Creative...Discipline? Parenting? Party Games?

The east-side Indianapolis Walmart.  Always a grand adventure.  You all have one of these Walmarts in your town.  The Walmart everyone avoids because it is just TOO trashy to be seen near.  Not even a roll back to free hand sanitizer can get you in there unless you've been promised VIP status, and the Walmart will be cleared of all other customers before you set foot in it.  Yeah.  I was there today.  Herein lies the fun.

First, I get there at 10 a.m.   There are four items on my list.  I grab the first from the bakery and head to the toy section for a pair of swim goggles.  This is when my adventure begins.  Teeth cringing through some horrid country song on the PA system, I am relieved when it is shut off mid-song, thinking, "Oh, good, some generic announcement about $4 prescriptions is much better than that twangy crap."  But, was it an advertisement?  OH, NO! No it was not!  It was someone changing the station.  To a VERY loud, VERY vulgar rap song.  I actually had to stop my wonky cart with the gum stuck to one wheel (kerthump, kerthump, kerthump) to comment about it on Facebook.  Someone figured it out and shut it back off, and I was placed back into the hands of Carrie Underwood with a new appreciation for songs that don't say "bitch" every other word.

BTW, the east side Walmart?  Out of adult-sized swim goggles.  So, on to Electronics where a nice young person calling himself "Hennessey" assisted me for 0.35 seconds before he was pulled away from a customer (me) for a very important mission with a handrolled cigarette back behind the box bailer.  His replacement cashier was an extremely thin woman with "RIP some dude" tattooed on her neck who was chewing gum with her mouth open so wide that she may have won a cud-chewing contest against six prized dairy cows.  She couldn't get my gift card to work.  "I can never get them gift cards to work right."  Them.  Them gift cards.  *sigh*  Faith in humanity?  Destroyed.  Kerthump, kerthump, kerthump I go out of the store.  Finally.  Where I see the most disturbing thing I've seen in quite a while...

Walking to the car behind me was a woman and a young boy, perhaps 10 years old.  The boy was in handcuffs.  Behind his back, cuffed.  The woman was NOT a police officer.  In fact, by the resemblance, I would assume she was his mother.  He did not seem distressed or disturbed by his cuffs in any way, meaning he wasn't trying to fight them or anything.  He didn't seem sad or upset, either, or even all that embarrassed.  She had the key, so SHE cuffed him.  She uncuffed him so that he could get into the car.

WTF, T?!?!?  I was trying to make up stories to why this is possibly happening, but most of them in my head were really disturbing.  Like, he has special needs and flails and needs controlled.  But, for real, I think that's considered abuse.  Then I thought, maybe this is some sort of creative discipline.  Maybe, junior got caught shoplifting or something.  "For our next 20 trips to the store, young man, your hands will be cuffed behind your back so that your sticky fingers can't touch anything!"  Then, in my head, I said, "haaaaaahahahahahahha!"  I've often thought about what kinda creative discipline I would employ if I caught my kids shoplifting when they got older.  That may go in the hat.  I was thinking I'd have them go on the PA system in the store and apologize to all of the customers because of the higher prices due to the five-finger discount he was trying to employ.  "I was just trying to get a discount, Karen!  You love a good deal!"

As I left the east side Walmart, there was, of course, a lady standing at the intersection with a sign asking for money.  I didn't give her any.  Hardly anyone I know gives these people money, but lots of other people do.  I don't give them money mostly because I don't carry cash.  Other people's reasons are different.  Like, "I don't know what they are going to do with it."  I don't know what my waitress at Steak N Shake is gonna do with her money, either, but I still tip her.  Maybe I'll start giving them coupons instead.  That way, I KNOW they are spending it on 3 boxes of Keebler crackers 12 oz size or bigger.  Or, "I saw on the news that those people make a ton of money and aren't really needy."  The lie that they are homeless or needy IS annoying.  However, I don't care if they make a ton of money.  They do work for it.  Standing up for 8 to 10 hours on the side of a highway in all kinds of weather seems like the shittiest job ever.  At least they are their own boss.  Hey, they're livin the dream!  No workin for the man for those folks!  You take that vacation day if you need it, Harold!  No one can stop you!