The Theft You Didn’t Think About

There are moments in every person’s life that stand out among the rest. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just extremely impactful. Today I want to talk about the last one.

Now, like every parent on the planet, there are things my parents did wrong, messed up, or should have handled differently. Despite this, I turned out alright. And despite this, there were SO many things they did that taught me clear and concise life lessons that have stayed with me all my life.

One of the biggest, is consideration for others.

I don’t remember how old I was. I don’t remember the season outside. I do remember being with my mom in the grocery store. And like any little kid being dragged along in the store, I was bored. We weren’t in an aisle where I could look at the exciting products I wanted to try and get my mom to buy. We were just in a normal aisle.

To kill time, I found myself putting my hand against the boxes and pushing them back until they hit the back of the shelf. I found it amusing that each item could be pushed a different length before hitting a barrier. Several times I pushed the products back. Then my mother saw me.

That’s when I heard it: the dreaded middle name. I was grabbed roughly (but not enough to actually hurt) by the arm and swung around within inches of my mothers face. She demanded to know what I was doing and who was going to fix it. Being a kid, I was scared and confused by her questions. Fix what? I didn’t break anything. I didn’t even open a box.

That was when she pointed out to me that every time we come to the store, every product is sitting right at the front so we can see, read, and grab it quickly and get on our way. She made me realize that SOMEONE had to actually make that happen. Those bags and boxes don’t just jump to the front of the shelf of their own accord. And no one asks us to straighten up as we shop.

That day I got to straighten every one of those items while my mom stood by with her arms crossed, pointing out that because I was too busy thinking only of myself, we might now be late to our next destination. And what if that next place had been the park or a birthday party? I’d been wasting someone else’s time.

I’ve remembered that my entire life. Never again did I do anything to make someone’s job more difficult. I refold clothes in the store. I put them back on their hangers. I make sure that any product I decide against buying either goes back in it’s proper place or at least into the hands of an associate who will be able to replace it properly. It takes almost no time at all, and it helps keep the world functioning smoothly.

When I encounter young people who have never learned this, it’s hard to be mad. They simply have never been given the right perspective. However, when parents are directly involved, that’s infuriating.

I encountered two such young people one night in the store where I work. They were having a lot of fun unwrapping and playing with products. I watched for a few seconds, hoping that a parent would appear and make them stop. When that didn’t happen, I emerged from my location to get the products back from them. Both children ran away the second they saw me (showing they knew they were doing wrong). I followed and found one, running around like a crazy person. I brought him back to where he had been standing, and calmly told him that he could not play with the products and could not unwrap them. I told him I needed the products and their tags back. At this point, he lied to my face saying they were like that when he found them and that his sister had pulled something off. When I told him I had watched them both unwrap stuff, he lied yet again. I then asked where his parent was with the intention of taking them to said parent and asking that they not be left unsupervised. To my surprise, a woman was crouched in the aisle not five feet behind these kids the whole time and had the audacity to yell at ME. She demanded to know what my problem was. I told AND showed her the problem. She simply told me she would handle it from there. Being powerless, I had to walk away.

Thankfully, she kept her kids close. However, she did try to pass no less than $50 worth of expired, fraudulent, and unacceptable coupons.

Sadly, that made it abundantly clear how her children learned to be such selfish little creatures.

So please, teach your children the importance of thinking before they act, and the consequences of those actions. I ended up finding $40 worth of product that these children had destroyed and strewn all over the store in an effort to hide the evidence. Between the kids and their mother, that’s $90 from ONE shopper. Now multiply that by every inattentive parent out there. It adds up fast. That’s not money taken from the man or from corporate America. That’s money that can no longer pay the electric bills, the salaries, and the retirement of the people you so easily dismiss as unimportant little specks.

Please think about that the next time you want to just take that small product or let your kids destroy product or, God forbid, you try to pass fraudulent coupons or go to the swap meet (the headquarters of coupon fraud experts). Think about what your actions saying to others. Please.

Would It Be So Bad if Some History Repeated Itself?

I so long for our world to return to a time when decency, courtesy, and respect were the traits most highly valued. It seems when I hear so many stories of evil around me is when I get into a certain mood. I fly through my old movies and books as if seeing and reading it all might make it so.

I’ve never known a life of basic necessity. I’ve never known a time when just about everyone worked for the greater good of everyone else, and evil was so scarce it was shocking to young people. I’ve never learned things as simple as how to make my own loaf of bread. I’m sure I would fail if I tried.

But nothing can stop me from admiring such a life.

Here I sit, writing this for complete strangers on a device I can hold in my hand and in a moment it will be available for absolutely anyone to read. In a time when we can be connected with just anyone, I sit and wonder where all the closeness has gone from the world.

I don’t wish for all technology to disappear from the world. I just wish everyone, myself included, was able to appreciate having exactly what they need.

I do hope I’m able to teach my child to embrace the new while appreciating the old. I want my child to be strong and independent. I want hard tasks and decisions to be looked upon with tenacity. I want my child to know the value of kindness and honesty, and be able to maintain a healthy balance of both. Goodness knows I’ve struggled with that balance. And I truly hope that our world takes a turn soon. I hope everyone can see the value in being good to one another, of not using power as a means of doing evil for no reason, and of appreciating what there is to be thankful for.

The Conundrum of the Baby Bump

There’s an interesting phenomenon in the world that I simply can’t figure out. I would love for someone to explain it to me fully. What is it, you ask?

The seemingly uncontrollable need to grope a pregnant woman.

I have never been affected by this toxic affliction, but I am currently enduring the side effects of it.

Prior to just a couple weeks ago, I had never felt a baby kicking inside of a belly. Why? I had never been invited. I had never touched a pregnant belly at all. Why? I WAS NEVER INVITED!! One of my closest friends, who is just 3 months ahead on me in her pregnancy, found out because I asked her what the kicking felt like. She then invited me to feel the baby. He wasn’t kicking, but he was resting his head tightly against her. That was the first baby I ever touched that was less than two weeks out of the womb.

I’ve had several friends who have had babies. They were aware of the fact I had never felt a kicking baby. That didn’t mean I had the right to grab at their gut. One of my friends even told me if I was ever around when the baby was kicking that she would let me feel it. It simply never happened. Why touch her if there’s nothing to feel and I haven’t been invited? The answer: there’s no reason.

Now, I, like every pregnant woman, I suspect, am fully aware of the people in my life who are crazy excited about my baby. I know how much they want to feel the kicking. I’m not completely heartless. If there’s a something to feel, I will offer to let them feel. I won’t like having everyone’s hands on me. Not at all. But at the same time I understand the excitement.

What I simply can’t understand is why all these people think it’s ok to grab at me every time we see each other and why they even think it’s ok to ask to touch me. It’s disrespectful. It undermines my power and my right to make decisions about my own body. No one ever had to tell me this in life, I understood it from a young age. So why does it seem like no one else understands this?

Seriously, explain it to me, someone, because I have nearly six more months of enduring the assault, and I might be ripping a few new assholes in that time.

And how the hell do I kindly tell people to stay the hell away from my stomach?!? The first time grandparents, the co-workers, the very close friends. I have, in no uncertain terms, voiced my need and desire for personal space and my plan to let people feel things when I’M ready for them to feel it. It doesn’t seem to make a difference.

How can I demand that people respect my body and my personal space without completely alienating everyone around me??? I need help.