I don't work on Mondays but my wife does so this summer I have been finding fun things to do with my kids (two girls, 8 and 6) every Monday. Today we went to a park and walked a trail along a river and looked for wildlife (the coolest thing we saw was a hummingbird) then went out for a late breakfast at IHOP. On the way back home I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things.

We were standing in one of the aisles looking at the various pastas and a woman, probably late forties and wearing business type clothing walks up to me, smiles and asks me if my wife was in the store. I said no, just me, and she asked where the girls' mother was. I started thinking maybe she knew my wife and wanted to say hi, and I was sort of worrying that I knew her but couldn't place her or something. Then she turned her back on me and knelt down to my kids and asked them if I was their daddy, and where their mommy was. My oldest told her that I was daddy, and mommy was at work, and then the lady asked her if mommy knew where they were, and if they were supposed to be with daddy.

I stopped being mildly confused and started getting angry, and honestly, scared. My kids just kind of looked at me and quit talking to her. I sputtered out something like, "these are my kids, their mom's at work, what are you asking?"

She gave me a huge fake smile and said something like (I can't remember her exact words) "I stand up for children. I always believe the children. There is video recording in this store."

I sort of stared at her and she left the aisle, and one of my kids asked me who she was. I said I didn't know. I led them to the self-checkout, paid for what I had and left. I still needed a few more things but at that point I was afraid to stay in the store. I felt like a criminal.

I probably shouldn't be as upset about this as I am, but I'm still physically shaken.