Social Experiment in Publix
Word Count 343
For this experiment 2 year old shopping with me. This is always an adventure but last Friday night I made it was surprising and exhausting. The social norm I broke was not putting my son in the shopping cart, but letting him run wild. The norm I was breaking was just a routine interaction in public so it would be considered a folkway. I was letting my child touch, smell, and even lick at one point anything he wanted. The norm I was breaking was parenting or in this case a lack of it. I was shocked to see people not just watching my son have run of the isles but their lack of any reaction. Just ran out of the isle we were in. I made this a short shopping trip because that was about all my nerves could take. I then went to the check out line. I had 22 items in my cart but I went to the 10 or less items check out line. Everyone was looking at us but no one not even the lady checking us out said a word. As I was leaving expecting cheers as we exited the store I was once again surprised when the bag boy came up and offered my some a balloon. Looking back at this experience I am very surprised. For 21 minutes my son was a wild man in Publix. I was shocked that no one said a word. I was not expecting people to help me parent but at least say something as my son tried to eat through a wrapper of a candy bar. No one was willing to say anything I believe because they did not want to get involved. Looking at this from a sociological stand point I would say that this was a great way to show the lack of the old saying “ It take a Village”. The village in Publix was happy to not get involved just run from the
For this experiment 2 year old shopping with me. This is always an adventure but last Friday night I made it was surprising and exhausting. The social norm I broke was not putting my son in the shopping cart, but letting him run wild. The norm I was breaking was just a routine interaction in public so it would be considered a folkway. I was letting my child touch, smell, and even lick at one point anything he wanted. The norm I was breaking was parenting or in this case a lack of it. I was shocked to see people not just watching my son have run of the isles but their lack of any reaction. Just ran out of the isle we were in. I made this a short shopping trip because that was about all my nerves could take. I then went to the check out line. I had 22 items in my cart but I went to the 10 or less items check out line. Everyone was looking at us but no one not even the lady checking us out said a word. As I was leaving expecting cheers as we exited the store I was once again surprised when the bag boy came up and offered my some a balloon. Looking back at this experience I am very surprised. For 21 minutes my son was a wild man in Publix. I was shocked that no one said a word. I was not expecting people to help me parent but at least say something as my son tried to eat through a wrapper of a candy bar. No one was willing to say anything I believe because they did not want to get involved. Looking at this from a sociological stand point I would say that this was a great way to show the lack of the old saying “ It take a Village”. The village in Publix was happy to not get involved just run from the