Amusing incident in the supermarket

Amélie Unbound

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So, I was in the supermarket yesterday, and there was a toddler screaming unbelievably loudly and seemingly endlessly. This was one of the worst episodes I've ever heard in my life (and that's saying a lot!), and the kid never seemed to tire. Even other parents in the store were shooting annoyed looks at the child and especially at his mother, who didn't appear to be doing anything to try to calm her child down.

As the young cashier was ringing up my purchases while the screaming child was with his mother at the next check-out, the cashier suddenly said to me, "After listening to that kind of thing all day, I swear I'm never having kids. I'll get a puppy, but I will not have kids!"

I replied, "I know exactly how you feel!"

I'm very amused that she said that to me. I wonder how she knew I was a safe person to say it to.

Perhaps she telepathically sensed my own childfree views. Or perhaps she saw the broccoli, bulgur, pine nuts, plain fat-free yogurt, boneless skinless chicken breasts, brown rice, mixed field greens, low-sodium V8 juice and healthy organic cereal I was buying, while at the same time noticing the absense of things like Cheetos, strings of fruit leather, breaded chicken nuggets, hot dogs and popcicles, and deduced that my household is not a kid-friendly one.

I think it's far more likely, however, that at that moment, she was just so irritated that she would have blurted out her controversial thoughts to anyone who happened to be standing there. It's just a good thing it happened to be me. ;)
 

snoochface

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So, I was in the supermarket yesterday, and there was a toddler screaming unbelievably loudly and seemingly endlessly. This was one of the worst episodes I've ever heard in my life (and that's saying a lot!), and the kid never seemed to tire. Even other parents in the store were shooting annoyed looks at the child and especially at his mother, who didn't appear to be doing anything to try to calm her child down.

As the young cashier was ringing up my purchases while the screaming child was with his mother at the next check-out, the cashier suddenly said to me, "After listening to that kind of thing all day, I swear I'm never having kids. I'll get a puppy, but I will not have kids!"

I replied, "I know exactly how you feel!"

I'm very amused that she said that to me. I wonder how she knew I was a safe person to say it to.

Perhaps she telepathically sensed my own childfree views. Or perhaps she saw the broccoli, bulgur, pine nuts, plain fat-free yogurt, boneless skinless chicken breasts, brown rice, mixed field greens, low-sodium V8 juice and healthy organic cereal I was buying, while at the same time noticing the absense of things like Cheetos, strings of fruit leather, breaded chicken nuggets, hot dogs and popcicles, and deduced that my household is not a kid-friendly one.

I think it's far more likely, however, that at that moment, she was just so irritated that she would have blurted out her controversial thoughts to anyone who happened to be standing there. It's just a good thing it happened to be me. ;)
I bet you were unconsciously throwing murderous looks toward the other register too. :D

I get the sense you give off "you can trust me" vibes in general though. :hug:
 
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bluebug83

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^_^

And I hope this doesn't make me sound too un-cultured, but what country is that from? All I can say is, no wonder places like Europe and Japan have negative population growth if they can air (or consider airing) an ad like that! They could never air that here in the US; too many child-idolizers who would be grossly offended.
 
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snoochface

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LOL. That is hilarious!!

I can so relate to all of this. The other day I was in CVS looking at Hallmark cards, and there were three women together with a couple of kids at the photo counter. While the women looked at the photos they'd just gotten developed, one of the kids - maybe 5 years old - ran full-speed with a shopping cart back and forth down the main aisle of the store, running it into displays, counters, people, screaming at the top of his lungs, flopping down on the floor rolling around, and generally making himself into a huge pain in the rear. The women just stood there, oblivious, ignoring the kid and letting him be a brat.

He ran past me a time or two and I wanted to grab him and tell him to knock it off. I didn't, and thankfully they eventually left, but they allowed this to continue for at least 15 minutes.

I don't know what's wrong with some people that they allow this.
 
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Amélie Unbound

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You know, come to think of it, I wasn't even trying to make the contrast between healthy food and unhealthy food, but just the contrast between foods kids like to eat and foods they don't like to it, which is based on my observation and experience. Yeah, I guess those foods happen to fall along healthy versus unhealthy lines, but that wasn't even my original intention.

All I know is when my friends bring their kids over to my house, I don't have anything here the kids will eat. The parents think I'm a fabulous cook, but the kids won't touch my food with a ten-foot pole. One time when I was expecting a friend to come over with her son, I was trying to think of something to make that he might like, so I made some craisin muffins. The kid took one look at them and asked if I had any frosting for them! He wouldn't eat them otherwise!

And the woman at the supermarket with the screaming kid had all the stuff I mentioned in my original post in her cart -- and add tater nuggets (or whatever they're called) and orange pop to the list too -- which is what made me think of the comparison in the first place. I never even meant to criticize those who eat unhealthy food anyway, I was just making a joke about how you can tell a lot from what's in someone's cart. I mean, most adults, even if they eat unhealthy food, would rather eat fried chicken or a fattening steak than chicken nuggets or hot dogs. Some foods, like chicken nuggets and hot dogs, are just well-known as being "kid-friendly" foods, which is why I mentioned them. The only reason I made that contrast with the "healthy" foods is because those are, actually, what I was buying. Maybe if I would have made the contrast with some less healthy adult-type foods like steak, vodka, and brie cheese, it would have been less offensive, but I didn't buy anything like that, so I couldn't honestly make such a comparison.

It's not even like I think we're so great for eating healthy food anyway. We only eat this way because of my husband's health issues and my slow metabolism. If I could get away with eating steak and brie cheese, I probably would.
 
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snoochface

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You know, I've made a decision, and I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who might be interested (both of ya :p).

This is the Child Free forum. It's for the child free. I love so many of the parents and singles who post here and I would not want them to go anywhere, I'm all for parents and singles participating here with us. But if I say something with a child free slant to it, and a parent gets offended by it, they are just going to have to be offended. I'm not going to defend or explain myself for posting child free thoughts, concepts, and ideas in the child free forum anymore. I'm just not.

Enough has changed here at CF, now 4U or whatever the hell they want to call it, and there are exactly two forums that are keeping me here - this one, and the Lost forum. I'm going to use this forum for what it is intended to be used for, or I may as well not bother posting at this site at all anymore.

Sorry to anyone who might be offended by this, but. Well, sorry.
 
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bluebug83

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On the topic of unhealthy food...I will say that my husband and I are an example of a childless couple that does eat junk more than we should. We eat hot dogs, mac and cheese, cheetos, doritos, and my husband loves the frozen breaded nuggets. I know we really ought to eat better, but it's hard to do since we both grew up that way and have grown accustomed to it.
 
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Rembrandtfan

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You know, I've made a decision, and I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who might be interested (both of ya :p).

This is the Child Free forum. It's for the child free. I love so many of the parents and singles who post here and I would not want them to go anywhere, I'm all for parents and singles participating here with us. But if I say something with a child free slant to it, and a parent gets offended by it, they are just going to have to be offended. I'm not going to defend or explain myself for posting child free thoughts, concepts, and ideas in the child free forum anymore. I'm just not.

Enough has changed here at CF, now 4U or whatever the hell they want to call it, and there are exactly two forums that are keeping me here - this one, and the Lost forum. I'm going to use this forum for what it is intended to be used for, or I may as well not bother posting at this site at all anymore.

Sorry to anyone who might be offended by this, but. Well, sorry.


I was kind of thinking the same thing. I thought the purpose of the childfree forum was for the childfree to support each other, not to debate with people from the outside. :confused: I thought it was supposed to be a safe place to vent our feelings without being judged or chastised. I don't go to the forums with differing viewpoints from mine, and debate with those people. I don't even bother reading them most of the time. Only if someone invites people to share different viewpoints, will I give mine.
 
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snoochface

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LOL.

Back on topic, here's another funny for y'all. I met a friend at the food court of the mall for dinner tonight, and there was a family sitting a couple tables from us that had two little kids. The little girl was running around all over the place, as kids will do, but it was the food court not a 5-star restaurant so no one was really bothered by it. But apparently the mom had had enough, because she started counting, you know "Noooooo, come back here! One..... two..... three....." You could tell she was intending to end on three, but the girl didn't pay her a lick of attention. So the mother keeps on, "Four...... five......" The kid is still running all over the place, so the mother says, "You're going to lose your birthday party this Saturday!" She ignored that too, so the mother finally got up and started stomping over toward the girl like she was mad and trying to get tough with her. The little girl dives away from her, bounces over to my table, looks up at me and my friend and says, all nice and bright and without a care in the world, "HI!!" It was so cute and funny that we all cracked up, mother included, and the girl just bounced her way back over to her table to have another french fry. Maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny. :D
 
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Amélie Unbound

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My post was more about my amusement at the cashier's candidness to me than anything else. That's the part I found amusing. The cashier and I were agreeing that WE could not handle having kids. We heard the child screaming and knew that we could not handle it. We didn't say anything unkind about the mother of the child. It was about us and our inadequacies, not the child's mother's.
 
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fuzzymel

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Maybe a dislike of kids = mean?

I dunno.

Looking down the list on the main page I cannot see anything that is mean.

On the womens board however I have seen a very mean topic that upset me greatly. But it was accepted by some people as fine.
 
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Ooh, I'm curious.

Anyway, I think since you mentioned the cashier being young she probably doesn't realize the controversy hiding in her innocent comment.

I find it funny how differently I am treated in the grocery store when I am alone verses when I'm in there with my children.

With my children, parents make no apologetic looks for their child's child-like behavior or ask their child to watch where they are going or any of that.

If I'm in the store alone parents are constantly reprimanding their child for essentially being a child and walking toward what they are looking at instead of being aware of the other people in the store or talking very loudly.

Just some observations.
 
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Rembrandtfan

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What we post in this forum is based on our personal experiences and not meant to stereotype parents or children. It may sound that way sometimes, but what we are doing is venting our frustrations or sharing a part of ourselves that can be understood only by those who have walked in our shoes. Being allowed to express these feelings is important, even vital, to us because otherwise, we become further alienated and defensive to those who see things differently than we do. We do not have an agenda against parents or children. We simply wish to be accepted and understood.

Parents, please do not take personally what we discuss among ourselves.
 
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