Hayden's Weekend

Hayden and I had a pretty good weekend. It was peaceful and for the most part, Hayden had me all to himself. My Mom joined us for shopping on Saturday. We went to Babies R Us and got Hayden a clever dish with a suction cup on the bottom and some other things. We went to Barnes N Noble and got him some books. Afterwards, I pretty much spent the day knitting while Hayden nursed and slept on my lap. I knew he had been coming down with a cold, so I don't think he was feeling well. That night I put him to bed and knit some more. I don't think I have ever been able to knit so much. I knit about 6" of the leg of a sock.

Remind me NEVER to go the the grocery store on the 1st of the month on my lunchbreak again!! There are much more people than I had ever seen there (in case you are wondering, it is the day when the goverment assistance recipients get their electronic food stamps or whatever they get). I went yesterday and while I was there, I even thought to myself that I was glad it was not the 1st. What did I do?! I completely forgot the date.

I saw this lady in an isle. Her daughter's shoe fell off and the lady was mean to her (she was about 8 years old). Just my luck, the lady got behind me at the register. Her daughter wanted something and the lady was really harsh, telling the girl that she could not have it. The girl reached for it anyway. I did not see what happended after that but I heard the girl scream and the mother yelled at her some more. The girl just kept crying and crying. It was a terribly sad cry. I thought of Hunter and how I couldn't let him cry like that. It hurt me. I couldn't help it, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not fight back the tears. The cashier, although helping the lady in front of me was aware of the situation (I think everyone within an earshot was). I could see that she too was not happy. I was embarassed for the cashier knew my tears were about to spill over at any time and she kept looking at me and the mother. Another cashier, who knows me, said 'hi'. I responded and looked away, knowing that he must have seen my swollen eyes. My vision became blurry from the tears, then it happened, they flowed down my cheeks.

I am the type of person who sometimes has a problem with my mouth. I just don't know when to keep my trap shut. I felt that as a mother, I had to say something to the lady. Granted, she would probably get angry at me and it wouldn't deter her behavior in the future, I was compelled to say something. Maybe, just maybe, it would plant a seed or even at least, embarass the lady to stop what she was doing and help her crying child. A debate went on in my head as I heard the girl cry without any end and I tried to hold back the rest of the tears. Finally, I just did it. I said to the lady, "I know it is none of my business, I have kids too. I saw you in the back of the store and you were mean to her, being mean to them does not help." She said something like, "Mind your own business. I will be nice to her when she can act right." I did not want her to think that I didn't know what I was talking about so I said, "I am educated, you know." I turned away and that was the end of it. The next time I looked back, she was holding her child.

I know the "I am educated, you know" comment was stupid, but it just came out. I read up on disciplining a toddler. When we were having trouble with my husbands kids during their pre-teens and their teens, I researched discipline from watching the Nanny and Dr. Phil to reading articles on the internet from Dr. Phil's website, psychology web sites, and even Christian web sites. None of them used such cruelty as a method of discipline.

As I left the store, I debated on waiting for the lady to come out, getting her license plate and calling CPS. However, she did not hit the child (as far as I knew. However, she did do something to make the child scream). I wondered if the child was a foster child because I couldn't see how a mother could do that. Then I came out of my little world and remembered how I have read and heard of stories where children were abused and even killed. It is just awful.

I called my husband as I drove back to work, told him what happened and sobbed. I fels so bad for that girl.