Intent

I did something that borderlines wicked yesterday. I've been feeling around the edges of my interior since then, testing for regret or disappointment in my behavior, but have yet to discover a loose thread. I think at this point in time I can rest easy that I'd do it again.

Shopping, the one aspect of this season I don't enjoy. I haven't been in the mood for it, but I coerced myself into entering a god forsaken shopping center yesterday. People are the most interesting part of shopping, usually, and if anything, I can usually leave a place of purchase with my mind filled with mental notes to jot down later.

But yesterday. I could hear this woman, over and over like a loud speaker in my ears that I couldn't turn down, or shut off, or even escape. She was screeching at her two tiny children in a tone that grated over my skin like course sandpaper. I would intentionally get 5 lanes away and still couldn't escape the tone of her voice, the shrill of her temper and the detestable words she seethed at her kids.

I am one that is all for discipline in children. No matter the place, no matter the time. I've always held far more respect for the Mother who corrects their child despite possible embarrassment in public then the Mother who turns a blind eye. But this woman........she was disgusting. Telling her little ones to shut up because they were both whining, over and over.....One was hungry, the other needed to go to the bathroom.

"Shut up you little shit" "Shut up or I won't feed you till tomorrow" "Say another word and you can pee your pants" "Shut up or no Santa for you this year." " Say another word and I swear you'll be sorry" smacking their legs.......smacking their hands.......tears streaming down their faces......her nasty ass swaying up and down the lane filled with Christmas ornaments.

She made my stomach roll.

So I followed them, to the check out line. The only space between her and I was the two feet I allowed. I looked over her into the sad little eye's of one of her boys and held his attention with my silent inquiry. He bit his lower lip with his top teeth. Quivering, his whole body resisting the attempt to sob another inspiration for her threats. I could see her squeezing the other ones knee in what I'll assume was another non-verbal threat. His little hands were trying to push hers away.

I winked at the boy who was looking at me, gave him a soft smile and tapped his Mother on the shoulder. She whirled around, looked up at me with a what the fuck do you want look and I spoke just as loud as she had been doing her humiliate her boys.

I said something to this effect. "What don't you stop telling your boys to shut up and listen to what they've been trying to tell you for the last 15 minutes."

To which she said, "Shut up and mind your own business"

To which I replied," Oh, that's the best you can say to me, your boys, Shut up. Well in my world telling someone to shut up is like saying fuck you, I can handle that, but you should know, saying that to your children is disgusting, demoralizing and something you'll have to atone for as their Mother for the rest of your life.

Silence and glare.

To which I replied, "Your welcome for the reality check and Merry Christmas"

And she turned around, and I stood my ground and let her sweat it out through the cashier. The air around us was on fire.

I'd like to have smacked her around a bit. Squeezed her shoulder till she couldn't contain her tears. I'd like to have done many things to her, but society law prevents such eye for an eye justice.

She left the line and proceeded straight to the bathroom. Thankfully.

I'll never know if my saying something rained a terror of hell down on those boys as soon as they got to the car. Or if my words sparked something else within that woman. But there's no way she will forget anytime soon the tall lady with eye's like ice who twisted the table on her and shoved a little humiliation up her nose for a minute of her day. I stand by my intervention.