Granola Is Not The Road To Redemption
Posted
November 4, 2006 at
10:14 pm by
Amy
It’s Saturday again and you know what that means.?‚? I’m out of flaxseed.?‚? And raw walnuts. And all the other staples that are making up the new healthy eating regimine that is transforming the kitchen, minds, and if it works well, the bodies, of myself and my teenage son.
That being said, I headed ’round the corner to one of the only places conveniently placed near my home, a small health foods market.?‚? I was walking down one of the short aisles toward the frozen foods, when a Healthy Mom, probably in her 30’s, stopped in front of the freezer door.?‚? I was still 15 feet away or more, so I just waited.?‚? She was engrossed in reading ingredients and rattling off things to her kids, two little boys who were behind her, one on the ground and one in the cart.?‚? And while she was decided between wheat-free pizza crust and gluten-free ice cream, all hell broke loose.
The littler boy, probably under 18 months old, in the cart, stood up in the seat…and the older boy, probably three, pushed the cart from the other end.?‚? Picture it, it’s not pretty.
I yelled “YOUR KID IS GOING TO FALL” at the top of my lungs when little boy went backwards over the seat and plopped with a thud, on his back, into the cart.?‚? A couple of inches in any other direction and he could have landed on the ground or hit his head or back on the edge of the cart.
“I’M SO SORRY”, I yammered. ?‚? “IF I HAD BEEN CLOSER I WOULD HAVE CAUGHT HIM. I’M SO SORRY. IS HE OK?”
I made my way over to them, to see if she needed help. And do you know what she said, that fucking bitch?
“Maybe it knocked some sense into him.”
Sense? At 15 months? Doesn’t she know that doesn’t kick in until 17 months?
This baby was hysterical.?‚? The store manager came over and asked what happened.?‚? And I told her.?‚? Healthy Mom was none too pleased with me.
Was?‚? HM too embarrassed to coddle and comfort her son? Was she so distraught from the possible catastrophe that she couldn’t say thank you??‚?
I think not.
Then she?‚? was behind me in line with her cart up my ass (you know what I mean) and the older boy was badgering her saying “He’s not being good, is he? He’s not being good?”?‚? “No he’s not,” was her answer.
And know what else she said?
“When we leave here we need to go to church.”
“Just for a half an hour, ok mom?” bigger boy said.?‚?
Now a three or four year old boy can’t determine time frames (we used tv shows as a gauge of time when my son was little. One “Doug” or two “Dougs” and he understood), so this was obviously something he’d heard before.
“Yeah,” Healthy Mom replied, “We just need to show our faces.”
She certainly needs to go to church, but I’m sure she gets nothing out of it.?‚? I’m also sure that hiding her face in shame, if she felt it, would do her body, and soul, more good than a whole cart full of organic groceries.
Tags: church, health-food-stores, Parenting, shopping-cart-accidents, shopping-with-children |
3 Responses to “Granola Is Not The Road To Redemption”
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1. Jessica Carlson said:
November 5, 2006 @ 8:18 am
How totally un-crunchy of her. That’s odd, that she was all about healthy food, yet so seemingly detached from her kids. (OTOH, maybe her kids had celiac disease and she was only there to get wheat free foods.)
Anyway, sounds like a real gem. I wonder if I shouldn’t give her the benefit of the doubt though and think that she was so GD embarrassed, she couldn’t even find the words to say thank you and just imploded in humiliation. I’ve been there when I’ve been caught being a really shitty parent and didn’t realize it until it was too late or maybe she was just a real fucking bitch. The latter is usually the types I run into too hence why I have very few mommy friends.
2. Jennifer Cummins said:
November 6, 2006 @ 7:16 pm
Ah, yes. And it is exactly this kind of mother who gets an attorney, who politely informs the store, via letter, that they are liable for the injuries to the minor, based on their extreme negligence and breach of duty of due care to business invitees, to provide shopping carts with child restraints and enough employees to watch unattended minors in carts, as well. Then, if an incident form was filled out, and you were listed as a witness, you would be informed also, as a bystander, that you were liable for damages by providing care without a medical license. Both parties, thus informed, would have to turn the letters over to their respective insurance carriers, to fight it out over whose coverage would prevail, and if the bystander was covered under ANY portion of any type of her own personal liability policies. Claim adjusters, such as I, (in a former life), usually dealt with people like this on a daily basis, directly, denying their claims for lack of liability or on some other basis. Claimant HM would then seek attorney representation (which is a secret hope among many claim adjusters who deal with these types of claimants). After she is represented, said claim adjuster, would calmly, most politely, tell her, since she would call, wondering why her bills weren’t being paid and nothing was happening on her claim, that CA could no longer talk to her since she choose to ask for attorney representation. And, that, is the final relief. Well, actually not, since the minor child has until age of majority plus two years to file suit against the store for alleged damages. Such is life.
3. MC Milker said:
November 17, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
Now that organic foods have entered the mainstream, organic crunchy doesn’t necessarily mean parenting crunchy!
A crunchy parent, one might say, is one who takes the time to learn and practice alternative parenting strategies espoused by Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio Emilio or other noted natural parenting experts.
The key to crunchy parenting is continuous improvement - learning and creating community with like-minded parents. The pre-school my son attends is a parent participation, emergent curriculum school with a parenting ed program. Though many of the Moms who attend are not into organic foods, in many ways, they are truly crunchy in their parenting…perhaps Snickers and natural parenting can co-exist in a “not quite crunchy” lifestyle