-SLAP-

Today I was yelling at a young boy for running around the laundromat. His sister was too. Well I didn't yell the first couple of times. I just warned them and after the billionth time I got fed up, and yelled "STOP RUNNING NOW!" The boy didn't get hit but the girl got brutally slapped by the mother. I told the mother that she wasn't as bad as her son and her reply was "you no talk."... She didn't speak English but she was speaking in Arabic. Another Muslim lady from Lebanon witnessed all this and she came to the counter and explained to me the following:

-The mother isn't supposed to punish the son because he holds a higher place in the family than the mother and sister. If both the sister and brother are running, the sister would get punished but the brother will only get a light warning. If the brother was alone running but the sister wasn't doing a thing, then the brother wouldn't get yelled at, his actions would be ignored and the mother will resume her tasks. If the mother yells at her son, then the father will punish the mother. The only reason she told me to (basically) mind my own business

This reminds me of the stuff I learned in high school about family pyramids in different religions and cultures. I forgot what the pyramid is called and I'm too lazy to drag my finger to the google search box thingy.

Anyways...

After the nice lady explained to me all of this, I was asking her questions and she said "that's how it is in some families." I asked her if it's like that with her family (she has two daughters and a son) and she said "no, my husband knows I don't tolerate that." Now her statement made me think *it really doesn't have to be that, its just power vs. fear, where fear wins.* Fear that the wife gets punished by what is thought to be powerful, the husband. Do I agree with all this? Of course not. Especially when I see a kid get hurt just because the brother was being a spoiled lil brat. I did make a note to not intervene with her family matters again, but still... seeing a lil girl brutally slapped is NOT cool in my book.

I have this one customer and his names rhymes with Dragon. Every time he comes to pick up his dry cleaning, he looks at the wrong places and touches other peoples clothing. It bothers me. It also bothers my co-worker so I can't be classified as a complex case. Tonight, I let him have it. I told him "you know, you seem to know every time where your clothes are. Here, take your ticket and you are limited to the outside rack only. Go on. Find it." He was confused and then I felt bad for him. I grabbed his ticket and gave him his clothes. He thanked me and I thanked him. Sucks that I can't be a full time bitch sometimes.... DAMN MY SOFT SPOTS!