Always struck me as a city thing, not a white people thing.
Maybe things have changed, but in the small town where I grew up, people generally wouldn’t bother.
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there would usually be a gap delineating one persons items from the other’s anyways
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the person who was professionally scanning our groceries 100% had the expertise to see the gap and comprehend its meaning
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If (I never ever saw it happen, ever) they had grabbed something, someone would have noticed, said “whoops, that’s not mine”. Nobody would think someone was trying a scam.
I feel like this is an amazing measure of someone’s general level of anxiety. Or maybe a measure of how little credit they give the person scanning groceries? Both?
I think your notion of charitable apathy probably only comes across as condescending if in your explanation you make it sound like you’ve never been (or would never be) in a position to receive that treatment from others.
I feel like a few words tossed in to clarify that would probably help people avoid a gut reaction about your ideas.
People might also be getting hung up on the idea of treating someone like a child. I had my kids a little later in life, and I treat my toddlers like adults. What do I do when an adult is crying? I sit with them and comfort them. What do I do if I see an adult about to step in dog shit? Yell to them to tell them a warning to watch their feet. What do I do if an adult tells me they’re hungry? I help them get food. What do I do if adult tells me they want to play with hot wheels with me? I say yes.
Maybe I fundamentally don’t understand how others conceptualize treating a child. I think that term is super loaded. Like the word “savory”. You can ask 10 people what the phrase/word means and you’ll get 10 confident and incompatible answers.