Would You Have Stopped The "Destructive" Baby

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this but it was just too funny, at least to me.

I was at Walmart and there was a long line and in front of me was a mother, gabbing on her cell phone, totally oblivious to her very (and I mean very cute) baby in the front of the cart.

Anyway while the mother is busy gabbing about her friends, very loudly too, Mr baby decides it’d be worthwhile to open various packages in the cart. He grabs some Oreo Cakesters and opens the box. Then he sees the box consists of 8 packages and then he takes the packages out and puts them back in the cart.

Then he decides that the Roman Noodles that come in a six pack are packaged much too conveniently and decides to open the packages. Then he puts back the six individual packs back in the cart.

And he continues to do this, all the time the mother is not paying any attention to him.

Now I could’ve stopped him but he was very cute and even more cute when he was opening up packages. I reckon had he actually opened anything that would’ve spilled I would’ve likely stopped him or tapped his mum on the shoulder.

But he was only opening things that were packaged already and was just opening the bigger boxes.

So anyhow as the mother approaches the checkout clerk she turns around and says “Oh my gosh, what are you doing.” And acts all embarrased to the clerk and puts the items back in their boxes. She bought them all, like I said there was no real damage done, it wasn’t like he opened a box of Cheerios and spilled them. He just opened a larger pack of things that were prepackaged anyway.

I did notice she never did hang up her cell phone (my pet peeve)

So would’ve you have stopped Mr Baby?

2

Well, I’m a fellow mom, so it’s a little easier for me to say something. I probably would have said (in a voice pitched to get Mom’s attention) “Hey sweetie, I don’t know if your mommy wants you to do that…” If that didn’t work I might have tried to get her attention in a more obvious way. But it’s not like it was a total disaster, just a minor mess, so no big deal either way.

3

Since there wasn’t a bog mess being made, I would have let her keep going. People who are obnoxious about cell phone use should be inconvenenced whenever possible…

Hey Mom - how about you stand in line and talk to your child? Like, use the open packages for a counting game, or even the old standby “Peek-a-Boo”

4

From when I worked Armed Security in a Cellphone Store (yes, they needed it);

Mother walks in with 4(ish) year old son. Son goes straight to the phones and starts messing with them. I walk over, chase the kid off the phones and tell the mother to keep control of her child while she is in the store.

Mother throws a fit. “How am I supposed to buy no damned cell phone if I don’t know if he can break it?”

Yes, seriously. That’s what she said.

5

Another mom chiming in. I think I’d be more annoyed at the prolonged cell phone usage than the baby’s antics. Babies aside, I consider it rude to be on the phone in line at the supermarket, especially if you’re about to deal with someone at checkout, but that’s just me. Also, I think that time could’ve been spent talking to the baby. And I realize that cell phones can distract, but not noticing a kid unwrapping all those packages seems like she was just totally in her own world for a very long time. For a baby, wouldn’t it take quite a while to manage that?

Anyway, I think Dangerosa’s approach sounds reasonable.

Out of curiosity, how old was the baby? If it was under 2, I’d understand its unwrapping all the packages; if the kid were much older (I guess at that point, they wouldn’t be considered a baby anymore), that’d be kind of annoying. Oh, well - potato, po-tah-to.

6

I believe you meant dangermom.

7

I’m not a mom and I’ve very gently said stuff like that to draw the mom’s attention. “Sweetie, that’s probbaly not a good idea.” I don’t remember anyone bitching me out - I have been bitched out more by old people when I offered to help them.

But I agree with the cell phone thing. What’s wrong with playing with baby?

8

Well I wasn’t annoyed with the kid, he was so cute, he was fun. I assume it was a he as he was in blue and not dressed like a girl, but he could’ve been.

But I don’t have kids, so a lot of things kids do that are fun and amusing to me are annoying to other parents. For instance, I’ve seen kids pour mud on themselves at the park and the other parents will seem to have a fit, even if it’s not their kid. To me that’s cute, because I don’t have to clean him up.

I don’t know how old he wasn’t, but he didn’t seem to be able to talk. He would point up and I’d look up and say “What’s that?” and he’s smile, (he had teeth) and then after a few times of that he got bored and started opening things. We were in line about 15 or 20 minutes, it was long.

Now see not having kids, and being bored in line, it was interesting to me to see how he take the package and put the little furrow in his brow and think how to open it, then take his baby hands and try to get them to work right.

I also wanted to see if the mother would shut up and notice what her kid was doing. LOL

9

I’ve come to find that that the “how dare you discipline my child” thing is waaay overblown. Since becoming a parent a few years ago, I’ve been fine with anyone telling The Littlest Briston to knock it off if she’s doing something wrong, and I’m glad to do the same for anyone else’s kid.

I’ve yet to come across someone upset with me for scooping up their three-year-old as they were tearing-ass through the supermarket trying to get away from daddy. Taking a package away from a child and playfully saying “I don’t think mommy wants you ripping those open until you get home” wouldn’t be at all out of bounds for me – as long as I was able to also get the woman’s attention at the same time to make her aware what her kid is getting into.

And mildly off-topic (or side-topic, maybe), but I have no problem with people talking on a cell phone at any time that it would be ok to talk to someone standing next to you (as long as you’re speaking at a normal level). That said, pay attention to your kid while you have your chat.

10

Dang it! Yes, I did. See, I don’t even need a cell phone to be totally distracted. Sorry dangermom!

11

Beyond the immediate trouble, don’t you think that that’s a very good point? If she needs a child-proof cell phone - and she’s hardly likely to be alone - then perhaps the company should address that market segment?

12

I’ll have you know I’m highly offended, mixing me up with the likes of Dangerosa! :stuck_out_tongue:

13

I would’ve just stood there minding my own business . . . or possibly laughing my ass off. I would not have interfered unless the kid was doing something really extreme.

14

I’m a mom, and I’d have left it alone and enjoyed the show, since he was only handling the stuff that was in the cart. If he were making a mess of stuff that was on the *shelves *I’d have said somethings, but there’s no reason to spoil his fun if he’s only ransacking things she intended to buy anyway.

15

Two ways I could have gone: interject or enjoy the show. Interjection would depend on my mood, what the kid was destroying and whether I might have to buy it later, and how irritating mom is. In the case of the OP, seems like I’d enjoy the show.

However, if the situation were more along the lines of destroying stuff that wasn’t in the cart…

If I interjected, I too would have probably gone the passive-agressive “I don’t think your Mom wants you opening that” way. Though I would be more along the lines of “I’m sure glad your Mom is going to pay for all that stuff you are tearing into there, little guy!” in a loud enough voice to pull mom’s head out of her ass (or away from the phone in this case).

If mom doesn’t notice/react, I could escalate, moving into regular assertive: “Hey, Mom. Did you notice your little bruiser is opening your packages? Maybe you should pay a little more attention to him/her.”

If this doesn’t seem to make her aware that she’s in a society dammit and we expect her to pay attention to her kid, then I guess I could go all the way to aggressive mode, wherein I state “Mom, your kid is not an accessory like a purse; you can’t just put him in the cart and ignore him. Obviously he is bored and needs your attention. Why don’t you do something about that.”

Mostly I just enjoy the little kid having fun show. Because even though I don’t like kids from about the age of 8 until they grow brains (which may be never depending on the kid), I love the littlest of the smalls. :slight_smile:

16

Marxx, I’d have done exactly what you did!

17

Oh, you think that’s a destructive baby? I once had a baby who…

Wait, he was a toddler. Almost two.

Anyway, I had written a freelance piece for a local magazine, and I’d been having difficulty getting paid. I was supposed to be paid on publication. The article was published in October. I still hadn’t been paid by December, and I was thinking about Christmas presents and a new pair of boots for the winter, but when I called, I’d get: “Oh, you don’t have your check yet? I’ll see what I can do.”

In January I called again and got: “Hey, sorry, somebody dropped the ball. But drop by the office and I’ll cut you a check.” So I did drop by the office, and every time, the person who could cut me a check was mysteriously absent.

So one day in March (March, note, six months after publication, when my dream of getting new boots for the winter was fairly well destroyed) I happened to drop by, and I happened to have my Terrible Almost Two with me. And the usual–the person who could cut me a check had just gone to lunch.

On a whim I said, “I’ll wait.” I sat down and started reading the latest issue of the magazine. My kid, meanwhile, sat quietly for 1 minute and 36 seconds and then went into his routine. He tore up a couple of magazines. He dug some dirt out of the potted plant. He pulled some leaves off the potted plant. He knocked a bunch of magazines off the table and started pulling out pages. And I kept reading. As if I didn’t have one eye on my kid. (I didn’t want him to hurt himself.)

I had my check in less than 20 minutes, and there were still a few things left intact in the waiting room, I think. Three weeks later, the magazine folded, so that was really good timing.

I had a few requests from some other freelance writers I knew to rent out my kid but I never did.

Destructive kid #2. I was in the library looking in the bound volumes for a magazine. The kid (different kid) was behind me, and realized it was quite fun to dump out a box of magazines–until they were bound they were kept in these cardboard thingies, all neat. Well, they were neat until he got there. He particularly enjoyed spilling them in such a way that they went completely across the aisle. And then kind of skating on them.

I abandoned my research and started going along after him and cleaning up, but I couldn’t control him and clean up his mess at the same time. As everyone knows, it’s a lot lot faster to make a mess than it is to fix it. Finally I just grabbed him and left, and I didn’t return to that library branch for…ten years.

Opening a few packages? In your own cart? Pffft.

18

If the kid was no danger to himself, and the only person likely to be inconvenienced was his mother, i would have just stood and watched him. If his antics had appeared as if they were going to increase my wait in line, i might have said something.

19

Since what he was doing sounds harmless, I’dve stood there grinning, and not done anything. :smiley:

20

I like that you noticed this. I think you’d be a good daddy, if that’s in your plans. What others might see as misbehavior, you recognized as practicing dexterity and problem-solving skills.