Atrocity at Target

I love to go to Target whether I have anything specific to get or not. I just roam around and look at everything, and Alex loves riding in the buggy and saying "hey" and "bye" to the folks we meet, so it's fun for both of us.

On this particular Target adventure, I witnessed something that I couldn't believe was happening. Alex and I were in the baby section looking at clothes and I hear a little girl coughing. She sounded pitiful and I was thinking to myself that she should probably be home resting. I kept hearing her mom say, "It's okay, it's okay..." Ummm, no, mom, it's not. Take your daughter home and let her rest...she obviously feels crummy!

When I turn the corner, I see that both mom and dad are with the little girl, who just looks terrible. Poor thing. My first thought was that one of them should be home with this little girl instead of both of them having her out shopping at Target. Before that thought was even complete, she starts vomiting. And at the risk of disgusting all of you, I will say that it was especially ferocious vomiting. It was bad. And it was blue. (Not sure what she'd been eating.)

I stood there for a second, not sure what to do, and feeling a little nauseated myself at seeing this. Mom keeps on with her, "It's okay, it's okay..." and dad just stands there staring. The little girl is vomiting and crying and just miserable. I start pushing my cart away, but stop and look at the dad and ask if there was anything I could do to help, like get an employee to come clean up. He asked me for wipes. I handed him almost all the wipes out of my bag and he just kept saying "I'm sorry." How about apologizing to your miserably sick daughter instead of to me! She shouldn't have even been in Target in the first place!

A Target employee heard the commotion and came over and looked disgusted, then started immediately trying to help. Mom is still saying "it's okay" and dad is saying "I"m sorry" and I almost run into another mom who had turned in to look at clothes. She looked at me, I shook my head, and they went off into the shoes. Alex and I left the scene of the atrocity and continued our shopping.

I was concerned about the little girl and hoped that they had her well on her way home so that she could get some rest. We finish getting the things we were after (and only get 1 thing we didn't really need...which is amazing), and go to checkout. As I am waiting in the slowest line ever, I turn around and there's the family with that little girl still sitting in the buggy in the clothes she had just vomited all over! This is at least 20 minutes later! Whaaaattt?! You have to be kidding me! I am not a person who will just nut up on a stranger or even offer unprompted advice to strangers (like I got all the time after Alex was born - lady in Walmart: "Oh, honey, please tell me you have a hat for him. It is frigid outside." lady in Kohl's: "He is fussy...really, you need to just pick him up." lady in Macy's: "You know you need to wait at least two years before having another one"), but this scene made me come thisclose to telling these parents what I thought.

Ugh! Please don't take your sick child out if you don't have to. They don't feel like being out and need to be getting plenty of rest and the rest of us don't want their germs. I'm just sayin'...