Marilyn T
Yesterday while standing with my senior husband with a bad heart in a long line of shoppers a young "soccer mom" pushed her baby stroller ahead of the line to buy 2 jars of baby food like she was the Queen of England.
No one said a word about it other then my husband when I asked why he was still waiting so long in line. I had stepped away for a moment and thought by that time he should of been out the door.
He said the women thought she had special rights. This is in Hungary where my husband grew up and knows the ways.
The young women took offence that we questioned her line jumping and said,"My baby is only 10 months old, don't make him wait.
I thought if anyone has time it's a baby.
I said out loud( Being the big mouth American we all hear about) my husband is 70 with a bad heart and the women behind him has a broken arm, she should be first in line.
The mom walked away without turning around after paying for the baby junk food.
Another women said it is an old custom to let mothers go first. My husband said, yes it is an old custom from the communist days where 80% of young mother had to work and their days were so hard and busy that people felt sorry for them standing in line after work with a baby.
This women obviously was just a mall mom shopping until the baby dropped.
Does this entitlement and abuse of customs bother you?
What would you have done or said?
We may be living in a different country not the USA but still abuse is abuse.
P.L.
No, nobody should do that. We can usually work out when a store will be less busy and choose our own times and if we cannot we wait our turn. Mums might have other kids to collect from school, might have to breast feed a small child, I have buses to catch and so it goes. We all plan our individual day around our own circumstances.
For anyone jumping a queue everyone else is pushed further back and all those people have their own time limits.
If stores decided to open special queues just for the elderly or those with children under 3 etc. there would still be problems - but of a different nature. There are times in our lives when we just have to be patient and wait our turn like everyone else.
M P A
No they should not and nor should someone 'save a place in the queue' for their friend as happens here quite a lot in our British supermarkets. Only did I ever see a supervisor go to the person who had done that and say "If you have saved this place for your friend you must now take her place at the back of the queue." It was the most wonderful thing I have ever witnessed and should happen more often - then people would realise just how rude they had been to everyone else behind them in the queue. Another nasty trick here is that one person has the basket in the queue whilst a family member keeps running back with more to add to the basket. Store managers need to tighten up on these things but they won't be prepared to police this as they only care about how many goods they sell.
?
No, I don't. It happens a lot where I live in London, UK, and I have often asked a woman with a child (or 3) to join the back of the queue. I am in the store with a mobility scooter due to heart and lung problems following two strokes and 2 heart attacks, but always wait my turn. I have also raised two children and did not expect or receive preferential treatment just because I had two small children with me when shopping.
Certified Jewish Geek
I don't see it as polite - but different places have different customs. I'm just shy of 60 years old, but I also remember what it was like to have a fussy kid, so it's a bit of a draw, as far as I'm concerned. In any case, if the local custom is to let moms go first, then fine; I do always appreciate someone letting me go ahead of them, but I would never do so without being offered the spot.