I never had any children of my own, but I would sure put a severe hurting on any stranger who laid a hand of any of my little great nieces or nephews.
On the other hand, I’ve sure seen some kids in stores that deserved and could have benefited from a good couple of hard swats on the butt. But on the other, other hand, I’ve also seen some parents in stores who were either being physically or verbally abusive to their kids or completely ignoring them as if they didn’t exist.
A friend of mine had a bad fall and tore her ACL and had a 3 1/2-year-old son. While she was recovering after coming home from surgery, I took little Seth with me for the day. Oh Seth was such a joy /s. Even his mom used to call him “Doctor Fun†because even as a baby he had a rather sour disposition.
Anyway I told Seth we were going to go to my great nephew’s baseball game for a while, and told him that I would take him to lunch where ever he wanted to go and then for ice cream and then to his favorite playground but first, I had to make a stop at Target.
But when we got there he started throwing a fit and then had a major melt down. I put him in the shopping cart and he started crying and then yelling as loud as he could, “Stop! Stop! You’re hurting me, Please! Please stop hurting me! Please don’t hurt me anymore!â€
Of course I got a lot of nasty looks and thought that if someone called the police and the kid not being my own and with my friend probably asleep/knocked out after taking her oxycodone pill, that I might end up in jail.
I looked him straight in the eyes and leaned in close to him and in his ear and in a very stern voice said something like, “If you think I’m hurting you now, you don’t know what hurt is. Keep it up and I’ll show you some hurtâ€. Somehow he understood and calmed down and the rest of the day went well.
Some years earlier I took one my great nephew’s, the baseball player, out shopping with me when he was at about the same age and I bought him a plastic baseball and bat with the promise my husband and I would take him to the park later that day. He was so excited that as I was pushing the grocery cart with him in it through the store, he told everyone we passed by in the store “I’ve got a baseball and bat!†and most people smiled or said something nice to him. But as one man walked by he said nothing and didn’t even look at him and Alan said, “Hey! You! Mister! I said have a baseball and a bat! Don’t be so rude. My Aunt G bought this for me!â€
Kids…