I had a fight at the grocery store (doesn’t everyone?)

I'm using that one!

I have a question Linkat, so I can picture the scenerio in my mind...

when you say this woman started "to push your cart with your child in it", do you mean.....

a) she was pushing the cart like it was hers, and that the child in it was her grand daughter? I mean with both hands on the push bar of the cart, like she was going someplace?

b) had she engaged the child, standing in the spot you would have been in if you were moving the cart?

In either of these cases, she was wrong.


However, without being there, I can envision a number of ways it could have happened, that wouldn't have alarmed me.

When I'm in a place like the supermarket, I do everything I can to NOT engage a child, either by catching their eye and smiling, or talking directly to them, beyond "excuse me" if they're standing in front of where I need to go. If I want to say something involving the child, I address the parent, making good eyetact with them, and with a brief, friendly glance at the kiddo, as in "Your daughter's rain coat is really cute (glance at child) I really like it"

However, I've been in the situation you've described, where the cart and kid are in front of somewhere not likely to get a lot of traffic, like in front of the kumquats.

But wouldn't you know, tomorrow is kumquat Thursday, and I need 3 dozen.

In that case, I've gone to the other end of the cart, the one with no child and just sort of gently pushed with my hip, enough to make the cart glides a few inches, so I could reach over to what I want.

More often than not, the mom wasn't as considerate as you, and leaves the buggy parked smack dab in front of the bananas that the store is having a huge sale on.

A little off thread....I'll tell you what REALLY drives me crazy, is women who leave their handbags in the cart. I've seen people leave their bag, wide open with the wallet sticking out, while they go yards and yards away to get something.

I have been sorely tempted to pick up the bag and put it down 3 or 4 feet away, in plain sight, like on the shelf with the saltines, and then just hang around to see what happens.

She had already moved it - when I turned I saw her just finishing pushing it. The look of terror on my daughter's face set me off on top of thought of some one touching my child. My child was alarmed before I even said a word.

She told me after "Mommy I was so scared when that lady pushed me."

The lady pushed the cart with both hands - didn't seem to look or engage the child no more than you would look at a piece of fruit in the cart. But it wasn't a little hip action and a little shove.

I do like the coconut tip though and will need to keep that in mind if it happens again.

I don't see where the big problem is, really!
I probably would have looked where she was moving it to, and if it was further than she needed to to get at something I would have asked what she was planning to do with my cart and child.

Welcome to America, Bohne.

Yes, that's what I was thinking. There is a big cultural difference. Nobody in Germany would react like that. Interesting...

Ditto. It's Murphy's Law - your buggy is always where someone wants to be. If there was no threat, I would have said, "Sorry" and that's probably about it.

Yup, the banana parkers are usually the ones with the most wild sense of protectiveness about their kids too.

Which I just try to avoid talking to those folk altogether, because I do like smiling at a child when a kid is talking to me. (of course, checking with the parent first, I'm not out on a mission to be killed)

I would have made her get in a shopping cart run around the produce department with her in the cart yelling, "Now you see lady!!!.

And then I would forgive her and ask her out.

Hmmm. Often I just wait for people. Sometimes the cart is semi abandoned, and I'll feel free to move it a foot further or so. But I've never moved one with a child in it - I'd definitely ask the parent. Different strokes..

On the other side, I often leave my cart - at the wide aisle part of the store at the end of the narrow regular aisle - in order to go get one thing without trundling the whole cart down the aisle for one package. I'm sort of an odd shopper, mostly skipping most aisles and sticking with produce section, the fish and meat counters, dairy cases. Given that I left the cart for that time, I expect people will move it if they can't get to the display at the aisle end, but usually that display is big and there'd be no problem.

Sounds like an over reaction to me. I always keep my hand on the cart with the little one in it and move to the area where I need to get something. I would never leave the child unattended to the point that someone would even have the opportunity to move the cart before I moved it for them.

Int, everything is an overreaction with you.

I sure hope you never have to suffer the consequences of being unprepared when the worst happens.

I am always prepared. Overreaction is reacting without thinking. IMHO.

[quote="cjhsa"]Int, everything is an overreaction with you.

I sure hope you never have to suffer the consequences of being unprepared when the worst happens.[/quote]

I think by leaving his hand on the card he is better prepared, then some here!

I think by leaving his hand on the card he is better prepared, then some here![/color][/quote]

Obviously he never buys produce because you have to bag it with two hands. Or a watermelon. Or a big bag of dog food, or...

Argh.

Gotta love it when the crowbar of truth comes down hard.

I vote for overreaction as well and second the notion that it is a particularly American overreaction.

And to think all of those central American kidnappings were really just friendly folks borrowing the kid(s) for a little game of hide and seek.

Re: I had a fight at the grocery store (doesn't everyone?)


Are you saying that you assaulted this person?

Did she call the police about your attack on her person?