On the mornings that I read and address work email before I make the 25 minute commute to church, I sometimes catch a little bit of Today. Maybe it’s just me but what happened to that show anyway? Concerts and celebrity “news” have replaced national and world issues for the most part but that’s not really the point of this blog today.
The point is that yesterday, there was news of a flight attendant (no, not the guy who grabbed Blue Moon and slid out of the plane like he was at Busch Gardens). This flight attendant witnessed a passenger open hand slap her 13 month old across the face and made the decision to take the baby to the back of the plane while calling authorities. That’s right, she took the baby from moms arms and held her until they landed, allowing medical personnel to examine the baby and allowing police to question the mother. There is probably an argument for both sides but my stance is this: that was a bold move.
Yesterday afternoon I was in Kohl’s and an older gentleman walked in with 3 children in tow. The two little boys and little girl were all under the age of 5 so I suspect he’s Grandpa and I suspect he really doesn’t like these kids very much. The verbal tirade began the moment they stepped in the door with a very loud disagreement over who was riding in the cart. The youngest, the little girl, wanted to walk and the boys wanted to ride. Okay, I get that it’s late in the day and Grandpa can’t push two separate mini carts while watching a 3 year old but it was the way he spoke to them that was alarming. Not quite screaming, it was more of a subtle and threatening tone of voice. When that didn’t seem to work, he yanked one of the boys from his seat by one arm and (now yelling) informed the children they were going back to the car and “you know what’s going to happen there!” The other little boy, probably 4 or so, proceeded to have a meltdown like I’ve never seen before. Whatever happens in that car is not good because this child was terrified.
I was glued to this scene and when I finally looked around, I saw about 15 other people glued right along with me. What should we do?? Should we do anything at all? Are the kids being melodramatic or is Grandpa being abusive? Obviously, the most upsetting thing about watching these scenes unfold ~ and we’ve all seen them ~ is that if this is going on in front of the public at large, what on earth is going on inside the house with the white picket fence?
I’m happy to report they did not return to the car and I purposely avoided them while in the store but I did happen to be near them when they were shoe shopping and the diatribes and arm yanking were still in progress. It was then that I thought back to that flight attendant and thought…good for you. You risked public ridicule and your job to do what you felt was the safest option for a child. Approaching this particular gentleman in Kohl’s would have been disastrous. I have absolutely no doubt there would have been an altercation and the 3 little ones would have paid a price for that. So, like the other shoppers, I cast a disapproving stare in his direction and prayed that his lack of patience and self control would feel admonished. So I’m curious….what would you have done?