The Long Awful Bus Ride Home

For some reason, the Charlottetown Transit system is using a smaller bus (less seats) for its busiest run, Confederation Centre to Charlottetown Mall.  i don't know why they made the move, but I don't really like the newer (older?) smaller bus.
Anyway, last night, I got on the bus and immediately knew it was going to be unpleasant.  A child wailing, in a stroller.  I sit at the back of the bus and for the whole of the duration of the trip out to the mall, the child did not stop wailing.
Now, I am a person who can tolerate all kinds of children's crying if it seems to have a valid reason and purpose.  Like if the child was obviously in some physical discomfort, I wouldn't begrudge the shrieking.  This kid, though, seemed to be doing it to spite its mother.  I say "its" because I honestly don't know if it was a boy or a girl.  At first, the quality of the tortured screaming seemed to indicate to me that the child was, in fact, in pain.  Soon, though, it became clear that the kid was in no pain and was only testing the mother.  Upon this realization, my hate for the kid was totally on.
For a while, I sympathized for the mother.  Poor, tortured mother unable to handle the emotional blackmail of the child.  Soon, though, that sympathy turned to anger.  Shame on you for not being able to handle the emotional blackmail of the child.  Then I started wondering about the kid.  It looked to be rather too big to be in a stroller.  Also the kid didn't actually wail any discernible words.  Just grunts and shrieks.  That made me think maybe the kid was disabled in some way.  I began to feel bad for the kid if this was the case.  Soon, though, it became clear that the kid was not affected by any disability.  Just a selfish, shrieking kid.  With an ineffectual, infuriating mother.
The whole experience made me want to get home and hug my son, because I cannot recall him ever acting out in such a way in public.  When I got home, I didn't hug him, though, since I pretty much put the whole ugly experience out of my head as soon as I got off the bus.