New Mom: Lurked

Here’s the setting: me, alone with New Girl in a small tourist shopping area. New Girl was cranky when we first arrived and was even crankier one hour later as we attempted to depart. (Found out later she was sick, but at the time, I had no idea.) She really didn’t want to get in the car seat. She whined a bit when I first attempted, so I left her in the stroller and loaded the rest of the stuff into the car first. It only delayed the inevitable. I tried bribing and cajoling with treats and books and stuffed animals and whatever toys I had around. To me it’s all better than making a scene in public, and, after all, we were supposed to be having a good time, so I was happy to pacify her if it could be done.

But, it wasn’t to be. She screamed and yelled and whined and complained, as I picked her up, fought the arched back and flailing arms to strap her into the car seat. When I finally got her buckled, I turned around to find an older woman just standing there in the parking lot watching me. She wasn’t pretending to do something else, wasn’t peering over her shoulder, wasn’t offering help (I wouldn’t have wanted any). She was just standing there as if she had bought a ticket to the cranky toddler show. After I loaded the stroller, I saw her with a group of eight or so other women. Did they think someone was possibly harming a child and dispatch one of their own to check it out? If so, can I still be annoyed with her voyeurism?