Parenting at Target

So the other day I was in Target picking up a few items on my way home from work.  I finished checking out and pushed my card toward the door.  As I was gathering my bags out of the grocery cart, buttoning my coat (because it's freezing out) and getting my keys out of my purse I overheard a mother's conversation with her 5 year old son.  The little boy was lying in the cart with the bags of groceries.  Mom asked him to put his coat on and the boy began to whine and say he didn't want to.  Mom says, "You better put it on, because if we go outside without a coat it will be very very cold." I think to myself, it's not just cold, it's freezing!  The little boy proceeds to whine and reason with his mom about why he doesn't want to put his jacket on.  This goes on for a few minutes and as I'm walking out, the last I hear mom say is, "I can't take off my coat and put it over you while you're lying in the cart because what will mommy wear?" 

Are you serious?  Was she practicing good parenting skills by begging her child to put his coat on?  By telling him it would be cold outside without a coat, did the child really believe that she would let him go coatless into the freezing cold winter air?  I don't know how long this mom stood there to try and talk her son into putting his coat on, but I was long gone.  Had this been my child?  I would have asked my child nicely to put on his coat.  I would even offer to help him put the coat on, zip it up, pull up the hood... whatever he needed help with.  However, I will only ask him once.  I do not intend to stand there and beg or reason with him as to why he needs to put his coat on.  Was this mom reasoning with her son to avoid creating a scene?  I'm not sure I believe that this is good for the child in the long run.

I understand that our kids need to be heard, but am I wrong to think there are times when the child just needs to obey?  I still shake my head in disbelief.  What would you do?

~ Judy O.