Eating Their Young

Eating Their Young

 

I was at the grocery store grudgingly doing some much needed grocery shopping.  For the most part I love to cook.  There are few things as relaxing after a hard day then cutting up some veggies and creating something that tastes good.  And no I am not a stress eater.  Though to look at my 5ft, 150 lbs frame it might not seem that way.  I am not very active.  And my metabolism crashed like the markets when I hit 20.  But I don’t really eat that much, or that badly.  I love veggies, but that only gets you so far when one is not biking 3 days a week like one intended to.  But I digress.  At the same time I was at the grocery store, there was a mom and her 6 maybe 8 year old son.  I am a pretty organized shopper and have my list that is pretty well broken down by like items.  Yes I am that anal.   I write down all the produce, refrigerated stuff, frozen, canned, ect.  It makes my shopping easier, faster, and I don’t buy as much extra stuff because I am only going where I need to and don’t have to backtrack too much.  So as I was gathering my bounty for the next few days, this mom and kid seemed to be in the same aisles I was.  The kid was being quite loud and rude so it was hard to miss them.  Normally I just walk right by those kids who are trying to make a scene.  They are not mine and their parents will know far better than I will how to deal with them.  And if a kid is going to melt down there really isn’t a whole lot you can do to stop them.  I have worked with kids long enough to know this.  So I usually keep my eyes to myself in these situations.  I don’t feel it is my business to stop and stare and make the parents feel like they are worthless.  Unless I see physical violence.  That doesn’t fly in my book.  At all.  Ever.  I have actually said things to parents who seem hell bent on hitting their kid upside the head, literally.  A swat on the backside I will glare but usually don’t say anything.  Actual repeated hitting…you bet.  I may even call the police.  I don’t care how much of a pain your kid if being, it is never ok to be violent against them.  There are a lot of people who might be saying ‘wait a minute here, you don’t have any kids so you have no right to talk.  You don’t understand.’  I may not have any kids, but I have worked with them for years.  I understand getting frustrated.  But seriously, violence only begets violence.  There are better ways to communicate.

 

I come to the cereal/fruit snack aisle and there they are again.  Only this time kid was on melt down over load.  I had heard him whining and complaining almost everything I saw him.  “I want this, I want that.”  Mom would say no.  kid would get mad and start throwing a fit.  Mom would say fine.  The whole time I am thinking, what would I do if this were me and he were my kid, how would I handle this?  I guess I was that bored.  So here this kid is at the cereal aisle and he is in full tantrum mode.  We have move beyond yelling.  We have moved beyond demands.  This kid was screaming at the top of his lungs.  And he wasn’t 4.  He was seriously like 7; at least he had the verbal skills of an older child and not just a tall younger child.  Some of the words that were coming out of this child’s mouth would have made a sailor blush.  He called his mom words I would love…or maybe not…to know where he learned them.  Usually when it’s a kid throwing a temper tantrum, it’s a younger kid.  Like Allie’s age (she’s 4).  Especially when they are tired.  But this kid was older.  And all I could really do was stand there and watch in shock and he open the box of sugar gummy ‘fruit snacks’ and tell his mom she had to buy them now because they were opened.  Holy bonkers batman (to steal a phrase from a friend)!  I expected to find the mom blazing mad (I know I would be) or embarrassed (this would be why I would be blazing mad).  But she was trying to negotiate with him.  ‘Johnny we can get this kind and go back and get some ice cream but we really shouldn’t get those.  They aren’t good for you sweetie.’  I just stared dumb founded at her.  Here was a child, who really should know better, opening boxes of fruit snacks (he was on box number 2), screaming and cursing at her, and she is trying to placate him with a box of chocolate covered granola bars (which I am sure were so much healthier) and ice cream.  This kid is going to grow up to be an actor…or a con artist.  Each time he wanted something he would pitch a fit and after only a few seconds, his mom would give in.  After they left the cereal aisle (with both boxes of gummy sour sugar fruit flavored snacks as well as 2 boxes of the chocolate covered granola bars) they did go to the ice cream aisle.  I saw them walk by me at the check out with a tub of ice cream and the kid had a big, sweet smile.  I wonder who rules that household?  In one of the aisle I swear I heard her call him ‘angel’.  Not likely.  I watch way too much Super Nanny.  I can just hear what Jo would be saying to that mother running through my head as I am paying for my food.  Again I wonder what I would do in that situation?  And I almost started laughing when the phrase ‘this is why some species eat their young’ flashes across my mind.  If I ever become that parent, someone do me a favor…shoot me.