A mother stirred quite a bit of controversy online after recounting an incident that occurred with her 3-year-old in a grocery store.
Her son spilled his candy all over the floor, and his mother expected to be given a replacement for free — an expectation that many online found absurd.
Content creator and mom of four Megan Garr detailed the experience on TikTok. She explained that while at the grocery store with all of her kids, her 3-year-old spotted a candy cane-shaped container filled with green and red M&Ms.
Since her son had been on his best behavior during the shopping trip, she decided to buy it for him.
The little boy patiently waited for his mom to pay for his treat before attempting to open it. Unfortunately, he popped the cap open a little too aggressively, and “about 75% of the M&Ms go flying all over the floor,” Garr recalled.
“Instantly, I’m mortified,” she admitted. “There’s a mess everywhere, and then I look over and (my son’s) sobbing cause he’s embarrassed, and he’s probably thinking like, ‘Oh no, this is all I have left now.’ Like that’s sad.”
As this happened, the cashier who had been scanning their groceries disappeared from behind her register. Garr assumed that she was going to fetch another candy-cane-shaped M&M container for her devastated son; however, she returned with a broom to sweep up the mess.
As “a good mom,” Garr felt she had no choice but to get her son a replacement.
Although she had already checked out, she asked the cashier if she could pay for another candy container now instead of getting back in line. The employee responded in the affirmative and charged her for the candy. Yet, Garr was taken aback. She expected the cashier to allow her to take the candy for free and was shocked that she accepted the money.
“Obviously, I offered to pay for it, so I was gonna do it, and I did,” she said. “But, at the same time, if it was me, I feel like I would be like ‘No, no. He didn’t even get to enjoy it.”
“I kind of expected it for free, but I don’t wanna come off like a mooch,” she added. To emphasize her point, Garr likened it to spilling a drink or food in a restaurant. “They would just replace it,” she pointed out. “They wouldn’t expect you to eat it off the floor or to not have anything.”
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The mom has since disabled her comments, but many responded with their own videos.
“Since she asked, I’m gonna give my opinion,” life coach Shawnda said in a TikTok response. “The cashier doesn’t own the place, so she may not have the ability to just give your child something for free.”
“In the midst of this cashier trying to clear a really long line, your child is crying and making a mess, you’re holding up the line, and you’re acting as if the cashier is the villain in this story?” she continued. “Y’all didn’t even try to help her clean it up!”
Children make messes, break things, and spill food — it’s inevitable. While we definitely sympathize with this little boy and his mother, it was her job to clean up his mess and purchase him a replacement candy.
The cashier was not being malicious by denying the mom and son a free M&M container. She was simply doing her job.
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“I never expected her to pay for it,” Garr clarified. “I didn’t expect. I was hopeful, and when it didn’t happen, guess what? I didn’t say anything. I didn’t ask. I wasn’t rude.”
“I don’t want her to get fired over a four-dollar piece of candy,” she added. “I don’t work in retail, never have, and I don’t know the rules.”
The mom also shared that she received a lot of hurtful and “bullying” comments, which is likely why she disabled comments on the video entirely.
“I am a very kind person, and I am constantly worried about how other people feel,” she said. “You might not have gotten that from that two-minute video, and I’m so sorry about that. Let’s all relax and not say hurtful things on the internet because I’m a good mom I’m a nice person. I’m raising my kids to be respectful and kind.”
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Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.
