Tell me what you really think.
There is also a certain age of child who can walk around but still put their feet in their mouths (or are my children somehow less evolved). Those little cherubs need the piggies covered until chow time as well, in my opinion.
I totally agree with the stealing statement! I thought I was over the top (too much time in Catholic school). Its a constant fear of mine that my debit card won't work after I've indebted myself with something unreturnable (like a haircut or a meal).
I see people eat grapes at the store all the time and it really pisses me off. They charge by weight for those at my store, so they ARE literally stealing.
I used to have a neighbor that didn't put shoes on her kids at all - except to go to the store when it was cold out. Their feet were constantly filthy, and they would walk on their tippy toes all the time since they were never required to walk in shoes. Sad really. Even when the oldest was put in shoes for preschool finally, he still walked on his toes. It was entrenched by then.
We live in Texas. He probably ran around on his toes because the cement was burning his poor little filthy feet. Seriously, some people should not be allowed to be parents.
I was just explaining to Mr Mac tonight that he was not allowed to open the new snacks until after I paid for them. Until I paid they were the property of the store. When I paid and they accepted my money, that was when it was ours. His response, "They need to learn how to share!" Out of the mouths of babes.
AMEN!
Just from your tone, I'm betting you keep your couch indoors instead of out front, dontcha?
I loathe the barefoot-in-supermarkets look. (I once saw a woman - a WOMAN, early 20s at the youngest, in a grocery store, barefoot. [she was also pregnant, to just finish out the cliche]). I'm sorry, but what happened to "no shoes, no shirt, no service"?
I also have problems with people who let their "little angels" run amok in the store. I've had my shins scarred by some "little angel" playing with one of those 1/4 scale grocery carts stores used to have for kids to push around.
as for eating food before it's paid for - I don't do it. I guess I don't get overly upset by people who do, but yeah, it is stealing if it's something sold by weight like grapes. (I have seen people eat whole candy bars and the like in the store; I always assumed they had paid for them first but I could be wrong.)
The bigger annoyance is the people who do things like take a carton of milk and then decide they don't want it, and leave it on the cracker aisle or somewhere - so it sits there and rots if the store doesn't have an army of shelf-checkers and product-returners.
I hate going to the grocery store in general. It's always cold, it's boring, and I'd rather be buying clothes and sparkly things, not food that will either be devoured or will spoil. It's like buying flowers. Why spend money on things that you don't get to keep? Grr. And, I hate it when kids run amok anywhere. I have a hair-trigger when it comes to situations like that. One high-pitched shriek and it sends me over the edge. Not violently, of course, just in annoyance. I just want to take charge and yell, "If you can't speak in a normal tone, don't open your mouth. If you can't chill out and hold still until grocery shopping is over, then we're going to start putting back all of the things we were getting that were for you. You won't die if you don't have specialty snacks. You can, in theory, live on bread and water, and you will experience it for a day or two if you don't do as you're told." But you can't do that, so I tend to grit my teeth and shoot death glares at the parents. Kids just need to understand consequences. It should never be in a kid's best interest to deliberately piss off parents or others. Once they understand that for every misdeed, they lose things they want, they start behaving. It worked on me. I remember you warning me that if I didn't pick up my toys, you were going to put them in a bag and donate them to the Salvation Army so poor kids who would have appreciation for them could play with them. You warned us for a week and we blew you off, until we saw you with the trash bag. Action and reaction. Action and consequence. Useful tools for getting someone to do what you want. Even as an adult, it is nice to think in terms of consequence, positive and negative. "If I do this, then they will do this. This is not what I want to happen, so I will re-think my action." Why don't more people think this way?
That's my baby.
Wait just a damn minute. According to me, they are charging me for the fudgesicle wrapper, not for the fudgesicle. You ever see a bar code on a fudgesicle? No, of course not. So I'm all eating the fudgesicle and then let them charge me for the wrapper. Fair?
I'm in your camp, Horsetail. I occasionally let the kids eat a Cliff Bar or a cookie - sometimes even from a package sold by the dozen! - while we're shopping. Sometimes the trip to the grocery store is made at the time we'd be having an afternoon snack. Indeed, the need for a snack and other food may be what precipitates the trip to the store. I always save the wrappers, we always pay for what was eaten, and we don't eat produce we haven't paid for - grape stealing is not permitted.
I agree with the bare foot diatribe, but on the "in-store snacking" y'all seem just a bit shrill.
Yes, Mamacita, yes! And folks need to WASH the grapes before they eat them.
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