Medusa in Barnstable

I stopped by the Barnstable General Store on my way home. It's a good thing I have a small car, the only space available was squeezed by a badly parked minivan. No biggie. I find what I'm looking for and wait in line to be rung up. I was tired and not paying attention to my fellow customers until the woman in front of me turned into a monster straight from the bowels of hell.

Her daughter wanted to purchase a couple of little books for (I think) her younger sister and had added them to the pile in front of the cashier. The cashier started ringing items up. I first knew something was wrong when I heard Mom screech "They cost how much!?" in the general direction of the cashier.

Then she turned to her daughter and proceeded to berate her for being an ungrateful, no-good-nik that didn't know the value of the dollar, and why the hell wasn't she buying these with her own money?. Lady. You're having a meltdown because your daughter's buying...books?

It was horrible.

I watched the daughter's expression become studiously neutral and her eyes look at nothing, least of all the specimen harranging her. She'd clearly heard it all a million times before and had long since figured that the shortest distance to peace and quiet was to tune Mom out.

I couldn't tune Mom out. I heard her tell her daughter that by letting others pick up the tab, she was "living in a dream world". Right, who ever heard of a parent paying for their child? "When I was your age, I had to buy my own clothes I didn't have money for anything else". And we all can see just how character-building that was.

The best part. I finally paid for my purchases and follow them out of the store. They're not walking very fast because Mom is still ripping into her child and she can't walk and yell at the same time. Remember the person who did the extremely shitty parking job that I had to park next to and I just barely squeezed my car into the spot? It's our friend, Harpy Mom. Her charm and abilities aren't just part of being a parent, they're part of all of her interactions! Lucky us.

At least we can get away from her. I cannot adequately express how sorry I feel for that girl. She's going to grow up, move as far away as possible, refuse to come home for the holidays and I bet Mom never even understands why.