Let the name calling begin

Sunday morning I get out of my bed for the first time since St. Patrick's Day and I head to Blockbuster to use my in-store free rental coupon. I'm in track pants, a hoodie, with greasy hair partially tied back. It wasn't pretty, but I was out of bed so progress had been made.

I park my truck and walk towards the store and as I'm crossing the street, a little boy no older than 8 - 10-years old opens the door from the backseat of a black Toyota Sequoia parked along the curb and hollers at me.

"Whore!"

I stop in the middle of the road and stare incredulously at the SUV. I was just called a whore by an 8-year-old boy on a Sunday morning. I leer and send that boy all the evil mind waves I can muster. I continue to walk really slowly towards the store, hoping I can catch the owner of the vehicle on his or her way out.

A tall man with a little child in tow exit and head towards the SUV. I call after him, "Sir! Sir!" He turns around. He's tall with black hair greased back, sporting a flashy and tacky gold chain around his neck.

"Yes?"
"Is that your Sequoia?"
"Yes?"
"Well I think you should know that one of the boys in the back seat called me a whore while I was passing by."
"What? Come with me."

And he leads me back to the car. Both boys in the back seat have "oh shit" faces on. He asks me which boy and I said I didn't know. He then asks them if one of them called me a whore. "No." they shake their heads, "We said 'who!'"

He turns back to me, "Well if they won't admit it, then I can't punish them."

I stand there open-mouthed and gawking. What? Since when is this the standard we raise our children? If I had done it when I was little, my parents would have beaten the shit out of me, but then again, I was raised better than to call perfect strangers "whores" too. I can't even fathom my punishment.

Also, what do I have to gain by telling a stranger a perfect lie about the children in his backseat? Does he really think movie renting 24-year-old women are less trustworthy than some whore-calling punk? That I'm out to get them? The boy made his mistake by saying he called out "who" to me. I didn't solicit a response from the kid, by even admitting he called out to me meant he was guilty. I felt that by telling me he couldn't do anything, that he was condoning they boys' behavior. That, indeed, it is okay to speak to women that way. Like some third world country, we aren't worth treating as equals.

Crap. What a way to start a Sunday.