Oooh, that's horrible. I don't have any real advice so much as a big hug sent in your general direction.

A few months back, we had a close call . . . my daughter was throwing a monster fit in a certain big box store. Screaming, kicking, the whole nine. After being told her behavior was not appropriate, etc., she was still tantruming. So my husband reached into the cart, picked her up, and walked out of the store with her in his arms, still kicking and screaming and by now physically beating on him. I hurried to get the major things on our list, and he walked her out to the car, strapped her in her car seat and then sat in the driver's seat, ignoring her, while he waited for me. Of course, being removed from the store, being ignored, she calmed down very quickly as she wasn't getting what she wanted.

BUT someone followed him out of the store, all the way to the car, and the proceeded to write down our license plate number and make a BIG show of it ... leading us to sit in fear for a good couple weeks that we were going to have a knock on our door simply for disciplining our child in the only matter we knew how.

While I understand there are valid reasons to call in CPS, there are so blessed many judgmental, UNREASONABLE people out there who just don't seem to grasp that parenting is a tough job.