Why have we become so PERMISSIVE a Society?

That question came to mind on Sunday April 19th, 2026 afternoon after I went to a prestigious mall and into one of the anchor supermarkets, equally prestigious.

As we shopped, I together with one of my loving nieces and her friend, I keenly observed the freedom and joy and vitality of shoppers seeing the immense range of products and top- notch hygiene standards and equally readily available assistance from the many staffers packing products and refilling the attractively arranged counters and vibrantly moving around on different errands.

My kind of anticlimax reached when I saw two women shoppers (at different positions /sites within the hyper market) pushing the huge shopping carts but with grown children (both were girls about 8-10 years) standing inside the carts with shoes on and only leaving a space for their minders to place the selected products.

This is an issue of hygiene given that the children’s shoes definitely are nothing sanitized and definitely soil the carts’ inside exposing other shoppers (who will definitely later use the carts for their shopping) to bugs and germs and other forms of contaminations.

Given our much valued autonomy and individualism (we are as a matter of facts very good & credible & certified ‘mind – your – own – business converts) , many of the other shoppers went about their shopping business seeming unperturbed or less bothered or even surprised that some of their fellow parents had turned shopping carts into their children transportation gadgets.

I also wondered why some of (we) our parents tend to ‘overlove’ our children to the point that we do not wish them to walk even for so short distances such as that in hyper – /supermarkets lest they tire and get annoyed.

As I waited for the payment to be completed i saw a staffer who had a different and distinctive uniform.

I said hello as i wished to ask him about that abnormal behavior.

However, he immediately left to assist in restoring the barcode senser & billing system at one of the cashiers’ desk courtesy of an unblock card he was holding.

I waited and signaled for his attention as he left the cashier’s desk and after some greetings, I asked him if the management had noticed of the practice of turning goods carts into children’s transportation gadgets.

His first reaction was that some of the customers can be really very difficult and that perhaps the behavior may have been noticed.

Aware of the idiom “customer is always the King,” I nevertheless suggested that he should follow up the issue with management so that the misuse of shopping carts can be stopped as a matter of policy and urgency.

He thanked me for the feedback and promised me to follow the issue. I hope that he will do and I look forward to not seeing such a sight again in the future.

Late evening on the material day, I had to also shop at another of one of Kenya’s major supermarkets near where I live and which is now serving customers on a 24 hours basis.

This supermarket is relatively smaller but an equally nice place to shop at and as I moved to the section where I was to pick my items, a scene reminded me of my earlier sight.

A young man was pushing a shopping cart  between the shelves picking items as a young kid sat inside the cart while a young woman sat at the edge on the cart front.

I did not dwell much on the scene since I I was rushing to reach my next destination though I found it odd  that a full grown woman would think of sitting on a shopping cart and her partner condone such and even push it without noticing it as odd or even complaining .

“Is this not being too permissive?” I went away asking myself