Priorities and other stuff.

[EricKei]

**EDIT: Of course, that doesn't apply to kids who are running around a store playing tag or something and screaming at the top of their lungs because no one has taught them the difference between a park and a store...those ones do desperately need parenting.

Good points ^_^

The thing is, many -- but not all -- of the parents who let their kids run amok in stores unsupervised either use candy/treats to shut the kids up (thus reinforcing the tantrum behavior), or else ignore them completely (resulting in the kid thinking it's OK to act that way). That's what we're worried about in here, I suppose.

[Aisling]

People are often in hospitals, even in critical condition, for long periods of time, and their loved ones still have to deal with the rest of life.

ITA.

Let me tell a little story, from back in March:
It's Wednesday night. My fiance and I just got home from work. I am, quite literally, just sitting down to eat dinner (mm, BK cheesy tots!) when the phone rings. This is really weird, because very few people have my cell phone number and it's too late for my mom to call for a chat. Yet it's my mom. I figure she just got lonely since my dad was out bowling.

My dad had a stroke. He was on his way to the ER. Someone was on their way to get mom and bring her to the ER. She told me not to come (I have a very bad phobia of hospitals since I wandered into the ICU to see my grandma when I was very young); but of course I went! He's my daddy, and I knew she'd need me to drive her home.

We didn't leave until my dad got moved to the ICU. She got home at 2:30am; I got home at 3 and crawled straight into bed.

Thursday morning, 7 am: my uncle called me. My grandfather (his and my mom's dad) has been in the hospital for about a week with pneumonia. Now he's in a coma. He's expected to die within hours. (He died two days later, just after everyone had a chance to go and say goodbye--we had cousins flying in from halfway around the world for this.)

I had to call my mom at the ICU while she was visiting my dad and tell her this. We spent the next 5 days taking turns visiting dad. She'd go in the morning, then spend the afternoon with her dad/her family/the funeral home. I'd stay with dad in the afternoons.

And I went grocery shopping that Thursday. Why? My dad's the cook in the family and I knew my mom wouldn't eat anything if I didn't have food waiting for her in her fridge.

I think my priorities were just fine.

[Andara Bledin]

I just realized that I failed to mention, there were no little kids in this group of people. they were all middle aged men and women. So I'm guessing that "dad" in this situation is an old timer.

It's been covered pretty well by Jester & Aisling, but my thought was also that if they were all middle-something aged, and there was no sense of urgency, then "dad" had likely been in for a while.

Of course, in my case, my dad's been in ICU a couple of times, but I only heard about it third hand and much, much later. Yeah, we're not close.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Someone climbed a shelf and sent several jars of pickles crashing to the floor, I'm guessing? I'll bet that smelled just lovely! (And that's coming from someone whose mother nicknamed her "Picklepuss" as a child. )

Better yet, wen I was working at Odd Lots, we got a shipment of pickles in that had broken somewhere, and not recently. I didn't even think pickles could grow mold. The smell had me dry heaving all the way to the dumpster.