Stupidity is Dangerous

Let’s face it, going to the grocery store with your kids sucks ass.

There is not a parent on earth who WANTS to take their kid to the store with them.  While parents pretty much disagree on every parenting issue out there such as breast vs bottle, circumcision, home school vs public school, hospital vs home birth and so on, the one thing we can all unanimously agree on is that taking kids inside a store is pure torture. I totally get how much it sucks.  I have four kids and I was a single mom for 10 years.  I never saw the inside of a store without a kid until I married Renegade Dad.  For 10 years I assumed my destiny inside of stores was to listen to whining and tantrums, to lose my kid in the shelves and racks and to repeat the phrase “No you can’t have that” at least a million times for the rest of my natural born life.  So far that has remained true but every once in awhile I get to sneak off to the grocery store alone and it’s like going on a vacation.

Begin RM1’s rant. You have been warned.

That being said, yesterday was a day that for the first time I actually wanted to kick another mom’s ass for being a lazy fucking bitch because she combined laziness with stupidity.  When I say “kick her ass” I don’t mean figuratively kick her ass like we do in the Cyber Mom Boxing Ring, no I mean actually shove my foot up her ass.  I would also like to disclaim that by “lazy” I don’t mean lazy like me where you go shopping in your PJ’s, dont brush your hair and only shower later on that week; in fact I highly encourage that behavior.  By lazy I mean too fucking lazy and stupid to take your kid with you into Trader Joes to do your almost 20 minute shopping.  Yes.  She did.

Yesterday I went to TJ’s and the mom-van pulled in next to me and I was getting my shit together so I wasn’t really paying attention to my parking neighbor and I guess she went in before I got out of my car.  I was on my way into the store and I realized I had not locked my car so I turned around to lock it and when I looked at my car I noticed a little blond head bopping around in the mini van next me.  I also realized that little blond head was alone.  I walked back to the car and looked and there was a little boy, maybe three years old, in the mini van with a DVD player going climbing out of his car seat and hopping around in the vehicle.  I went to open the door to get him out and the doors were locked with the windows up.  Honestly, I was stunned.  I waited a few minutes thinking this was some sort of huge mistake.  maybe mom was having a really bad morning and he was asleep and she forgot him or who knows.  So I waited, I waved to him and he smiled and he waved back.  I waited some more.  After a few minutes I was pissed.  I then debated in my mind what to do.  If I called the cops that could terrify the kid and I knew that the mom was in TJ’s but I honestly could not remember what the bitch looked like plus I didn’t want to walk away and leave him alone. If it had been a warm day I would have hit 911 the second I saw his little head and I might have broken the bitch’s window just as an FYI.

Fuck! So right when I was about to stop another customer and ask them to go inside and get a store employee this bitch comes cruising out with another small child in the cart, four bags of groceries and a green balloon texting on her iPhone as if her preschooler ALONE in the car is no BFD.  I have now gone from pissed to enraged.  She walked right past me as if I wasn’t there and started putting her groceries in her mini-van.  So I said something to her about not leaving your kid in the car alone and it’s very dangerous and she had the nerve to say “Oh he is fine he was watching a movie” then I pointed out to her that she took the toddler in with her so why leave him? Her response was classic stupidity “Oh because she won’t sit and watch a movie.”  WTF?! Are you serious? So if the toddler would sit and watch a movie you would have left her in the car alone too? Seriously? Really?

Being the loyal readers you are, I will leave you to your imaginations regarding the colorful things I said to this idiot.  I am sure you can fill in the blanks there.  I’m quite proud that I “used my words” and didn’t kick her dumb ass. I just have zero tolerance for stupidity.  I really do.  I am not a perfect parent by any means but I do have common sense.  I do have a concept of dangerous vs not dangerous.  I can figure out basic common Parenting 101. There is a pretty clear line drawn in the sand between leaving your kid in the car while you pump gas and taking a 20 minute shopping trip in Trader Joes.  Even when I pump gas I am paranoid if I have to walk over to the pay window.  I always park at pump #1 the closest to the pay window even if it means waiting and I try to use my debit card as much as I can (minus the times when I gas up my car with the change on the floor of it).  What parent wants to take a chance of their kid getting hurt, stolen, you name it?  The laundry list of “what if’s” that run through my mind is endless in a situation like the one I came across yesterday.

For educational purposes and in the interest of my Renegade Mom PSA for the month here: kidsandcars.org Now you can be just as paranoid and pissed as I am.

It’s okay to be a lazy bitch as long as it doesn’t endanger your kid. Just don’t be stupid! ‘Nuff said.

~RM1