'Tis the Season

I ran to Target today at lunch to shop for the gift exchange and pick up some other things (including a cheap watch, since mine died and I'm too lazy to get the battery replaced). I am looking for a crossword puzzle book or something like that at the checkstands, since there weren't any over in the book section (a ton of So Duko books though, one of which I did snag for the secret santa recipient). Since I couldn't find any, I ambled up to the nearest checkstand, not paying much attention, since all of the lines seemed to have about the same number of people in them, around 2 ahead of me. Not too bad, right?

This woman comes up behind me and knocks her shopping basket into my elbow, as she says to her 2 kids, "'tis the season for rude shoppers," in a very sarcastic tone. I'm standing there wondering if she's referring to herself, as she just whacked me in the arm and didn't even apologize. Then she proceeds to say, "I guess it doesn't matter who sees the line first, just if you get there faster." Also sarcastically muttered. One of her kids whispered, "Mom, she heard you. She heard and looked at you." The mother replied, "Good. People like that need to know they've been noticed."

I couldn't believe my ears. And you know that kid had to have been mortified by her mother's muttering rant. I would have been. And I kind of wanted to turn around and smack her...I mean...tell her that, yeah, it pretty much is whoever gets there first. I didn't see the whole scenario happen (and part of me was insecure, thinking that maybe I did it unintentionally while I hopped on line without paying attention), but really, I doubt the other woman was standing there waiting to see which line this obnoxious woman was looking at so that she could rush to beat her to it. There weren't that many people waiting in the first place!

By now the line had moved up a person, so I placed my basket on the conveyor belt. Psycho mom behind me tells her daughter to stop standing in front of her (not in a nice manner) and accuses the daughter of being the reason that people cut in front of them in line. Now, the girl wasn't really in front of her mother at all. She was slightly ahead, but to the side, and the woman could easily have placed her purchases on the counter. Talk about finding a scapegoat. While I'm paying for my goods, the woman proceeds to berate her son for placing an item on top of something she had put down already. I guess he wanted to buy something and she said no, and he was begging her to take it out of his allowance, but hadn't checked to see how much it was (this part I can see any mom putting their foot down for, but she was just so snippy/snotty about it).

Now, it may sound like the woman was being pretty awful, which I thought she was, but I have seen worse. I don't want to blow it out of proportion or anything - I wouldn't call it abusive. Just nasty. And all I could think as I left the store was that those poor kids are going to have the worst self-esteem if their mother treats them like such crap all the time, and in public!. (And again, I don't know how she normally treats her kids…but in this instance, they really hadn't done anything, and she was mad at someone else for something petty, which annoyed me.)

'Tis the Season indeed!

So, after that I headed to Starbucks for some much needed caffeination. The woman whose drinks were up before mine must have been doing a coffee run for the office, because she had about 7 drinks with 2 drink trays. And no pockets. She was fumbling to hold them both, plus her wallet and keys, so I offered to go across the store and get the door for her. She was grateful, and I felt good about myself. Think that was enough to counteract the nastiness of the woman in Target? It boosted my mood, anyway.

'Tis the Season, after all.