Saturday, October 24, 2009

When to Shut Your Mouth

Ever see those cartoons, where someone (maybe its elmer fudd, i dont know) walks up to a cute bear cub sitting alone in the woods... they assume the bear is lost, or dosent know its way, and when they try to approach it for rescue, the mama bear jumps out of nowhere, and the person really gets it? Maybe it was a cartoon, or a story I heard, or something i just fuckin made up just now this minute.

But the moral is:Dont get in between a mother and her child, whatever the species.

My son has been kicking up quite a shit storm lately, back talking, whining, crying, acting in general like an ill-tempered dwarf. At least, thats what i see when i look at him. I had an incident this week at Party City, where after a day of full throttle balls-to-the-wall antics, I found the edge of my sanity. I had been dancing dangerously close to this edge for quite some time, and when he fell out and took a fit at the check out stand, one proverbial foot slipped over this edge. I took him outside, and proceeded to tell him that "He had better stop this whining and crying dammit or he was going to get it!!"

2 women were walking into the store, and the one closest to me decided to get smart. Like the good intentioned citizen rescuing that baby bear, she glared at me and said "You shouldnt talk to your child that way" and then she went inside the store, her over-inflated ego trailing behind her.

I saw red.

I threw that door open and shouted, "YOU just STAY OUT OF IT"!!

I had the attention of the whole store.

She spun on her heels and looked at me and said, "You shouldnt say those things to your child.""
Its my business what i say to my child!" I screamed.
"Well, I have 3 children at home..." she attempted.
"And what? Your kids are fuckin perfect?" I shouted(like having more than one child qualifies you as competent parent. Didnt Andrea Yates have 5 children? Dont give me that shit.)
"Well, how old is he? 4 years old?" she asked, by now, her voice growing softer.
"Yeah, he is!" I said "Dont you EVER try to come in between a mother and her child!! Mind your own fucking business!!" I yelled and slammed the door.

( I had to check my feet, constantly, because my brain kept telling my feet to charge, and my fist to punch her straight in her too-smart grill.)

She turned to my girlfriend, who was still at the checkout, and informed her that i had said "damn" to my child. I suppose she was looking for someone who agreed with her, someone to back her up. But my girlfriend reminded her to mind her own damn business, and who was she to judge anybody?

Heres the deal folks. At least I was disciplining my child. All children are different and what works with one dosent work with the other, and how i want to discipline my child is MY business. I wasnt beating him (yet) or dropping f-bombs on his tiny ears. But hey, at least I was doing something, instead of letting him scream and act spoiled.

I can tell you one thing, that bitch will never say anything like that to anyone again. My girlfriend said the woman was visibly shaking when i left the store.

1 comment:

x said...

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