In the news recently was the story of an altercation between two shoppers that began when the one woman asked the mother of a young child to please quiet the child’s loud tantrum in the checkout line.
“She came to the side of me and told me not to tell her child what to do. And I told her that I didn’t ask your child what to do, I asked you very nicely to calm down your child just a little bit,” Hajek-Richardson recalled.
Hajek-Richardson said she then told the mom off. “I told her to go to hell and she told me I’ll see you there,” she said.
When Hajek-Richardson left the store, she said the mom followed her to her car. “Was asking me, ‘Where’d you tell me to go?’ So I repeated again what I said to her, and I told her that I told her to go to hell,” she said.
Video shows a woman in a red shirt walking toward Hajek-Richardson before they both end up on the asphalt. The victim said she was punched twice in the face.
When it became evident that the mother was not willing to hear any criticism about her handling of her child’s public tantrum and escalated the drama by closing in on Hajek-Richardson’s personal space with a verbal challenge, Hajek-Richardson was beyond foolish to retaliate with even more verbal escalation by telling her to go to Hell. And when she realizes the crazy mom has followed her into the parking lot, she compounds her foolishness into sheer stupidity by repeating the verbal insult. When you come face to face with crazy, you don’t feed it steroids in the form of verbal prods, goading the crazy into more crazy.
Did she deserve to get decked with a punch to the face? Of course not. But anyone willing to step into your personal space not once but twice is giving a huge warning that they have the potential to get physical. Battling Mom needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law since it appears she has no ability to restrain herself from attacking people who express displeasure with her actions.
And one thing not mentioned in the news reports I watched is why authorities are not questioning where this small child is during this confrontation. It appears to me that the child was left unattended while Mom goes on the warpath.
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First: story from childhood. My brother (younger and spoiled) was prone to earth-shattering temper tantrums, particularly in public. My mom’s answers were either (depending on location, and according to her own claims) lay down on the floor and have a hissy-fit next to him, or smirk, ask “is that the best you can do? and walk off.
Second: if I’m anywhere in public where a parent has a child melting down, I don’t heap hate. “Someone’s not happy, huh?” Help pick up the pieces. Have you ever tried shopping with an autistic kid? Much less living with one? That parent doesn’t have any energy to be combative. They’ve probably had 4 hours of sleep. And not in a row.
That being said, nothing in this story went well.
To me it is dangerous to confront a total stranger in a situation that may or may not escalate. The woman who confronted the tantruming child’s mother is very lucky that the other mom didn’t have a weapon on her. There is a time to say something and a time to just keep quiet. Honestly I think this was one of those times you should just keep quiet. And the woman while she spoke politely at first, clearly escalated the situation by telling the toddler’s mother repeatedly to “go to hell.” I am not saying she deserved to be physically assaulted, but jeez, she didn’t have the best judgment! If someone follows you out to your car to continue the confrontation, you walk quickly away–you don’t keep escalating the confrontation. Sheer stupidity on both sides!