Mall Shopping

Dad finds mall shopping with Charlotte very disturbing. First there was the family in Sears the just took over the store. Kids playing on the treadmills, more kids running around in circle, still more kids opening and closing the doors of a dryer, mom fiddling with torque wrenches, dad touching buttons on every plasma television he could find. Its just a bit much when you are just there to look around at things. This is why I dont like to shop unless I know what I want.

KayBee toy store was not much better. The highlight of this visit was the mother, father, and two children who were playing with toys in the middle of the aisle. As a parent, yes I understand you let your kids play. But to have them literally sitting on the floor playing with trains and every single toy they can find is just a little much. Especially when I am trying to push a child in the stroller down the aisle. Please pick up your damn kids and move them out of the way so I dont have to bump into them and say excuse me 100 times. This is not your living room, it is a store. Other people come here to look at things and buy them without having to try every single one out. Maybe they were related to the people in Sears.

The pinnacle of the trip to the mall with Charlotte and mom was the walk through the puppy mill pet store. Lots of little puppies stuck in open topped acrylic boxes filled with shredded newspaper. Kids reaching their dirty hands in to pet the dirty dogs. Of course there were also the standard sick dogs stuck in cages behind the glass as well. One was obviously not happy being in a cage and was soaking wet. From what we dont know. Mom commented loudly..."that one looks sick! Why is it all wet and shivering??" The woman who worked at the pet store went in with a towel and dried it off. We had enough. Charlotte of course just laughed at the puppies in the clear boxes. She thought they were funny. It was very disturbing and we will not be taking her to any more puppy mills.

Our walk through the mall was quick. We had had about enough. Between the stores and then seeing 30 kids playing on the jungle gym in the middle of the mall we were all set. What parents let their children play on dirty mall jungle gym toys with hundreds of other kids, coughing, spitting, and touching everything? If you are one of those parents please email me. I have some questions.

Tonight our friends Paul and Jena had a baby. Congratulations and welcome to the world of parenthood. Just look at all of the things you have to look forward to!