Angry? Hurt? Appalled? Shocked?

Not sure what label to put on my feelings, but I did at least wait a few days to write about it so I cool down and write politely.

Last Tuesday, we held a taste-testing for a lot of our drinks and liquid supplements at the shop. It was a good day. Linda and I worked together and it went slow at first, so that let us enjoy talking and moving at a turtles pace. It was good too, because my ears were bothering me a lot that day (and that's a whole other saga of misery that resulted in my diagnosis of 2 ear infections at the same time! I'm still deaf by the way.) so I didn't have to let everybody see me pouring stuff into my ears all day.

At the end of the day, Linda and Herb were going to go out to eat with Linda's family at an assisted living place one of her sisters lives in. So I told her to go on and I would close the shop. No problem, right? ...ordinarily no. But on this particular day, a man and his family came in at 5:25pm. (We close at 5:30, mind you.) The man asks me what is good for kids who can't focus and pay attention at school. So I showed him. He asked me if that same stuff would make the kid stop telling people he was going to kill them with a gun. I told him nothing forces people to say or not say things, but it would help with focusing. Then he starts telling me how "bad" his 6 year old son is and that the reason for it is that he's jealous of his 4 year old sister (who is extremely smart according to dad). He tells me this kid has threatened his life and his brother's life and says how much he hates little sister. He tells me that he DOES own a gun and the kid knows it. I said I hope you keep it locked up! He said of course he does. He goes on and on telling me how he refuses to go BACK to jail for this kid and that if he doesn't change right away, then all he has to do is take his birth certificate and a change of clothes in to "the system" and he'll be THEIR problem then.

My jaw is hanging open at this point. Am I hearing a father say that he'll throw his 6 year old out and let him become a foster kid if he makes dad mad once more? REALLY?

After the dad caught his breath, he told me not to tell him to pray for this kid, prayers haven't been helping so he's done with that. He said he will not deal with this from the boy anymore and that even his school counselor told dad to call the police on him if it happens again. Then he turns around to his 3 kids and tells one of the boys to get up and let the little sister have the chair to sit in. What???

Now where is mom, you might ask? Oh she was here,...on her cell phone. And guess how that conversation was going? She tells her friend about some weird cramps she had and how she'd gone to the doctor. She says she isn't pregnant, she has titanium clamps on, and she SURE doesn't want "no more kids"...she already has 6 and can't deal with these last 3 she has. She says this right in front of the kids. The oldest is 8.

The dad asked me about my kids, so I told him about Morgan and how Morgan has days that he can't keep his behavior under control and his mental focus is all over the place. I told him about the time I took all food away from Morgan and bought him some vegetable and fruit trays. I put them out on the table with bottles of water and told Morgan he could eat all day long if he wanted to, anytime of day, as much as he wanted, and nobody would touch his food but him, but that was the ONLY food he could have. He hated smelling other stuff cooking and knowing he couldn't have it, but the next day, that boy saw a change in himself as clearly as I did! He could behave! Diet makes such a difference in thinking and behavior for all people! I also told the dad about the time I gave Morgan hemp hearts (a grain, does not contain THC) and how the omega 3 in it helped that child pay attention and do fantastic work on anything he set out to do that day.

You would think the dad would be interested in this story, right? Well instead, he tells me that homeschooling "that kid" is out of the question, it just "ain't happenin'." Then he tells me he can't give this kid hemp hearts in his breakfast because he doesn't feed him breakfast, the school does. He only sees him at nights. So I gave him samples and said "try this over the weekend then." He took them and told me "God bless you"...... and thankfully he left.

How SHOULD I feel about that? I had so many emotions, I couldn't contain it. I stormed over to Kroger and picked up some supper for my family, and I made sure there were no nasty ingredients that would stir up my little ones. I fumed around that store trying to walk out the feelings I was having.... and I just couldn't. I went home and told Tommy. You know, I think I could have offered to adopt that child and that man would have signed the papers before leaving the shop. The state wouldn't have allowed that because our house is too small and so is my income, but one thing I can say,... that little boy wouldn't continue thinking the people he lives with hate him.