My dearest Reader you knew – well if you know me in the real life world you knew – that I would eventually come upon a subject that even I won't joke about (too much anyway). Today at my Customer Interfacing Time Occupying job I came face to face with one of my biggest fears – A lost child. Yes, dear Reader, a beautiful little baby girl had lost her parents in the store. I know this will happen again – and it almost did once again today but I will get to that soon enough. I know that some parents are not as attentive as they should be and I also know that children will follow a shadow just to find out what it is. I know sometimes even attentive parents will have their vigilance tested by a curious child – it has happened to me once. I would like to repeat ONCE – that is all it will ever take for me to be just paranoid enough to be anally attentive of my children's where abouts when out in public.
Allow me to give the background of this story. I was diligently attending to my numerous duties at the dreaded self-checkout area of the store. Let say this – I think self-checkout has a use but I doubt that that the use is good towards customer relations. Anyway I spot a young girl –about 4 or 5 years old - crying as she is walking out of the door. Then some says OMG that girl is lost. So I do what any parent would do – I went to her. She wandered outside – thank whoever you credit as our maker for electronic opening doors! – where I caught up to her. She was terrified and she clung to me as I picked her up. Using my best concerned daddy voice so as not to scare her anymore I ask her if her mommy (who she is desperately crying for) is in the store. She replies she lost mommy and daddy. So I question her about mommy's name. I will leave the name out and you will see why later. I take this terrified little girl to customer service and reassure her that Cindi will find mommy.
Here is where the story gets really ugly. Mommy is not looking for little girl. Mommy did not even know little girl was lost. Finally after three tries to get mommy or daddy to the front of the store older sister (about 9 years old) come up asking if her sister was here. Mommy did not come up, mommy was not panic stricken to realize one of her offspring was not beside her, mommy was concerned that daddy would leave if she was not beside him. Mommy clung to daddy and almost ignored her four children! They came through my self-checkout lanes so I was able to closely observe mommy and daddy. Then baby sister starts to wander off. I stop her and loudly – very loudly so as to get as much attention as possible – say to the couple that ANOTHER of their children almost got away. I did not say what I wanted to say. I remained as professional as my temper allowed me to be. Trust me I was struggling with myself.
I wanted to ask them how they could continue to fuck and make babies they cared little about. Maybe I should note here that all four children were dirty – messy hair, stained clothes, dirty faces not filthy but slightly unkempt. Mommy and Daddy were well dressed and properly clean cut looking. Mommy and daddy looked like they had been to church and the children looked as if they had been playing outside. The little girl who had gotten lost first was trying to cling to mommy – typical of a scare like that – and mommy kept pushing her away telling her that daddy was trying to scan the groceries and that he did not need the interruptions! Can you imagine pushing away your child after just losing her in a store? Can you imagine almost letting another of your children wander off after losing one already? Had I not been there baby sister would have been out the door – remember the door opening easily for anyone who is detected nearby?
I wanted to scream that they did not deserve to be parents! I wanted to smash daddy's head again a curb. I want to point out that not once – not even remotely – did daddy seem at all concerned about any of the children. Instead I smiled and handed him his change. I watched as he turned from me and walked out of the store without even a backward glance to check on whether his family was in tow. I watched as mommy walked quickly to catch up with him. I watched as baby sister headed in the opposite direction. I called out again – LOUDLY – that they had forgotten a child. Mommy turned to older sister and scolded her for not pay attention! The girl could not have been more than 9 and she was the one responsible for gathering the babies? Well the youngest one was in a child carrier car seat so they had to take her; she was in the cart with the precious groceries!
Some people….Reminds of a sarcastic remark I have heard in many forms: You need to take a test to drive, but almost anyone can become a parent.
I will try to stick lighter subjects in the future – but I have a soap box and I intend to use it when I feel it necessary.
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