Nipped into Wallgreens late this morning to pick up a few essentials. I was in line behind a woman and her young daughter (the little girl was probably 4-5 years old). The mom was yakking on her cell phone and grudgingly had to disconnect because it was causing a loud shrieking noise with the cash register. As the mom's purchase was being rung up, the little girl held up a packet of Recess Peanut Butter Cups.

"Are you crazy?!? I just bought you breakfast!" said the mom. The little one said nothing, she just put the packet back.

"Seriously are you crazy?!? Are you insane? What's your problem?!?" the mom continued. I tried to not cringe and thought that maybe it was a "thing" they had between them that was really an inside joke and maybe they'd be laughing at their joke on the way out of the store.

Only, when I caught a glimpse of the wee one she just looked humiliated. And the mom kept shrieking "are you crazy?!?" all the way out the door.

It made me feel very very sad. Here she was, just being a child...I mean, most children, when they see a packet of sweets, want the packet of sweets. It doesn't matter if they've just ate breakfast, they'll still want the sweets. Surely, the mom could have just said, "no, you've just had a big breakfast," and let that be that. Instead, she chose to humiliate the child.

What an unfortunate lesson this wee one learned today, that it's okay to bully and humiliate someone, just because you're bigger than they are.

Sad.