When It Comes To The Rules Don’t Kid Around

(I take my two-and-a-half-year-old son to the grocery store and park next to the cart corral in the middle of the lot. I take a cart out of the corral, bring it the far door of the car, and start getting my son out and settled in.)

Random Customer: “Hey! They have special parking for people with small kids up at the front, you should park up there.”

Me: “Oh, I know, but this is actually easier for me, as I don’t have to carry him or let him walk through the parking lot when I’m getting a cart or putting it away. Thanks, though.”

Random Customer: *getting more aggressive sounding* “But they have special parking, just for you! The store won’t let people without kids park there; we all have to walk so far and you’re not even parking there.”

Me: “There is no law about those spots; if you want to park there go ahead. It’s just a courtesy gesture. Take my spot if you want.”

Random Customer: “It makes no sense, the store won’t let us park there, we all have to walk, and you won’t even use it. Inconsiderate b****!”

(My son is starting to cry. I am getting stressed and thinking of just leaving when a store employee with the lot vest on comes jogging up, asking if everything is okay, causing the glowering customer to wander off. I tell the employee what was happening and he escorts us into the store, making faces with my son, getting him to giggle, and basically calming us down. As we are checking out after shopping, the same employee comes up, gives my son a couple of helium balloons, and makes excuses to walk us back out to our car. As I’m unloading the cart my son — who’s really big into following all the rules — notices the same customer has unloaded his groceries a ways off.)

Son: “Mommy, the mean man didn’t put his cart away; he left it out!”

Employee: “That’s okay. I’ll get it put away first so no one scratches their car.”

Son: “Mommy says it’s rude to leave the cart out; people could get hurt or hurt their car.” *calling out to the customer* “It’s rude to leave your cart out. You should put it away!”

(The customer looked over, saw who was calling to him, and got an embarrassed look on his face before squealing out so quickly that he turned too sharp and scraped the side of his car down the cart he had left in the next parking spot. Just as well that it wasn’t another car or a person he couldn’t be bothered to avoid hitting. Maybe he has learned not to shop angry!)