Dog vs. Daughter '08: You Decide

I have decided that it is something in the water at Wal-Mart that leads to bad parenting. The scenes I was privy to Sunday serve as absolute and final proof that there should be mandatory intelligence testing before the conception equipment ever gets unlocked.

Chastity before fecundity. That's my new motto. Really. If you made it harder to screw, I bet America would get a lot smarter a lot faster.

Anyway. I'm doing a return for this idiot man who bought a phone charger without actually TESTING to see if it fit his phone. THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE THE ENDS OF THE CORDS STICKING OUT OF THE BOX!

He's got his daughters with them. Cute enough kids in little sundresses. One has what I thought was a stuffed dog toy. I'm mashing register buttons when I hear the man behind Idiot Phone Charger go "Oh, that's a real dog." **sigh**

I don't say anything, even though you are not supposed to have dogs in the store - and it is CLEARLY posted as such in about a million places. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, because the alternative would have been to leave the children or the dog outside in a hot car on a Florida afternoon. Cue Department of Children and Families or ASPCA.

I'm feeling generous (bad mistake) so I let him finish the return and hope he'll just leave with the dog and his kids. No. No. No, no, no, no, no.

He heads straight out into the store.

I yell for a supervisor and point at the dog. They tell him he can't have the dog in the store. Idiot Phone Guy, the children and the dog exit toward the grocery entrance.

About 45 minutes later, as I'm returning some Wal-Mart sandals for a granola granny-type, the guy comes storming back up yelling at me.

Apparently, just leaving was not an option. HE HAD TO SHOP. TODAY. RIGHT NOW.

So he left a nine-year-old girl, a six-year-old girl and a dog on the bench outside the store and came back inside for 45 minutes to shop.

When he got back outside, one of the girls said that "a man talked to her." He was screaming at me because I was allegedly the one who made him take his children and the dog outside and leave them. I didn't let him "protect" his children. Wal-Mart should let him bring his dog in to shop. Why did I have to "be like that?'

All this went on for about 1o minutes with him just yelling and yelling and yelling and yelling. A supervisor came up and tried to ask him exactly what happened, i.e. did we need to call the police? Give us a description of the man. What? Don't just yell at how we MADE YOU FOLLOW THE RULES!

Here are my questions:

1) When is it an option to take a dog shopping to a supermarket?
2) In the galaxy of options, when is it a realistic parenting choice to leave your children sitting outside a Wal-Mart for 45 minutes while you go buy things?
3) But if you absolutely must purchase diapers or medicine and want to keep the kids with you, why not put the dog in the car? And make it quick! I am framing this as a dog vs. children issue, not an issue of puppy parenting. DO NOT FLAME ME DOG-LOVERS! I do not advocate ever leaving an animal in the car. Leave it at home in comfort.
4) Better yet, why not take the dog home and come back?