I'm so happy to be back home, I just had the most horrible experience.

[Archae]

I was grocery shopping, I was just about to pay for my groceries.
I heard this scream, the sort of scream that is about 250 decibles, high-pitched and totally nerve-jangling.
I jumped, and looked behind me to see where the scream was coming from.
I see a little girl, (may 3 or 4 at most,) on the ground throwing a royal tantrum making the scream.
I wasn't angry, just startled.
The mother sees me looking and hurls all kinds of horrible obscene names at me and the checker.
The checker tells the lady nicely, "Please control yourself and your daughter, or you'll be asked to leave."

The woman went ballistic.
She had a big shopping cart full of food, and I could see she was going to ram me with it.
So I scrambled out of the way, all the while the woman is saying the most filthy things imaginable to the checker and I.

I hadn't said a word at all.

She misses me with the overloaded cart, it rams into a storefront display and the woman drags, (literally,) her still-screaming kid outside.
The checker gets on the phone at the checkout, and finishes checking my groceries.

I get outside, and I hear the kid screaming more, I look, and there are four cops on top of this woman, who is fighting, kicking, trying to kick and hit the cops.
They finally "hog-tie" her and put her in the back of a cop car, I notice something under the woman's car.
It's a pill bottle with no label.
I point it out to one of the cops, she gets a tweezers and gently picks up the pill bottle and puts it into an evidence bag.
I could see it had a couple chunks of something in it.
The cop says, "This woman is on crack or meth, we'll see what's in that pill bottle, thanks."

BTW, both the Mother and daughter have NO jacket, hat, gloves, anything, just long-sleeve shirts on.
And it's about 20 degrees here with a stiff cold wind.

The people from the Department of Child Protection show up and take the STILL screaming kid off.

I told the woman cop, "I really feel sorry for that little girl, not only doesn't she know how to behave, her Mom is high on something, crack or meth or whatever."
The cop says "I see stuff like this all too often."

As everyone is leaving, I noticed the car, it's a total junker, no plates, just a "LAF" cardboard sign in the back window.
(Liscense Applied For)

It had three things on it that were new, 3 bumper stickers.
"Only Through Jesus Can You Be Saved"
"I Vote Pro-Life"
"Bush-Cheney '04"

People, I'm still shaking.

[Jack_Dawson]

1. Ahhh...condoms

Seriously that's a fucked up story. Irresponsible parenting really pisses me off.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Stunned Silence...................................

[tjdee]

3. That's terrible.

Poor kid.

But if the mom's on meth, I wonder if she'd have the time to pick up politics. I'm thinking she was loaned that car by her parents, or by someone else.

The stickers are kind of a byproduct though, the whole situation sounds sad.

[burythehatchet]

4. Glad the child was taken away from her, I pray she's able to recover

enough to live a reasonably happy life.

[kittycat1164]

That would shake anyone up

I'm sorry, hope you can de-stress somehow, wow.

[RevCheesehead]

5. Thank God the police were called.

I hope that child gets into foster care, ASAP.

Glad you found the pill bottle as well. And I'm very grateful you weren't hurt.

[leftofthedial]

6. harrowing

relax.

have a beverage, do something to take your mind off it.

it's bush's Murka

[Archae]

16. I'm slowly drinking some eggnog.

I'm calming down, I've got Rascal the kitten on my lap and she's falling asleep. :loveya:

[Bill McBlueState]

18. kitties and eggnog

That's gotta help. Hope you're recovering.

[Skittles]

7. oh Archae that sucks

I had a similar experience in Austin many years ago - a man with three little kids eating in Wendys - I could see the man was agitated, he kept shouting at his kids to behave. When one litle girl dropped a french fry on the floor he slammed her to the ground and was yelling at her to eat it. I jumped on top of the guy screaming LET HER GO, LEAVE HER ALONE! My dinner companion, all 5'4'' 120 pounds of him, jumped in to help. The police and Child Protective services were called.

I've always believed you've got to intervene in these situations to at the very least let the child know the behavior of the parent is NOT ACCEPTABLE and it is NOT THEIR FAULT.

You did good.

[Maat]

8. You have my sympathies. Blessings to you!

Hope the rest of your day goes better. From a retired social worker: "Thank you, Checker." This was my world from '93 to 2000.

This is consistent with my experience is all that I can say.

I think that I am going to go give my daughter a hug.

And, to the social worker that saved my daughter - in 1998 - before she came to us (through adoption) - who saved her from certain death - thank you again.

[jackelope72]

9. Well, about the bumper stickers...

It's entirely possible that they were put on there by the person who owned the car previously. Unless I miss my guess, the "LAF" sign is an indication that the woman may have just recently acquired the car.

But even so, what a horrible thing to have to witness! I get mad and frustrated enough when I see parents verbally abusing their kids in the store (I don't mean scolding them for misbehaving, I mean being MEAN to them); I can't imagine what I would do if I'd seen something like that.

[BlueJazz]

15. Bask in the Knowledge that we, here at DU, love you and....

...will support you in your time of need.

[politicat]

10. Oh, Archae.... that's horrid.

I'm so sorry...

And sorry for the child, too.

I had one of those on the Thursday before Easter. The woman in front of me was going off on the fact that the grocery store was open on Sunday, and the guy behind me said, "Hey, Lady, not everybody's Christian." She started screaming about how we were going to hell and if we didn't want to live here, we could go live in Iran and blah...

I got caught in the crossfire, and being non-Christian - and actively secular - it was very frightening. I at least had the ability to write all of the ministers in the area and let them know that, if that's what they're teaching, then they are missing the message... but you can't even write her pusher.

I'm sorry... wanna hug?

[Benhurst]

11. Maybe you should send this to Readers Digest for "Life in

These United States."

And that's the way it is in BushAmerica.

[Cuban_Liberal]

12. I've seen wayyyyy too much of that.

Meth is the Devil's own drug of choice.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. Amen

Where I live I see people destroy their families lives with it everyday. Not just poor people like this woman appeared to be either. People from all walks of life. If there were one drug I could blink my eyes and remove from the planet, meth would be it.

It's always the families of the addict who suffer the most. :cry:

[HeeBGBz]

13. People are whacked

They're like robots with a short in the program.

[Arkana]

14. Why did the ending not surprise me?

:eyes: