Friday, September 24, 2010

Shut Up

I was putting the rotisserie chickens into the display and I noticed a little kid (Couldn't be more than one or two years old) sitting in a shopping cart watching me work.  I smiled at him and he smiled at me and I went back to work.

So his mom comes back over - an obese fourty-something with scraggly black hair and old, worn, pale purple sweat pants and a t-shirt with a collar that looks like she's been pushing basketballs through- and I barely take notice because I don't expect people to dress up when they go shopping on a Friday morning.

Adorably, the kid gestures over to the chickens and said "What's that?" and she replies,

"Just shut up"

WHAT THE FUCK!?

1)  The kid was sitting there absolutely quiet until he said two words.
2)  He was TWO!  That's when you're learning to talk!  What kind of emotional scarring is this kid getting from stuff like this?
3)  If she's comfortable saying this to her toddler in front of strangers- what the hell is she saying or (I shudder to think) doing behind closed doors?!

And it wasn't even the only time she did it- she snapped at him a second time so loudly that I could hear her from across the department.

Those three words ruined my ENTIRE day!  I'm not naive- I know people are shitty to their kids all the time... but it's one thing to know about something and another to see it in action.

So MY idea isn't exactly new but it makes more and more sense-
License people to have kids and heavily tax people who don't have licenses.  Nothing impossible- common sense stuff like things you should and should not say to infants.

Why not?

6 comments:

  1. What did you expect, rotisserie chicken is not for the faint of heart. Keep it up.

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  2. An interesting idea, licensing and taxing parents, but that seems a rather indirect approach. Instead, the education people would have to receive to be licensed should be part of public education, sya high school.

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  3. I've been saying the same thing for a long time. Kudos to you.

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  4. Some people are just horrible. I'm sad for the toddler, though.

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  5. After reading this blog, and then going back to your other blog I was surprised you don't work at Walmart. People in general just need to go back to kindergarten after a certain age and learn about manners and common courtesy again.

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  6. After reading this I wanted to go have some delicious chicken :(

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