Daily Musings From the Mommy Cave

Since Wal-mart (or Wally World as I like to call it) is about the only place in the area where I can go and grab everything I need all at once I pretty much visit it on a weekly basis. There are certain times of the month where I pick and choose when I need to go and when I just could do without until it calms down a bit. For the end of August I like to opt out if I can because I know it's "Back to School!" season. Not that I have anything against little kids, because geez, I worked with them for almost 4 years! It's the parents! I can't stand to see these sleepy little kids, who don't want to be at the store anyways, being tugged around and knit picked with by a parent who needed to just wait until later or leave them with a baby sitter to come to the store for that length of time. Now, I know what you're thinking and there are certain circumstances that need to be explained as to why or how or what in each case.

I truly understand. My Mom was good enough to take us to the store with her and immediately get us a small thing like a book, crayons, etc. and it occupied us while we were there. It also was a reward at the end of the trip if we had behaved ourselves. Just a helpful little hint. However, it's the inconsiderate and blatantly stupid people who don't need to have their kids out at Wally World.

Case #1 - I got out of the house and let the hubby stay with our little one and have "Baby Daddy Time", which is a little break that I get every once in a while when I know that he hasn't had any time with Kyan or that I need to get away from Kyan for a while for whatever reason. Having a baby with reflux when he was a small infant, really warranted that break. I go to Walmart with my list of things to get and enter the store. I immediately run into a a guy in his early 20's, with two girls in their late teens/early 20's as well and two children between them. The one girl we'll call "immature" had her little one year old girl (cute and bubbly little thing who was proceeding to scream and squeal to get attention every couple of minutes) in the buggy and proceeded to push her around like she didnt' exist. The other girl, we'll call her "idiot barbie" had her newborn laying in the top basket part of the cart. Now, Wal-mart provides specific shopping carts for people who need the attached carseat thing for their babies for whatever reason. Personally I always detached his carseat and hooked it to the buggy because he was usually sleeping and it was his own carseat and I didn't have to worry about it being cold, germy, etc. No... she had her baby laying on a small blankie right in the basket. I'd say it was maybe all of 4-6 weeks old. Not only could it have fallen out, but all that bumpy buggy riding wasn't doing wonders for it at all. All the while "idiot barbie" is slumped over the buggy handle, smacking her gum, and looking at whatever catches her eye. The guy who was obviously the father of the small infant (for reasons that were blatantly obvious due to the ethnicity of he and the child) but not of the other little girl (also for the same reason) kept yelling that the little girl needed her "mouth busted" for screaming like that. Clearly it's a phase and she thought it was a game to play to get attention. I had to get away from them so I went to different isles to get the rest of my items and leave but apparently they were going to the same ones because I caught them again in the baby clothing, baby formula, food, and toiletries. Not a good evening. Would it have been okay to alert security or something?

Case #2. It was hot the other day and I try to park close to the store and obey the in and out arrows on the isles of the parking lot. I saw a lady who was leaving a very close space and I went around the way of the arrows to get behind her and pull in. I am waiting when I see a woman coming toward me and then stop and wave me forward. When I pointed to the space she mouthed "I'm parking there". Not only was this rude because I was waiting for it first, but then I get out, get my son and his belonging out, and she's still sitting in the spot, talking away on her cell phone in the airconditioning. Would it have killed her to sit in the same car talking on the same phone in my parking space which I had to back up and locate before parking? I could see she was clearly hoping I wouldn't see her because she kept fumbling with things in her car and avoiding my stare. Honestly? I felt like saying something to her as well!

Case #3. I was in the parking lot in June when a teenage girl and her friend in one of those Mini-Coopers almost ran me over, honking her horn as I finished walking out of the pedestrian lane and then sat with her doors open, feet out, talking on a cell, as I put my groceries in the car. Fortunately for me she parked right beside me as luck would have it. I put my buggy away, got my son and politely stood there waiting for her to move so I could open the car door. This time I did say something! I politely told her when she got out of the car and rolled her eyes at me and sighed heavily that when she was a parent she would understand how rude and unsafe it is to fly into a parking lot at Wally World and almost run over someone, especially when she realizes what it's like to earn the car she's driving and not be a spoiled Daddy's girl with her cell phone, rude manners and new car at 16. I politely put my son in the car, strapped him in safely and pulled out of the parking lot.

Am I being inconsiderate or thinking that I'm better than anyone? No. I just wonder when we lost our common courteosy towards others? When did we start becoming a world full of idiots? And what happens in a couple of years when my son goes to school with the kids of these assholes and has to fend for himself because his Mommy taught him how to be a good little boy with manners. It's an unfair world.