Throwdown in the Grocery Store Parking Lot

Ok my gracious. I seriously almost beat the crap out of a middle aged snotty woman at the grocery store today. I'm not kidding. I truly clenched my fists and started to follow her...but you should probably hear it from the beginning before you decide to have me committed (or arrested.)

We had just finished swimming lessons and went to the grocery store. I try VERY HARD not to ever go to the grocery store with three kids in tow, but at this point, I only needed one thing, I had to buy it today, and we were already out. So, we were getting out of the car. N was out, and standing at the back of the van, waiting for me to get the little ones out. They didn't have shoes on, so it was taking them a moment (or five).

Suddenly, a grocery cart goes FLYING past the back of our car, headed toward the store. N yells, "A cart! It's going to hit a car!" and he started chasing it. I yelled "N Stop! You'll get run over!" I was still between two cars, so no one could see me, but I hear a woman's voice say "That's nice" in a snide way.

N comes around the car to me and said "Did you hear her? She thinks I pushed that cart!" He was just about in tears because I guess the lady was griping at him for pushing the cart into traffic. About the time I said "Was she talking to you?" She came past the car and saw me standing there. She gave N that look that grown ups use on other people's kids. It said "I'm not going to tell your mom what you did, but you are a bad kid, and since I am looking at you like this, she's going to ask you what you've done and YOU'RE GONNA GET IT!!"

Well--little did she know what my emotional state is at the moment (not to mention how I feel about ANYONE making my kid cry.) I said "He DID NOT do that. He didn't push that cart." (I'm now walking toward her because she was still moving.) "He was chasing it to stop it, and I made him stop so he wouldn't get run over."

She said "Oh. Well, it looked like he did it." And she kept walking. That's it? Are you kidding me lady? You just humiliated my kid and hurt his feelings and that's all you can say?

At this point, she is 3 or 4 cars away and I actually yelled at her (you are NOT going to be proud of me that I did this) "WELL, HE DIDN'T DO IT, AND EVEN IF HE HAD, HE'S MY KID, AND IF SOMEONE NEEDS TO DISCIPLINE HIM IT WILL BE ME, BITCH!"

Ok, seriously, crazy girl? Was that necessary? No, probably not. But, she was so snotty and she JUST KEPT WALKING when I was trying to explain it to her! How rude! So THEN N was basically trying to crawl under the car and he said "Do I have to talk to her?"

I said "No, but she needs to talk to you!" And then I yelled at her again "YOU COULD AT LEAST APOLOGIZE TO THE LITTLE BOY YOU MADE CRY!!!"

Then she got in her car. She never took her eyes off me, and she wove through a bunch of parked cars to get out of the parking lot so she wouldn't have to drive past me. I'm sure she thought I was going to attack her. Maybe she saw my Texas plates and thought I was going to pull out my shotgun and aim it at her.

I have to say, that if I DID have a shotgun, I would never have it in my car. And, I would NEVER point it at someone--we teach gun respect and gun safety in Texas--but man oh man did I want to slap that chick! I probably wouldn't have, but I REALLY wanted to.

So, there you have it. I mostly think I have my emotions in check and under control, but basically, they are boiling under the surface, always on the lookout for an excuse to explode just a little. N. told me later that he was planning what he should do if I really walked over to the lady. He said he would have pushed the little ones back in the car and closed the doors.

I assume that means he was embarrassed (but I have to think that part of him was glad that I yelled at that lady. He doesn't like to be accused of something--particularly when he didn't do it.)

Does this mean I need a therapist?