Was it a joke?

“You should keep your offspring under control…if you can.”
This was said to me today by a female sales assistant at a clothing store. A huge smile adorned her face and I simply could not work out whether she was joking or not. It doesn’t help that my brain doesn’t function instantly when in a state of shock. My natural reaction was to laugh, just assuming that someone who was supposed to be keeping customers happy and in their store, couldn’t have just been blunt and obnoxious. The other reaction was to simply ignore it, thinking that if she had actually been serious then she obviously was not a parent who had been shopping with small children before – and therefore was acting like a complete ignoramus and worthy of defying.
To set the scene. Zak, 6 years, and Callum 2.5 years (both boys – an important thing to know) had already endured 3 hours of one shopping mall already and this was their second. Outside the clothing shop I had given them a short break and they had been able to play rapturously  in a ride-on icecream truck before they were herded back into the store to see how their aunty was getting on with her clothes selections. Once in the changing room area they would normally have been able to make faces at themselves in the mirrors, and roll and crawl around a spare cubicle. Unfortunately the cubicles all had to be used and Callum then decided, “Why on earth am I in this shop when I could be on the icecream truck”, and bolted for the front doors. Of course I ran after him and dragged him back in. My sister needed a different size of an item which I went to get, leaving behind both children lying under the door of my sister’s cubicle chatting away to her. As I approached the cubicle again I was given the order by the salesperson to keep my kids under control… or was she joking? How could you be serious and say that sort of thing with a full smile? Why would an assistant say that to a customer?If I hadn’t been so shocked I should have asked her right then and there if she was trying in a warped way to be funny. As I walked out of the store I ummed and ahhed about clarifying it with her but decided not to – who really wants to know the full opinion of someone who either has a warped since of humour or is completely clueless about small males and shopping – late in the afternoon! But then…I have a habit of taking criticism way too seriously and personally – was it a joke?
Parents – what would you have thought and done?