Just give the girl a ball, darn it!

     Now I am no parent.  I have no children of my own yet.  I do have tons of experience with raising children since my family is larger that a lot of villages so I have babysat and helped raise cousins, nieces and nephews for a very long time.  So I do have a bit of experience with small children.  When I see people attempting to be parents, I tend to judge from the decades of experience I have with kids.  Whether this is fair or not, I don't know.  All I know is what I have experienced myself.
     So tonight,. I wandered out to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for myself and my wife.  As I was checking out, there was a young woman and a small child in front of me checking out.  I had to wait because the woman had picked up a medium sized foam ball for her daughter and the ball she had picked up had been taken out of its plastic wrapping that also had the bar code on it.  Another associate went and got an identical ball still in its shrink wrap.  After the checker scanned it, the woman decided that she would rather have the shrink wrapped ball than the unwrapped one.  Makes sense, right.
     Now the second the mother decides to take the unwrapped ball, the little girl starts crying.  She tells her Mom that she wants the first ball they picked up, not the wrapped one.  The Mom literally starts screaming at the child and telling her to be quiet because they are buying the wrapped ball.  She tells her that if she doesn't shut up, then she won't get a ball period.  The little girl keeps crying for the unwrapped ball and the mother keeps yelling at her.
     Now Folks, keep in mind that I told you that the two balls are IDENTICAL and both of them are new.  The only difference between the two is one was wrapped and one wasn't.  The unwrapped one wasn't filthy or damaged in any way.  There was no reason not to give the child the ball she wanted.  There certainly wasn't a reason to stand there screaming at the kid and telling her that she wouldn't get any ball if she didn't take the wrapped one. 
     Like I said, I am not a parent and I certainly am not an expert on raising kids. For all I know, there may be a perfectly good reason why she stood there and screamed at her kid just because the kid wanted the first ball they picked up and not the one that the mother thought was better.  I can't imagine what that might be but it is possible,  However, yelling at your kid just because she wants the toy that you picked up seems mean.  Threatening her with no toy at all because she wants the toy you promised her seems pretty durned dumb.
     So if any of you folks can explain to me why what this girl did was a proper thing to do as a parent, I would greatly appreciate it.  I simply cannot imagine how screaming and threatening your kid in public.  I await your advice.

End of Rant