sincerely,
The mother of a sometimes less than well behaved 2 year old.
Becoming Supermom 