Last night we went out for mediocre Thai food � mediocre is about as good as carryout gets in this part of the world, at least as far as we�ve been able to discover. But sometimes mediocre Thai food is what we want for dinner. Our food wasn�t ready when we arrived to pick it up, so we ducked into the T.J. Maxx next door, which has an ample toy selection that usually keeps AJ entertained. We played for a while and AJ requested the addition of at least 50 items to his birthday list. On our way out of the store, we noticed a small boy sitting in a shopping cart while his mother was shopping nearby. He was crying his eyes out and attempting to climb out of the cart. As he lunged forward, my husband yelled, �Oh my God� and ran to try to stop him. The child was alarmed by his cry and stopped. The child�s mother looked up for a second and said, �it�s okay, I�m right here.� I think she must have thought we were worried about the crying. I told her that her child had almost fallen out of the cart and she proceeded to start yelling at and hitting the child. He couldn�t have been more than two.

As we left, two women who were checking out leaned over and said, �Can you believe that? And she was hitting him. I had to pretend they weren�t there. I felt somehow responsible. I know that if we hadn�t said something, he probably would have fallen on the hard concrete floor. But because we said something, his mother started screaming at him and hitting him. I�m not sure which was worse. I can�t stop thinking about him. I try to be sympathetic when parents go around the bend � God knows I have my moments. But how can anyone treat a child that way? All the child wanted to do was get to his mother and when she finally came, she hit him. I shudder at the message that sends.

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