My trip to hell known as Wally World

[Misanthropical]

I go with Mr. Mis to Wal-Mart because I can't find my bathing suit and the little guy can't find one that fits. So, I find one but as I'm trying it on all I hear is a child screaming bloody murder for no reason. I have left my cart in the store and left for such things because that kind of screaming leads to a migraine.

The bathing suit fits and looks good on me according to Mr. Mis and since I'm a sucker for pajamas I go to look at them while Mr. Mis and the little guy goes to look for swimming trunks for the little guy. The screaming continues. I'm about ready to go over there and see if the mother likes me standing next to her screaming. GRRRR!

We finally see the screaming kid and her 6 brothers and sisters. We are not surprised to see the welfare card come out to pay for the over flowing cart of junk food and soda. The mother keeps ignoring the screaming kid and I really want to taze the mother in the face, but Mr. Mis frowns on that.

[NoMoreRetail]

I have walked out of stores for that very reason too!

[Luna Baby]

I've walked past those screaming kids before with their parents standing right there (I usually do it from 1 aisle over to maintain my anonymity) when they are really horrible and just look around and say out loud, "Someone needs to shut that kid up!"

Usually gets the desired effect......

[Kogarashi]

I actually feel bad for a friend of mine. For a while, she was one of those parents whose kid was a habitual screamer. This kid just loved to hear his own screechy voice, and could not be shushed. Shushing him only made him giggle and screech again. Ignoring him worked marginally better, as he would still occasionally screech to get a reaction out of Mommy, but if she ignored him he did it less often because, well, she wasn't reacting. Thankfully he grew out of that, but I really felt for her because she couldn't just leave him with a babysitter every time she had to go grocery shopping (living on a grad student budget at the time).

What really bothers me are the kids who are screaming up a constant storm, rather than the occasional happy screech, and whose parents are doing that whole ineffectual cajoling thing. You know, "Please, Junior, don't scream, Mommy doesn't like it. If you scream I won't get you a treat. If you stop screaming right now you can have this toy. See the toy? Here, hold the toy. No, Junior, please don't scream or I'll take the toy away." Etc., constantly rewarding the kid rather than putting their foot down. This is why Junior screams so badly in the first place. My oldest learned quite early on that throwing a fit about wanting something didn't get her whatever she wanted, it only lost her more priviledges and then I'd be putting back whatever snack item she'd picked out, or would revoke her movie priviledges for the day or whatever. She's been setting a good example for her younger sisters so far too, thank goodness.

[MoonCat]

There was this young couple once with a little boy while we were food shopping. The kid had the most ear-splitting shriek I've ever heard. What were mom and dad doing? Literally encouraging him to keep doing it. We gave them the stink eye, which they thought was amusing. That kid actually gave me a nasty headache inside of two minutes.

Also one time another kid was yelling in a store and guy who was talking to the cashier piped up, "I can't hear you, there's a kid screaming over here!" Suddenly, the kid's parent made an effort to stop the noise.

[Zenova]

I've refused to serve someone and walked off my till because of their screaming kids.
SM backed me up. DM was less impressed tho.....

[DeltaSierra]

You know - its times like this that make me glad I'm deaf. I can just turn my C.I. off if the screaming gets too loud. Of course this earns me stink-eye from my Mom or my fiance because they don't have this luxury *grin*

I once saw a guy in WalMart walk over to a kid that was screaming bloody murder while sitting in a shopping cart whilst the parents ignored the kid and started screaming in the Mom's ear. When she asked what the hell he was doing he said he was just checking to see if she really was deaf, since she obviously couldn't hear her speshul snowflake throwing a full bore tantrum and giving everybody in the vicinity a headache.

[Severen13]

I hate going to the store, any store, because there is always (a) at least one screaming brat, and/or (b) at least one oblivious idiot yammering away on a cellphone while paying.

[Lovecats]

I hate going to the store, any store, because there is always (a) at least one screaming brat, and/or (b) at least one oblivious idiot yammering away on a cellphone while paying.

Just think about being the cashier and you can't leave! There was one day that we had a shrieking kid at least 10 lanes away and my ears were still ringing after he or she left. It's even worse when they're in your register. And don't get me started on people on the cell phones.

[Dips]

OK, folks. We are getting very close to fratching territory here. Let's not discuss correlations between socioeconomics and behavior, parenting and the merits of the various government programs.

Fratching is right here.