I love children. I hope to have some one day. I don’t however like children who can’t behave. No, I don’t believe in the ‘Kids wil be kids’ saying. Raised with discipline and knowing who’s boss (read: Parents) children can behave themselves in most child appropriate settings. There will of course be the odd hiccup.
But to you Customer I had yesterday who brought her heathen little boy into my store, it’s more than clear who runs that show and it’s not you. Everytime we see you coming into the store we want to dive for cover. Your child is a monster. I don’t even think he is six years old yet and he in such a jerk. He comes in, harasses other customers, destroys our tables of folded tshirts, breaks the clothing racks, and pushes over the 40 pound mannequins.
Yesterday I decided to do something rather than watch the little beast destroy my store. When he pushed off all the tshirts off the first tier of the table, climbed on it and was hitching his leg up to get to the second tier, which is about four feet off the ground. I went over, picked him up off of it and told him do not climb the tables it is dangerous, and I told him to go back over by you. Other customers saw me do it, and actually applauded. You came over to me with this snarky look on your face and asked me “Are you his mother?” I calmly told you that letting him run around the store like that will get him injured. And you told me to fuck off and that you were his mother and not to speak to or touch him again; and you kept right of shopping. You know what? You’re not much of a mother.
20 minutes later, the boy is in our window displays with the 40lbs mannequins, banging on the window, ripping down the banners in there. I go over to you and advise you to take him out of the window before he gets hurt. You turn your back on me like you don’t hear me. No sooner did the words leave my mouth than we heard your son screaming bloody murder. When we run over to the windows and there’s your kid pinned under the mannequin he knocked over with a busted up nose and lip. You start screaming for the police, because it’s our fault he got hurt. Nevermind an ambulance or some medical aid, you want the police first because you’re determined to try and get us in shit for not watching your animal and making sure he was safe (I’m a Asst. Manager, not a babysitter).
The joke was on you because the police hardly spoke to us. When they showed up, no less than 10 customers went up to them telling the officers what a bitch you were in the store and you made no attempts to control your boy or keep him safe. And luckily there are cameras in the store, so the nice officers can see every said about you was true.
We’ve decided that if you plan to come shopping in our store again with your boy you must keep him in the shopping cart or we’ll ask you to leave. Not that I think you’ll have the guts to show yourself for some time.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
I hate it when we get customers in our store who allow their children to climb over the counters (it’s a grocery store), where bags are being laid down. The parents have their attention solely on the register, and their spawns are in the way. So when they nearly fall off the goddamn counter, it’s the parents.
Two words: Cattle Prod (evil cackling ensues…)
This sounds like a nightmare. What I find disturbing are the young children (8 or younger) who are left to wander parent-less in public libraries. Many, many parents drop their kids off at the library and then disappear to the other end of the building or else leave the building entirely. While it’s kind of reassuring to know that people have such faith in the library as a safe place to bring their kids, library staff are not babysitters and cannot be expected to watch over your kids in your absence. It breaks my heart to see these kids wandering around by themselves, lost or lonely, with no parent in sight. I’ve watched vigilant library staff intervene to stop 5 year olds from heading out the door and into traffic, and even then staff have to hunt for the kids’ parents. Please, people, keep an eye on your kids, for their own safety.
That’s awful! It’s worst when parents get self righteous or even laugh at their kids bad behavior….when I worked retail we’d regularily get families in shopping, and while mum or dad, or even both, browsed, their kids would run wild. one set of hellions actually ran screaming up and down the store, kncoking things over, chasing each other, throwing products at each other, and trying on things like hats and gloves, stretching them out and in general makign them distasteful for someone else to buy. their parents ignored their bad behavior until one of the kids, using a hat as a slingshot, missed and hit his mother- she then laughed, and put the item back ont he shelf! it was stretched beyond belief, could not be sold, ruined by her spawn- but she didn’t even have the grace to look shamefaced. I’ve seen kids drop icecream and food on products, and paretns don’t even think to buy the item, which can no longer be sold because of their kids…I’ve often wondered: if you don’t NEED your kid to be there on the shopping trip, why bring them? you KNOW they’re going to get bored, they’re going to act up, if nothign else they’re going tow hine and cry which is incredibly annoying to everyone around…so why not leave them at home and browse in peace? particularly those mum’s who try to schlep multiple kids around..why not just find a sitter or wait till dad or someone else is home from work so they can watch the kids before you go to the mall?
I advocate leashes – and choke chains.
This is the same mother who, flash forward several years, is sitting in Juvenile court defending her out of control kid yelling how the system has failed him and he’s really a good kid. She is in denial now, she’ll still be in denial when he’s in jail…all because she lets him get away with this type of behaviour.