Pampers Ain't Kidding

I usually rant about unruly kids, but today I had an unruly parent.

The kid was an unholy terror (Damian, put the clerk down, boy). But I don't blame the kid.

I blame the parents.

Face it folks, you gotta pay attention to your brats, no matter what you think of them.

E5 and I had a kid that was about a year old. I say about as I am terrible guessing ages. All we know was that he was incapable of any speech other than a screech, and he was wearing nothing better than a t-shirt and exploding diapers.

The kid was running around the store yelling at the top of his puny little lungs, slamming into people, fixtures and benches (which had to hurt). He face-planted a few times after tripping over his own feet.

The monster tore all the products off of one fixture, destroying about $100 worth of merchandise, which I have to damage out (but really wanted to charge the parents for). As soon as we stopped the brat from terrorizing that fixture, he moved on to another. I stopped him there, and his mother FINALLY picked him up.

It was then that I decided these people were not capable of being parents.

Pampers ain't kidding when they say 10-20 pounds.

The diapers exploded.

E5 is was in the Marines. He can handle everything.

But not this.

He went in back and did the hundred meter cookie toss with the Porcelain Deity.

I thought about it.


What this made me think about was the age-old question. Why is it you need a license to drive, a license to get married, but ANYONE can shoot out a sprat from between their legs at will.


I feel really sorry for that boy growing up with that family.


And then there was the boy running around the store with a big grin on his face and his hands in his pants the whole time... but that's another story

FIX IT

Why is it every candidate for president/senate/representative/governor thinks they have to run for their office based on the need to fix our government? Or fix politics? Or fix our taxes?

I mean, every time, it's "I will fix your taxes". Usually translated to: "I will raise your taxes". Or they will fix the political game in Washington, only to become one of the same problem they ran against. Or fix our government, only to increase the problems we have with what they ran against!


And people wonder why I want to vote for Mickey Mouse?

There's Never a Bad Day Here

Gotta love days off in SoCal...

Even if you have a smartass to share it with.

The marine layer didn't burn off till after we were long gone, but what a way to start the day. Morning on the beach!

Flowers From the Other Side

Today I had the good side of kids.

A mother with her two kids came into the store. Both kids were well behaved and obedient to their mother. Fantastic.

What made my day was when the younger child, about a 7 year old daughter, motioned for me to kneel down and talk to her. I did, and she reached up and put a flower that she had plucked from the bushes out front into my shirt lapel.


It was a simple, stupid thing.


It made my day.



Kids like that give me hope.

How 'Bout a Knockout?

It was a thing of beauty. It happened in my store, but honestly, it could have been anywhere and I would be just as happy.

Sir Isaac Newton stated that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Today was proof.


I realize that parenting in this day is getting pretty scary. I mean, if you lecture your child, you get sued for abuse. You spank your child, it's abuse. You deny them the candy bar, it's abuse for mental cruelty.

To discipline a child these days, the accepted norm is the "Time Out".

This may work for some, but I can't imagine how. Let's make you sit in a corner for two minutes and think about it. What is this? The penalty box in a hockey game?

I grew up knowing there were consequences to my actions. My mother was in the Marines. My father was in the Marine Reserves. Three of my uncles were also in the service (two army, one Coast Guard). My grandfather was in the Army. If I screwed up, I KNEW I was gonna get it, and how!

I wasn't a perfect child by any means, but it only took my mother and father a couple of times to get the message across not to screw up. After two trips to the garage to talk with his belt or Mom's backhand, I got the hint. After that, it was Mom snapping her fingers or him reaching for the buckle, and I straightened up fast.

I think I turned out all right. At least, no worse off than the rest of the world, and I certainly don't blame my parents for trying to get me to grow up decently.

I wish more people were like that.

I am not saying abuse the child, but there is nothing wrong in my mind with spanking a child, done properly.

I like to paraphrase Bill Engvall on how we really should react, though his statement is a bit extreme. "Not a time out, Ma'am. How about a KNOCK OUT! SPANK THAT BRAT!"



Today in my store, a family came in, and one child was being rude to his mother and aggravating his siblings. His father said if he didn't pay, there would be hell to pay (not his words, but a close approximation!). The boy continued to misbehave. His mother just looked at him, and said sternly, "If you don't straighten up, I will spank you, and I don't care who sees!"

Naturally, this child thought he could get away with it. He didn't consider that his mother meant every word she said. (To be honest, I didn't think she would do it either!)

Two minutes later, I look up to see her take the child, hold one arm, reach around and swat him good on the backside. (The boy was about 10 years old, which makes me think he understood why it was going on, and that his actions were the cause!) He immediately stopped screaming, sat down and shut up. He was the instant model citizen.

Amazing.

It was all I could do to not stand up and cheer.

It was such a beautiful thing to see a parent actually discipline a child who was unruly.


Thank you so much for taking action, lady!