I hear ya on the lousy parent issue. I'm sort of involved in a situation like that now - just from a distance - and it frustrates me no end. It reached a point where last night my 19 year old neice had to call CPS on her own mother because of the way her younger brother is being treated. And most likely nothing will come of it other than alienating a girl from her mother and possibly removing her from her brother's life completely, which will be totally wrong, IMO. On the other hand, I see instances all too often where folks who are doing their best to be good parents are being castigated and called down in public by perfect strangers simply for doing their jobs - that is - protect the child from harm or danger. Example: I was in the supermarket the other day and a young woman with 2 kids was being berated by another woman. Why? Well, because this poor young Mom had one baby in the basket seat and the toddler in a shoulder harness with a leash attached at the back. It seems this woman thought "Mom" was just too abusive by having the toddler on a leash. Excuse me? Isn't it a parent's responsibility to keep a child from wandering off and getting into something that can harm him/her? As far as I could see, the child was in no pain or discomfort. And he was certainly a lot safer than he would have been riding in the cart full of cans, bottles and other assorted hard and sharp items. Second Example: Many years ago, when my son was a scatterbrained 6 year old who still couldn't seem to grasp the concept of LOOK before you cross the street, he stepped off the curb directly in front of a 2 1/2 ton Army truck (commonly known to some as a "deuce and a half"). I still had hold of his hand at the time and just instinctively snatched him back up on to the curb before he could get fully into the street. As the truck rumbled past, a woman standing beside us began to go into a tirade about how I shouldn't have yanked him like that I could have dislocated his arm or worse. I very calmly looked at her and said "Madam, I would much rather have a live child with a dislocated arm than one that needs to be scraped up off the cobblestones." Sometimes, as in the case of the first woman, people really DO need to mind their own business. But it's good to know that the second woman, at least, was concerned about my son's welfare enough to take me to task over it, even if she was off the mark. Kate Disclaimer: No children were harmed in the posting of this message. The young man who got yanked suffered no ill effects and has lived to the ripe old age of 30 in spite of his mother's rotten parenting. Whether he will survive the efforts of his OWN 3 children remains to be seen. As for the child on the leash? He got a nice plastic car as a reward for minding his mother and not running around in the store, so he was pretty happy with the whole deal as well, from what I could see from two spaces behind them at the checkout. It was a red car.