Oh happy day. Not.

I'm not generally one to judge other people who hang out at the grocery store at the odd hours that I do, but tonight I just can't keep this to myself. I was at the local grocery store, walking out at about 11pm. I noticed that there was a lady in the car next to me just sitting there waiting. As I unloaded my oodles of bags from my cart, two girls that appeared to be her daughters walked up to the car. The older one was high school aged - younger, but probably around 14 or 15 or so. The younger one was about 4 or 5 tops. I had seen them in the store enjoying themselves and picking out their groceries. But what I saw outside the store really made me wonder - why the heck was this woman at the store at this hour, and why wasn't she minding her kids? First off, she yelled at the older girl for taking so long in the store. She SAT IN THE CAR while the girl took her preschool aged sister into the grocery at 10:30 at night. Then, she hollered at the older girl and the younger girl started crying that they forgot something. Now, whining and fussing, not tolerable in my book, but hey, it's 10:30 at night and she was 4, so we'll give her a pass on that. But what the mom did nest was incomprehensible. She told the older girl to go back in and grab the one thing that they were missing so that the little girl would be quiet. The older girl complained that she was tired, that they really didn't need whatever it was that the mom was about to send her back in for, etc. She sat there while the mom called her all kinds of rude names - right to her daughter. And then, she told the older girl to take the younger girl out of the car, crying, and back into the store so she could pick out what it was that she wanted. I was stunned. Here it was, 11pm, and she was sending this little girl, clearly exhausted, back into the store while she sat there in the car.

So, while I don't normally judge folks I meet at the store at the odd hours that I go, I am judging this woman and she'll never win the Mother of the Year award. What is so critical (that a 15 year old can buy) that you have to drag your kids to the store crying at 11pm to buy? And why on earth would the mom send the girls in by themselves to do the shopping? Granted the older one is pretty independent, but still, 11pm at night, crying 4 year old, mom sitting in the car - this just doesn't sit right with me.