I am still angry and confused a week later and wondering what I should or could have done.

Laying hands on your stroller to take your crying baby out of last week's freezing cold and into the coffee shop you dashed into probably would have gotten me charged, and sadly, with time constraints, I did not think I could stay calm enough to find and confront you and did not know what kind of situation I could create with my boiling white-hot rage.

In other words, I had time to clothesline a neglectful parent, or kick a baby stroller over and keep going, but not enough time for a parenting debate with a total stranger.

I wonder what you'd have said to a cop - "I just had to grab a latte/say hi to a friend/run to the bathroom, officer" as an excuse for abandoning your goddamned child.

Yes, I have done a good job of beating myself up about what I didn't do or say, could have done or said. I'm still angry, mostly at myself. After having been verbally and physically attacked for less I guess I'm apprehensive these days about confronting strangers, but I should have been late for what I was doing and risked it anyway.

File this under "another apathetic, useless citizen" Bitch.

ps. I'll say what the guilty parent (who hopefully will read this) should say: I can't believe I let that happen, and I'll never do it again.