One step away from a Darwin

[JustADude]

there is, you call the police and report an unsupervised/abandoned child. then the parents get to live through hell as child and family services checks in on them constantly as potentially abusive/negligent parents

Beat me too it. When I was in the cafe at B&N, we had so many parents using our kids' section as a daycare that one of the guys that worked the section got CPS in there and got like 7 whose parents weren't in the store, though I think either 3 or 4 were siblings.

Sucky part is management tried to chew him a new one when the parents started bitching, he told them exactly what he thought, and they invited him to the world.

[Boozy]

When I was in the cafe at B&N, we had so many parents using our kids' section as a daycare that one of the guys that worked the section got CPS in there and got like 7 whose parents weren't in the store

Seven?!

For argument's sake, let's put aside the possibility of nefarious crimes like kidnapping. It's far more likely that an attended child will destroy store property, become a nuisance to store staff, make far too much noise, injure himself, injure another child, wander off and get lost, get hit by a car, etc etc etc. These are all very real possibilities that these parents apparently never even considered.

Or maybe they just don't care. That's a very sad thought.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Yeah, I know the CPS route, but I'm talking you physically remove the kid from the location and the parents come looking for them and they're not there, so they get that lovely little jolt of fear before they have to go find them at the police station.

Again, probably immoral. But then again, so am I. Heh heh.

Though there'd need to be some care taken in it. When I was a kid, my mom would drop me off in places, but she KNEW that I would behave myself, be quiet, not go wandering off, and would kick and scream and go mental if anyone tried to touch me that I didn't know. And it was only for a few minutes while she ran to grab an errand that she couldn't really do with me tagging along (birthday, Christmas, breakable things, etc.). I figure there's a difference in that, and parents who leave shrieking, unmanageable children for hours at a time.