Weapon of Choice.

Under false assumptions, Nicole and I ventured out to the mall on Sunday with Sean Patrick. On Sunday last, Nicole went to the mall and said it was pretty dead. Not a lot of people shopping. It was Thanksgiving weekend, the Sunday after "Black Friday" and before "Cyber Monday", which usually makes for a busy day. Perhaps the economy was affecting people and shopping was going to be light all Christmas season.

Except for yesterday. Yesterday, it was a mad house. As Nicole likes to say, "It was nuts to butts". People everywhere looking for the best bargain they could. The craziest parts of the shops? The kids sections. Christmas time is for giving gifts, and giving gifts to kids, especially. So it makes sense that kid sections are packed.

I stood with Sean Patrick in the stroller and Nicole dove head first into the sale racks looking for gifts for our niece and nephews. I looked around and began to notice a trend...

Before I get into this, I have to vent a little about what I think is proper mall etiquette and if you disagree with me on this, let me know. But in a mall, or any place really, that has a heavy flow of foot traffic, I think it's bad form to stop in the middle of it for any reason. If you need to stop to pull out your cell phone, or talk to your buddies about which store to go to next, pull over. Get out of the flow of traffic. Stop in front of a store window, turn down a side alley, something. People walk like they drive cars, you follow the people in front of you moving in the same direction as you, If you need to pass, you wait for an opening in opposing foot traffic an dart around them. And like cars, if you stop in the middle of traffic, accidents occur.

The worst offenders of this rule: people with a baby strollers. As I stood in the baby section of Macy's, I noticed piles upon piles of baby strollers, double parked in the aisle ways, stuffed between racks of clothes, parked sideways. Baby stroller mayhem. It was a bumper car derby just trying to get Sean Patrick, in stroller, to the checkout line.

I thought it was just in the baby sections of the stores that I would see this trend. But as we walked around the mall, I noticed it everywhere.

People were stopping in the middle of foot traffic with their strollers to answer cell phones, or get something out for the fussy baby. Some were moving fast and basically ramming peoples heels with their strollers. I saw one lady ram a young man and his friend and when they turned around she gave them the meanest stink eye she could, as if to say, "I've got a baby in a baby stroller so I have the right to do what I want. Now get out of the way."

It had become the weapon of choice. So much so that I could have sworn there were a few women there with strollers and no babies just to take advantage of the unwritten rule.

Nicole had noticed it too. As a general rule, anywhere, Nicole and I don't stop in the middle of foot traffic. If were at an airport and we have to rearrange our carry-ons or something as we walk to the gate, we pull over against a wall before stopping. So at the mall, we vowed to continue our general rule to include walking with the stroller.

When Sean Patrick got fussy at Target, we pulled over into a mostly empty aisle (shaving cream and razors) while we pulled him out of the stroller and situated him the Bjorn. While Nicole was shopping in Baby Gap (another store full of strollers), I did laps around the mall with Sean Patrick, he's not a fan of being stopped in one place. I did my best to move with the flow of traffic, I didn't walk to fast or too slow. When Sean Patrick fussed for his binky, I pulled over against the window of a store and out of they way. I was even tempted to start using hand signals to indicate left and right turns. Maybe that would have caught on, but I doubt it.

Only once did a ram a couple of guys in the ankles with the stroller, but that's because they stopped walking in the middle of traffic. Don't they know the rules?

Here's a picture of me at near the end of the long day at the mall. Please note, I have the stroller parked in front of me on the bench, out of the flow of traffic. I've still got the Bjorn mostly on while feeding Sean Patrick in this monument to consumerism. It's really just a "personal touch".

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