I don't eat a lot of meat as it is. After my last trip to the grocery store, I think that I'll be eating even less. A woman and her two kids (okay, I'll correct that, because someone will surely write to me and ask "How do you know that they were her two kids?)...A woman and two kids, who appeared to be about 3 and 6 years, were in the meat aisle of the store. I was thinking how unsanitary it was for the kids to be placing their hands in the meat cooler and then touching their faces...e.coli and salmonella thoughts were running through my head.
That's when I noticed the older boy had a very snotty nose and wiped it with his hand frequently. That's when I noticed that many packages of meat, especially the hamburger, had small holes. The older boy was using his snotty fingers to innoculate the meat in the case with his germs. I am fairly certain that the mother knows he did this. Her peripheral vision can't be that bad. I spoke up with "Um, I don't think you want to poke your fingers into the raw meat. You could get sick!"
His mother tells me "Oh, he's already sick. He's staying home from school because he has a cold and infected throat." I put the pot roast back into the meat case.
I said, well raw meat could have some dangerous germs that could make him even sicker, but she just laughed. I added "Wow, a lot of holes are in these packages of meat," but mommy says nothing. The kid grins and says that poking holes in the hamburger is the most fun because it "squishes." I don't think I like hamburger anymore.
I couldn't just walk off and say/do nothing. I let the meat manager know what had happened, and that the mom reported that the kid had a cold and infected throat. "His ass will be infected if I catch him doing that!" Then he sighed and took a cart out to collect the poked meat. I counted 20 packages.
Later I wondered, what happened to that meat? Was it thrown out? Was it repackaged and put back into the case? Ick.
From time to time, I pick up hotdogs from the case with teeth marks. I don't think that's a clever marketing gimmick. I've picked up apples and banannas with teeth marks as well. I have seen kids old enough to know better using their fingernails to leave nail marks in fruit. I've seen parents allowing their children to play with the candy that they have no intentions of buying. If me or one of my siblings had done such a thing, back in draconian days, we would have regretted it, and we'd still be remembering the lesson.
I remember the good old days when candy was behind a glass counter to keep kids from stealing or damaging it. Too bad that that there isn't a way to do that now with foods that can be damaged by children. But what is really too bad is parents who don't control their children. Who allow them to express themselves any way they want. They'll have a rather rude awakening one day and will probablly wonder why their parents never taught them better.
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7 comments:
oh come on haven't you ever been a kid? the store probably gets an insurance and tax write off. kids are kids, not adults. why don't you shop in the middle of the night when no kids are in the store if they bother you so much!
The mother should have been required to PAY for the contaminated meat.
And when I was a kid, had I poked holes in the dino-burger packages, there would have been A Reckoning. What's WRONG with 'parents' like "fun mom" nowadays?
fun mom of my kids:
Oh yes. The kids might be gone but the germs stay. Like hell YOU would accept food after someone has sneezed on it or something.
The thought of someone touching and squishing food that someone else is going to eat disgusts me. It doesn't matter if it's a child or and adult that's doing it, it's revolting. "Having fun" doesn't justify parents encouraging bad manners in their children. "Store probably gets..." deosn't either.
Let's hope fun mom that it's your kids who pick up a deadly disease from something that another kid (not yours) has been allowed to infect. That'd be real funny. I'm sure you'd have so much fun at the hospital then the undertakers.
As for the insurance-well the premiums go up but don't bother your pretty little fun mom head about that. After all the store ensures that the costs of running a business (including insurance) go to their customers in the price of their products. So clean, hygenic customers get to pay for your selfishness too, as well as risking getting a disease from your kids.
Kids are not adults. Well you are right there (wow) But neither are you apparently. Kids have to learn - that's how they become decent responsible adults. You can't be bothered to teach them evidently. Don't use the lame excuse they are kids because you are too lazy and too scared of not being their 'bestest friend'. You are meant to be the parent. Parents teach their kids. They don't have to be mean or unplesant about it. But they do have to do their job. Isn't parenting meant to be The Most Important Job In The World? And if kids are learning from you god help us all. You aren't a mom. You are a breeder. Parents take responsibility. You don't.
I'm thinking "fun mom" is a troll. I guess that means this blog has arrived!
Salad bars and buffets are the worst. You have to watch kids and their handlers pretty carefully lest one of the little darlings decides to paddle in the pudding or something....
I'll always remember the time, when I was a waiter, I came around a corner and caught a little kid at one of my tables essentially deep-throating a ketchup bottle. One of its handlers turned and saw the same thing, and calmly took the ketchup away from Little Bratney, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and proceeded as if nothing had happened! I didn't say anything (I needed that job, as awful as it was), but tossed the ketchup bottle as soon as they left. What if I hadn't seen it?
Well, I guess this blog is dead. Too bad, it had a lot of promise....
This blog is back...I had to be a responsible parent and get my teen through some tough years. He's 20 now and I am back!
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