Well, I didn't mean to but oh my, did I piss off a mother in the checkout line today. I got in a line that didn't move, for about five minutes. I became interested in the scene in front of me so I didn't change lanes. There's a mommy, her little girl in the cart, who's about 3-4 years old, and her son standing next to her, and an adult woman with her. The little girl came close to pitching a fit to get out of the cart, which subsided with the threat of a spanking. So far, nothing out of the ordinary, I've been there.
Then the boy decided to use the cart handlebar as a monkeybars-climb-on-thing, and the mom told him no, and put her hand on the back of his neck. I didn't think anything of it till she took her hand off a few seconds later, and I could clearly see red imprints of her fingers and thumb on either sides of his neck. He's a little kid, and she's got long fingers, so the red spots were smack where both his carotids should be. This is the point at which I became interested. She did this intermittently for a couple of minutes, and each time she did, the kid got very quiet and still during the pressure, and his face got pale. (duh!) Each time she released her hand, he started doing this weird little cry thing that sounded sorta like he was about to throw up.
I interpreted it as a potential for neurological damage and/or death, so I spoke up. I said, "excuse me maam, are you aware you're about to seriously injure your child?" Oh boy. Well, she chewed me out about how it's not my business, and got very in-my-face about it. I was relieved because while she was doing that, she wasn't touching her son. Eventually I stated that "you are right maam, except that if he passes out while you're doing that, I'm going to call the police." This got me two cellphones from the mom and her companion, shoved right about an inch from my nose. Silly folks, I don't even own a cellphone- and I realized that people mad enough to do that are probably mad enough to get physical with a stranger. I declined to use their cellphones, stating that it wasn't necessary to call the police at this exact moment, because her child was standing and conscious.
The mom asked me if she had left marks on her child, and I responded, "yes maam, that is why I said something." She told me to "stay out of it" as she got ready to change lanes around me. I said, "yes maam" and let it be. I was pretty happy to see her get out of the store faster, because that would be less time she'd feel the need to keep squeezing her child's neck.
Now, my question is, in what other way could I have interpreted this scene? I don't regret speaking to the mother because a little prevention can go a long way; however in this case I think that mom's not likely to listen to someone else's concerns. There doesn't seem to be a good way to handle things like that.
