The only truth in life is you cannot change the behavior of others, you can only manage yourself. Leave the store and go shopping somewhere else if that situation is truly too much for you, an adult who clearly has no children, to handle.

Consider that shopping with a group of children is not fun. Consider the person doing so may not be able to afford child care every time they leave the house. Consider they don't have a list because of sheer exhaustion. Consider the child is wearing pajamas because that is the only way the child would leave the house without screaming and crying.

The thing about the world is, and trust me I struggle with it every day, is that other people do not behave the way we would like them to behave. We can rail against it or eternity. Still not gonna happen.

Oh and that person with those kids who is a hot mess shopping in the grocery store has no time or energy to give reading or responding to anything posted in I, Anonymous in the online version of the Portland Mercury. Never gonna happen. But perhaps you feel better having vented your feelings about the matter.

I'm just shocked IA didn't use the term "breeder." What has Portland come to when whiny shoppers can't invoke population control to justify the fact they just don't know how to chill when someone with real live actual kid interrupts their cellphone screening for 15 seconds or so? At least they got a not-so-veiled dig in against religion, surprised they didn't bring up "imaginary sky god" or "Flying Spaghetti Monster" as well.

You are a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

I am an atheist, but one of the good things about religion is that anyone who brings their kids to church has actually trained them to occasionally shut up and stop running around.

The poster sounds like an awful person- judgmental, impractical, a downer. Everyone must be just like them. I go to Freddies a lot and I rarely see bad parenting. In fact, shopping is one way kids get socialized. Hating on kids is a manifestation of hating on women. So, my pathetic little incel poster, stay away from the grocery store. Use a delivery service. Stay away from kids- they don't need your input. You are a bad influence.