As we were leaving an event in an upscale shopping complex, my three-year-old decided to let loose the most epic tantrum ever, insisting on wanting to stay when we truly needed to go.
They were fighting me, using every ounce of their strength to pull away from my firm grasp in this very busy parking lot, so in return I was using all my might to keep them close to me, out of harm’s way.
Now, at that moment I was quite distracted, trying to tune out my child’s loud screams/wails/protests while searching row after row for my car, a bit of a stressful situation, so I wasn’t paying attention to onlookers.
Meanwhile, you, whoever you are, saw a stressed-out-looking mom trying to pull a very upset toddler into the car. A mom who wasn’t hitting her child or yelling at them, just trying to maneuver them to the car.
About 10 minutes later, this toddler was happily playing away in our house when two cops knocked at our door. Utterly confused, I wondered if someone had hit my car. Nope, they said they’d received a notification about a grievance between an adult female and child in the parking lot of that complex we’d just visited!
Stunned, I simply said, “She had a tantrum.” The cop looked sheepish and said, “We thought so,” and left.
Given SPD’s precious lack of resources, was it necessary to divert them to this mundane situation and cause me undue stress? Did you think a child abduction was occurring in this particular parking lot in broad daylight on a very busy weekend, when it takes about 10 minutes to get out of said parking lot? Did you think I was somehow abusing my child by holding their hand, so they wouldn’t get hit by a car? You are a witless moron. Please mind your own business!
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This is 2023 in a nutshell: noping out of actually talking to your neighbor and just escalating right out of the gate. It’s some cowardly BS. How would you want to be treated if the tables were turned.
I don’t know. Could have been an abduction. They can happen anywhere, even during daylight hours, shocking as this may sound to you. And our cops really aren’t that busy solving major crimes, I promise.
@2, let’s be smarter than “the child was crying, MAYBE they’re being kidnapped…” What a complete waste of that officers time.
I knew this was going to be a treat when it started with “upscale shopping complex.” Is the class-level of the retail establishment relevant here?
“Now, at that moment I was quite distracted, trying to tune out my child’s loud screams/wails/protests while searching row after row for my car, a bit of a stressful situation”
Yeah, be a parent, don’t tune out your child. Do you think trying to ignore it was making the situation any less stressful? You’re in a parking lot. Your car is going to be there somewhere (after all, it’s an upscale parking lot so it wouldn’t be stolen) so why stress? What were you in such a hurry for? Nothing that necessitated this level of stress I’d wager.
“Given SPD’s precious lack of resources, was it necessary to divert them to this mundane situation and cause me undue stress?”
If SPD didn’t have anyone to send, they’ve proven time and time again they have no problem just not showing up. Are you that concerned about the misdirection of resources? Or are you just pissed because you think you should be immune to inconvenience and stress?
You sound pretty tightly wound. Kids can pick up on this pretty easily and then normalize and adapt those behaviors. So maybe dial it down a notch.
So the intended moral of this story is: if you think you see a child being abused or abducted, don’t report it, just mind your business, Karen.
Who could possibly see a problem with following that advice?
This is one of those incidents that are impossible to judge without having witnessed it.
OMG, it’s hard to believe the dearth of sympathy and surplus of snarky righteousness you’ve received thus far. And if #1 could please proofread and repost?
Yes, give me a break! They called the cops, good god.. so lame.. I think they should have asked you if everything was ok and if they could help and then if still suspicious they could have gotten your license plate/taken pic of your car..
Seems like a bunch of commenters have never dealt with a child throwing a tantrum before.
I bet it was U Village. That place makes me throw tantrums also.
@2 and @6 you think an appropriate response to a child potentially being abducted is to not intervene whatsoever but just call 911? Hope the cops can track the car quickly enough to prevent any harm being done to the child? Hope the plates aren’t stolen so they can track the car at all? If the caller honestly believed the kid was being abducted their response was appallingly passive. If they didn’t or weren’t sure calling the police was absurdly presumptive. Either way they are an unhelpful clown.
Almost NEVER a good reason to call the cops.
All the cops know how to do is make any situation worse than it already is.
@13
“… you think an appropriate response to a child potentially being abducted is to not intervene whatsoever but just call 911?”
Yes! Because with gun ownership at an all time high who’s to say my attempt at intervention doesn’t end with me eating a lead salad? If someone is brazen enough to attempt a kidnapping in a visible place like a parking lot I would imagine, if they own a gun, they’d have no qualms shooting me.
As great as it sounds to be the hero and step in, ain’t none of us superman and nothing’s gained in potentially taking a bullet while intervening.
@15 what’s stopping you from pulling your car behind the “abductor’s” to prevent it escaping? You could then run away to avoid being shot, or having a spell cast on you if the “abductor” is a wizard, or being eaten if the “abductor” is a lizard person, or any other purely speculative risks. It’s forgiveable to be a coward in these situations, I suppose, as long as you aren’t also lazy and/or entirely lacking in creativity.
OMG! there’s fucking
‘Lizard Persons’? &
Spells-casting
Wizards?
small wonder coppers
Always gotta draw
First and Maybe
make a few
queries
‘later.’
I gotta Wonder:
what would
BiBi do?
the comments in this I-anonymous haha.
@11, super agree. U village is a sobering nightmare.
@17, your posts are never a disappointment, like i actually look forward to them. i don’t think Bibi would do dick IMHO
@14, i remember calling the cops on my parents when the were beating the shit out of eachother, when i was like 8 ish. by the time they showed up my parents had cleaned themselves up and disposed of the destroyed furniture. the cop told me that it was a crime to call the police unless it was an emergency. so that basically set my threshold of what i expect them to actually accomplish. YAY them for actually i guess doing something.
For all those “it could have been an abduction” people. Only about 6% of stranger abductions of children are of children under 5 years old. Of those 6%, only 2% occurred in parking lots, and 2% in stores. Stranger child abductions themselves are also exceedingly rare, only about 150 per year in the US. The internet is full of stories convincing people that there are abductors stealing young kids in stores and parking lots, but in actuality that happens less than once per year in the whole US. Toddlers having tantrums in parking lots however, happen in pretty much every parking lot, every day. https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/ncmec-analysis/attemptedabductions10yearanalysisjune2016.pdf
Again with the “Karen” bullshit. Pick another way to say “annoying busybody” already. My friend, Karen, is tired of this lazy-ass naming, and so am I.
why
thank you
reverendsamhain!
tho there are
a few I’d Love
to delete & more
than that I’d Love to
Edit this being tS that
ship has long since Sailed
I guess one might could
say be Careful! you
don’t Pull a
Peckem
tho
it’s still
up for Debate
what that Means.
“My
friend,
Karen,*
is tired
of this lazy-ass
naming, and so am I.”
so Why did you
call Me a
‘Karen’?
*two
too Many
commas dude
in the Wrong Hands
they can be quite
Dangerous.