Did this really happen!!

[kherbert05]

**sighs**  ...  Every single day we have 10-20 little monsters abandoned here by their "parents" to play so said parents can shop.  .

The key word here is abandoned. Your bosses and their equivalents in stores across the nation, need to take a stand and treat these kids as lost kids. Call the parents over the sound system, then call the cops when they don't show up. Our society enables the bad parents to act this way, by not demanding they attend to their kids.

I was out with one of my cousins and her kids. We passed by a similar display marked display only. Well of course some brats were playing. Cousin's son wanted to play.

She said, "No"

He said, "Why"

I said with great concern and funny face, "Because in this family the adults make sure the kids obey the rules. We want to like you when you grow up, so we make you behave now. Instead of letting you break rules right and left and eventually end up in juvie then prison."

He rolled his eyes at his crazy cousin.

Cousin stifled a laugh and pulled me away from the area, muttering, "The girls are right - you are going to get us shot one day.

See the parents of the brats were walking up to collect their little darlings (the kids were carbon copies of the parents). Yes from their expressions they heard me - now I doubt they actually listened.

I just know some day a kid in this situation will be kidnapped and the "parents" will turn around and sue the store for "failing to provide security". Which is something business owners should think about, when tieing the hands of their employees behind their backs.

[andi]

i was in Penny's getting Boo's pictures taken a few weeks ago -and there was a huge rucus going on in the studio area - finally one of the employees came over to aplologize for the wait and explained what happened.

In the front of the studio area (the waiting room) is a TV on the wall and several small sized chairs - where people can wait with their little ones till their appointment.  This area is just inside the doors going to the parking lot and faces out toward the open store (young men's department).  Well - a family came into Penny's, sat their two kids down in the chairs (aged  and then went off and shopped.  It was a busy day and it took a little while for the girl working the phones to realize "hey, these kids have been here for a while" so she asked them if they were getting their pictures taken.

Nope.

Where are your parents?

Shopping.

Shopping where?

Shrug

She called her manager who called security.  It took security another half hour to get the kids to tell him their parent's names (guess they had instructions not to talk to strangers?)  and then OVER AN HOUR of paging before the parents came back!  They had LEFT PENNYS and gone to other stores in the mall to shop expecting the kids to just sit at the portrait studio and watch the TV there.

I was so appalled i couldn't even say anything.  The parents  showed up while i was still waiting for my appointment and the whole family was escorted to a private area - by then the actual police had been called. 

I could write a book on the misbehaved child/bad parent encounters i had while working retail.  It would curl your hair.

BTW - i give everyone here permission to give my child the "icy mommy glare of death" if he even LOOKS like he's about to do something like what's been posted above - and then tell me so the appropriate action can take place.

[sammycat]

BTW - i give everyone here permission to give my child the "icy mommy glare of death" if he even LOOKS like he's about to do something like what's been posted above - and then tell me so the appropriate action can take place.

Me too! 

[Clara Bow]

I have to peek in trepidation around the aisles in the grocery store every week to keep from getting mowed down by some homicidal kid who can't even see over the cart running like a lunatic through the store. What I really love is when they have a smaller child (read:toddler) in the kid seat of the cart while they're running wild. Hello?? Those kids could not only hurt someone else, they could hurt themselves!!! I know a child who got his legs broken in a shopping cart toddler seat because he was horsing around in it and fell. I famously cannot stand ill-behaved children, but they seem to be getting worse every year.

[TZ]

The grocery store by my house has smaller, "kid-sized" shopping carts, and they really are a menace.  I nearly get mowed down every time I go shopping, since kids like to get them going fast and ride them like scooters.  I usually just glare, but BF always says something to the parents.  It's embarrassing to me, but I hope it's even more embarrassing to them.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be.  I have to wonder what the store managers are thinking by providing these things.  Sadly, I no longer wonder what parent allows their child to behave this way, as this type of behavior is far too common.

[Clearbrite]

I can understand a kid 'not thinking' and just tearing around a store with a cart..they have no brains and just do what they think is fun and great at the time to them..parents there or not!

BUT to nearly run into you and not apologise for his antics..just totally rude! Then also for the parent not to apologise on his behalf and tell the kid off for nearly hurting someone..even worse!

Perhaps just *next time* if anything like that happens,just yell out "Well,EXCUSE me!!"

That should make the party involved stop and think,even just for the 'embarrassment'factor!*LOL*

[Sterling]

I think the rason that the rides are out and working is so parents can investigate them.  However parents abuse this by letting thier kids run rampant.

[Balletmom]

I'm horrified as well that the children were allowed to rampage with carts as weapons.

I like the response of threatening to call the police.

And I'm speechless that someone would leave their children in a store alone. Good thing the police were called.

There was an incident near here a couple of years ago--the mother and other female relative actually enlisted the young child to help them shoplift.

They were caught by security and then they fled, abandoning the child.

Fortunately, they lost custody of the child after that.

[melodrama]

They get the idea from their "parents" who say, "I'm going to go look at shoes. You stay right here and look at the toys, and I'll be back in half an hour." 

Yes but my parents said that to me too, when we went shopping.  I was left either in the toy or book area to amuse myself until they were done.  I never took bikes for joyrides or ran screaming through the store.  Because I would have been in for a world of hurt, had they found out. 

[supernova]

BUT to nearly run into you and not apologise for his antics..just totally rude! Then also for the parent not to apologise on his behalf and tell the kid off for nearly hurting someone..even worse!

Well, you see, said child learned his behavior patterns from watching his Mommy use his stroller as an ankle-battering-ram to get through crowds without having to say "Excuse me!"

(Seen it happen.  Been the victim, more than once.)

     - saphie

[bibliorocker]

I work part time in a deli in a grocery store. We have kids who wander around by themselves all the time.

Last year this little boy, maybe 5, came around the corner with his younger sister. There is no parent to be seen as they poke around in the displays. He then proceeds to SPIT on the deli case. They then wander around a bit. I then see him open the cover to one of the olive bar containers and proceeds to stick his hand in. I tell him quite firmly ."DO NOT put your hand in there". He shut it in a hurry. They then wander around for a few more minutes until their mom FINALLY comes around the corner.

We've also had young teens who come in by themselves and wander through the store, eating all the samples and riding the electric carts. What is wrong with people?

[ettacat]

I don't understand why a store would leave motor vehicles sitting around ready for kids to hop on and ride -- if I were a parent and my kid got hurt on one or by one, I'd sue (and I am not inclined to sue -- never have)   This is negligent -- a motorized ride like this should be disabled so it can only be actually driven with permission/supervision by a store employee to 'test' before purchase

The parents are more guilty of negligence in that scenario than the store is, IMO. Watch your kids. If I were on that jury, they wouldn't win, that is for sure.

[Amanita]

My parents used to let me do things on my own when we went shopping, but you can bet that prior to that, they taught me manners, and how to be respectful in public.

My dad once pulled my sister and I out of an aisle in a department store toy section- there was a trashy family in that aisle ripping open packages and generally making a mess. My dad said that it was a good idea to avoid people like that like the plague, because people might think we were doing the trashy things too.

Ripped open packages were a huge pain- my dad used to rant about parents who let their kids do that, or did it themselves. It even annoyed me- I remember finally buying a toy sword that I wanted, and I had a heck of a time finding the matching sheath that went with it- most of them had been strewn around the aisle by kids who were playing with them. My dad said it was the parents to blame- they would see the kid playing with the weapons, and instead of making the kid put it back the way they found it, they would just say "put that down, we're leaving now", and the toy sword would get dropped on the floor, the sheath cast off to the side somewhere. Of course, that messed things up for anyone who wanted to buy one.

[Twik]

Many years ago (many more than I'd like to admit) I had a job in a toy department for a long-gone chain. The damage to goods was horrendous! I'm not surprised the store went out of business; I'd estimate about 25% of the stock ended up stolen or destroyed.

Some things were funny, though. I remember walking through the aisles went a hailstorm of rubber balls would go rolling past my feet from under the racks. I'd try to run to the next aisle to catch them at it, but I never did. Quick little critters they were.

Some things were heart-breaking. Every Friday a sweet little 6-year-old would appear there, left by his mom as she shopped for hours. He was good as gold (helped me pick up the balls and put them back in their bins), but you could tell he was achingly lonely. Of course, in those days, it wouldn't have been possible to call police. What could possibly happen to a little boy dumped in a toy department from 7 to 9?

[Scritzy]

I am about to leave for what must surely be the worst repository for out-of-control kids on the planet: big store that begins with W.

I can't even count the times that I have almost been mown down by kids pushing regular carts; been unable to get to an aisle because the children in the "kiddie car carts" (gad, I hate those things) are jumping in and out and yelling while the mother says, "We're not moving until you get back in that cart!"; had to detour to avoid the toy aisle because of kids throwing things, playing with the toys, fighting with the toys, etc.; seen children handling or even biting into fruit in the produce department; seen kids "playing" with the doors of the freezers; throwing tantrums in the middle of an aisle or in the checkout line. Etc. ad infinitum.

I always come out of the store exhausted, both mentally and physically.

Several years ago there was a commercial advertising said store that showed a mother with her children in the toy department. The children in the commercial were trying out the bicycles, throwing the balls, etc. while mommy's voice-over extolled the great selection and low price of the toys. Some weeks later I was in the store and heard the announcement that children were not to play with the balls in the store. The second time it was announced, I was in the checkout line. I said to the cashier, "They must have watched the commercial, huh?" She said with much vehemence, "I hate that commercial! I wish it had never been run! Kids and parents get the idea that 'well, we saw it on TV, so it must be okay.'"

I wouldn't work in that place for a mint of money. I try to avoid it as much as possible, and I would rather be beaten to death with a thorny stick than go there on the weekend.