Cereal Bad Parenting

(A coworker is helping a woman find a roast for a dinner party. She isn’t paying any attention to her kid; he has decided to start using the cereal boxes on display as his own punching bags, knocking down part of the stack and stomping on it. I walk over to where she’s talking to my coworker and wait for a pause in the conversation.)

Me: “Ma’am, could you ask your son to stop kicking the display, please?”

(The customer looks over at her kid and rolls her eyes, going over and yanking his arm pretty harshly before dragging him over to me.)

Customer: “What should his punishment be?”

Me: “What?”

Customer: “What should his punishment be? If you want to be the f***** parent, be the f****** parent. I don’t appreciate your tone, you little s***.”

Me: “I’m—”

Manager: *walking over* “Ma’am, your son was destroying store property. We can’t sell the cereal when the boxes and bags are open. I’d like for you to apologize to my employee. Your roast comes at $45.76 and a quick estimate on the cereal makes your total bill today around $80.”

Customer: “F****** a**-hole. I’m not paying for that because your stupid high-schooler got an attitude with me.”

Manager: “Ma’am, even if that were true, he didn’t break open the boxes of cereal. That was your son.”

Customer: “Whatever.”

(She now is banned until she pays for the cereal.)