Monkey see, monkey do

One of my big pet peeves are parents who get testy about how other children are rude to their little rude kids. I fully admit that Boy isn't going to win any awards for being the politest child in the hills but I also know he's 21 months old and I barely can get him to understand that I'm serious about his diaper change.
We were at Costco yesterday, stocking up on all the minutae of being a family when I saw it again. People taking their carts and parking them just wherever. Blocking up parking spots that other people could use or making it damned hard to get out of their cars when they slide into a spot. There are two cart corrals in each aisle so it's not like it's hard to find a place to deposit your cart. But they have excuses. I'm late. It's too far to walk. I can't leave my baby in the hot car.
When I was waddling around pregnant, I actually timed how long it took for me to get the cart from my SUV (generally parked near the back - this is before they put in a second cart corral in each aisle) after unloading to the cart corral and walking back. 45 seconds. Not kidding. So, I used to put Boy in the SUV when he was very little, roll the windows down on the SUV so that he'd be well aired and took the cart back. Now that Boy is older, I generally take him with me and carry him or let him walk back to the SUV. Not hard.
I've heard about someone saying that their are afraid that they will be carjacked and their child spirited off by some frothing mouthed freak. When I lived in LA, a SUV was carjacked out of a Costco parking lot with a child inside. The woman pleaded with the carjacker to let her get her toddler out but the guy whipped her and took her Land Rover. The toddler was found a couple of hours later in the Rover in a not so great part of town, unharmed but needing a diaper change and some milk. A carjacker won't wait for you to remove your little angel even if you're loading your vehicle with a gross of applesauce. They want your vehicle. So whether or not you're in the vehicle or taking the cart back isn't going to matter.
Another argument I heard was that someone was afraid their child would be snatched by babynappers while they were taking the cart back. Most vehicles have remote locking from a key fob. Use it?
Children learn bad behaviours more from us than television. I sincerely do not believe that the Teletubbies are teaching our kids to use the 'f' bomb as much as we are when some jackass cuts us off on the 280. They learn from us prejudices and how to be rude to others. It's up to use to teach our kids to be kind to each other by example. Sure, it's not easy when some jackass decides to get in the express lane at Safeway with a full cart and write a check and you're late getting home to make dinner. But we have to be able to explain to our children that we are mad at the action rather than the entire ethnic race of the person ahead of us (or the fact the person is old, or male or female etc).
Being a good world citizen starts at home. Learning basic manners. Learning that the world is a big place and that we all need to be good to each other because we all live here. Pick up after yourself, not just at home, but out in the world. It's not 'someone else's job' to take your cart to the cart corral or to pick up the bottle of Dasani you threw out the window of your Prius. It's up to each of us to do our part. As hard as it is to imagine. Teach your kids 'thank you' and 'please' and use it with them. If they hear you saying it to each other, then they learn. It's simple.