Knock On Wood

Just about 2 weeks ago, I had included on my "This Week's Gratitude List" sidebar feature this blessing:

"Grocery Shopping with Brookelle is NOT BAD!"

Seriously. I was feeling quite grateful for this because that is very rare for my toddlers!
But, Brookelle will ask me, "Can we go to the store today?"
And then while we're there, she amuses and amazes me with things she says in her little, sweet sounding voice.
She either sits in the cart seat or pushes her own mini cart, if available - and stays right by me.
Most always she "earns" a treat for her good behavior.
Recently, when seeing/hearing another child having a tantrum in the store, I actually thought, "I'm so glad we're past THAT!"

{Big Mistake. BIG. HUGE!} (Name that movie)

Because THEN....

Then enter yesterday.

I don't know what was wrong with her. (Even talking about it later with her, she can't identify/express it.)
She started crying when I didn't turn down certain aisles/paths.
She wasn't staying by me (because she would stop and refuse to proceed if I didn't come back and take "her" path.)
She sat down on the floor by her mini cart and pouted, and wouldn't move.
She was screaming, "BUT MM-AAHHH-MM!" when I told her to stand up and kept walking myself.
Then she was crying, and crying, and crying -- out loud.
I told her she would have to sit in my cart and ditch the mini cart if she didn't stop.
Which made her cry more. And protest. And stay put where she was 20 feet away from me.
I told her she wasn't earning her treat.
Which made her cry/whine, "But, I WAAAANT it!"
This ridiculousness was taking way to long to shop.
So, I walked back to where she was to pick her up and put her in my cart.
She pulled the "slippery snake" manuever and I couldn't get a hold of her.
So, I grabbed her hand and pulled her over. Well, she tried to wrangle her hand free of me, too, so I was left with just the tip of her two longest fingers -- which she screamed I was holding "too tight!"
Do you think she let me put her in the cart all nice and neat? OH NO!
There was much flailing of arms and legs, weeping and wailing & gnashing of teeth.
I could not get her feet/legs to go through those darn openings - for the first three tries - in the midst of which her bum hit another part of the cart and then she started to CRY louder about that.
I then had to start emptying out the groceries from her mini cart into my main cart.
I came across the the package of cherry nibs that she was planning on for her treat, and so I took it out of the mini cart and put it on a grocery shelf and stated, "We're not getting this."
To which she cried/screamed, "Yes, Yes!"
I replied, "NO WAY."
All the while she is crying.
{Can you picture this whole [familiar] scene? It IS familiar, right? Right?!? Hello? tap, tap. Is this thing on?}

And THEN....

And then I heard a male voice come from behind me, "Stop being mean." It was without emotion, not angry, not excited - just FLAT, "Stop being mean."
I almost started to smile as I turned around to see who it was because I thought it humorous that someone was talking to Miss B about her misbehavior.
I was expecting to see either:
1) Someone I knew
or
2) One of those good-intentioned, chatty adults, who frequently make comments to my little ones or myself when we're out and about, stopped and ready to try their "tricks" to make her happy.
Instead I saw no one stopped behind me.
I only saw a man with white hair and a white beard walking right by with his own cart, looking straight forward the whole time, ignoring us - like purposely trying NOT to look at us.
I was pretty sure it was him!
And then I realized, it had not been a sarcastic/joking statement made to Miss B. He had directed his comment AT ME!

So, now I've got strangers telling me I'm mean.
But, not to my face, just behind my back.
Because I don't give candy rewards to little girls who act like a rascal. (I don't know how much of the series of events he saw, but I'm assuming he just saw the last taking-away-candy episode.)
And also because that stranger is mistaken on the point at which his business stops and someone else's business begins!
If he wants to grow a long white beard - and keep it white, even though HE DOESN'T ACT LIKE Santa Claus = HIS BUSINESS
If I want to take away privileges from my child who didn't earn them = MY BUSINESS
If he wants to shop at a store in an area that is heavily populated with children - who could be prone to crying = HIS BUSINESS
If I want to go straight home after that and completely bag the other four errands I had intended to do that day because I felt like crap after his comment, and just put my cranky daughter to bed [amidst more fighting/objections from her] instead = MY BUSINESS

May I retract my previous statement from my "Gratitude List" now?