"Now I understand why animals will sometimes eat their young."

[img][/img] By the way ... [img][/img] who dropped this group off in GD? Hmmm

...I want to take that little girl from that woman's arms and give her a big hug. Not the little girl, that mother. Her face is familiar. I seem to remember seeing it in the mirror about 27 years ago. Scenes of worldwide tragedies swimming through your mind while you hold a child melting into despair over a gas station receipt.

Edit: I forgot to add that while you're attempting to survive until princess recovers, scores of the self-righteous will judge you as the most horrible parent on earth. A few will have their finger on the button for '911'.

I try to get the child's attention and then make myself into a pretzel shape or just make a really strange expression - it works like a charm - they stop crying and stare at me in wild-eyed puzzlement

I'll put one through college

And the other through a wall

have either one of them have a public meltdown. My heart goes out
to parents dealing with kids who are tired, hungry, bored being dragged around
on errands. It was a challenge, but I made an effort not to do
that with my kids and got lucky, I guess. It takes the same effort
to deal with them at home, too, and a lot of parents have too many
other things demanding their attention.

-- Bill Cosby quoting his father.