When you say that she had a 3-5 month old baby in the top of the cart, I assume that it was in the car seat. Then you say that the baby shouldn’t be in the cart in the first place. Where do you propose that she put the baby? Leave the baby at home (which includes paying for a baby sitter during the time she’s shopping)? In the stroller that has the car seat attachment? Have you ever tried pushing two shopping carts through the store? You could be in the store for an extra half hour, during which time I’m sure that baby would be at the end of his/her patience and needing a diaper change/feeding/etc, and would let you know his/her displeasure very loudly. A woman with a small baby has limited energy (since she’s probably been up half the previous night dealing with said baby), limited time (since said baby is going to need to be fed/changed probably in an hour or so, and has limited monetary resources so they want to get the best deals they can in the shortest amount of time possible.
WIY, I’m surprised at you. It’s obvious that you’re not married since you express yourself this way. Yes, it is very commendable that you are worrying about the way this woman is treating her baby, but have you considered the other factors involved in shopping with a little one? I assume that the baby is strapped into the car seat, but unfortunately the tops of shopping carts rarely fit a car seat in a way that is very secure or maybe she hadn’t learned how to hook it on properly. If she had put the baby in the bottom of the shopping cart, then she for sure would not have had space to put the rest of the groceries in the cart, if you’ve already said that there was stuff on top of the baby but you didn’t say that the rest of the cart was empty. If she’s buying nosh, which this baby obviously can’t enjoy yet, she probably has a few other kids at home, at least one, and you should be grateful that she did not bring the whole load with her so that you would have enjoyed hearing them all screaming “Buy me this mommy”, you get the point.
I think being married and having children requires people to be able to see situations from the other person’s point of view. What bothered you about this situation has plenty of room to be dan le’kav zechus for the mother, but I don’t hear you doing that. I hope you won’t be like this when you get married.