Don't make me hit you!

I strongly dislike grocery stores. First of all, most of them are so vast that I need to pace myself and hydrate as if I'm about to participate in a marathon. Then, there's the price comparisons. I know I should take advantage of coupons, but obtaining coupons means buying the Chicago Tribune or some Sunday paper. No offense to my journalism pals, but I find newspapers cumbersome and can't read them unless I'm on the floor and have room to sprawl out. Anyway, I digress. I have a very apathetic approach to purchasing food items.

The truly annoying aspect of grocery shopping is the other consumers. I'm a single mom with a very well behaved child. He's 14 and practically self-sufficient. He'll lumber around the store with me with little argument. When he was smaller he was much more of a handful and I may or may not have left a full shopping cart, ice cream sandwiches and raw chicken and all, in aisle 8 to whisk my misbehaving toddler off the premises. There in lies part of my issue with grocery stores: other people and their children.

Screaming loudly and looking around to see if anyone notices troubles me. It's not the children scouring the passers by to see if their foul behavior is being noted. No, it's the parent who, in my humble opinion, should have been awake during the birth control section of health class. This is not active parenting in my book. Stop yelling. Stop threatening with violent actions. Stop physically assaulting your children whilst verbally assaulting them. Stop saying you'll leave and then don't! Oh, and don't give your over-tired toddler a Twinkie to appease them momentarily! I have shopping to do and clearly your trash talking toddler tactics don't work, you public pajama pant wearing, slipper scuffing, cigarette reeking cow!!

I do realize that having a brood of children close in age is a daunting task. Sometimes, there is no one available to watch the kiddies so shopping can't be accomplished quickly and without incident. I'm not judging those who choose to have a large family. It's understood that, despite the efforts to utilize modern birth control, it is not a fail safe. Parenting can be taxing. Until recently, I can't recall the last time I had a full night's sleep since Mancub was born. It's a parenthood thing.

My concern is how it seems these parents, who's behavior I described above, are taking out their anger on the children. If these parents are cruel in public, what sort of behind closed doors abuse are those kids enduring? There's a much bigger picture here that I am not equipped to delve into. I'm only discussing my personal observations and concerns.

I'm fortunate that I have mastered "the look" with Mancub. I learned it from my father. That man had a look that could stop a stampede. It's a look that lets Mancub know I'm the one in charge and I make the rules. He understands body language. Perhaps we are just gifted and extremely in tune with each other. That's not to say he didn't throw tantrums early on in his life. However, during those outrageous acts of defiance (and later learned, overly stimulating situations) I removed us to spare embarrassment. I later learned how to diffuse the situation before it escalated. I wanted my little boy to function in various environments. My education in parenting is never ending. Being an adult doesn't automatically make a person a good parent. DUH! Right?!

What this mini rant all boils down to is that I'm out of coffee, eggs, flour, chicken, etc... and I don't want to go to the grocery store!!! In my universe, it's all about me ::smirk::

I would never attempt nor desire to minimize obvious child abuse or neglect. I have no fear of stepping in. This post is the result of me needing eggs to make banana bread. My posts are often the nothing more than the result of my brain puking.