Raising Little Monsters… Literally

It is back in the early 1990s when I am a child. I’m with my mother in the electronics section, and across from us, this kid who looks to be in his early adolescent years (somewhere from eleven to thirteen) picks up a Super Nintendo game.

Kid: “Mom, look! It’s the new Street Fighter game I was talking about, it’s finally here!”

Mom: “$70? How about no? Put it back. You’ve got plenty of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games already.”

Cue the ensuing, “But Mom!… Why?… Come on!” dialogue for the next minute.

Kid: “I’m not leaving the store until you buy this game.”

Mom: “Put it back. $70 for a game is too much.”

Kid: “You will buy this game.”

Mom: “[Kid], I have bills coming out of my ears I need to pay! I can’t be throwing money around!”

Kid: “You will buy this game.”

Mom: “It’s too expensive. Wait until next year when it’s cheaper. Let’s go.”

The mom begins to push her shopping basket away, and the kid sits on the floor in the middle of the aisle.

Mom: “You’re really going to do this?”

Kid: “I want this game. I’ve been waiting forever for it to come out on Super Nintendo.”

The mom snatches the game and flings it into the shopping basket while muttering profanities under her breath. My own mom turns and looks at a woman standing nearby, whose jaw is gaping open.

Woman: “I swear, if any of my kids ever spoke to me like that—”

My Mom: “Oh, you don’t have to tell me! Trust me!”

It doesn’t end there. We end up behind the duo in the checkout line.

Mom: “[Random Someone] will be coming over for a week at the end of the month—”

Kid: “I don’t want her there!”

Mom: “Well, something has come up with her situation—”

Kid: “I don’t care. I don’t want her over at our house.”

Mom: “[Kid], your dad and I already discussed this—”

Kid: “I said no and that’s final. Tell her to stay in a motel. End of discussion.”

Mom: *Huffing and slamming her items onto the conveyor belt*

To this day, I still fear what kind of nightmare that kid grew into and how many jobs he’s been fired from.