Of course, I'm in with all the top people...

[Catwoman2965]

See I don't have a problem with kids screaming - kids scream. And yes, it's hard to shut them up - BUT the entire store shouldn't be punished for YOUR problem with YOUR kids. If your kids won't shut up - take them outside. Come back at another time without your kids (have a neighbor, spouse, relative babysit them for an hour while you go to the grocery or whatever). If you HAVE to take your kids with you - well if they start screaming - take them outside until they calm down, THEN come back and continue your shopping. If they just keep whining - buy something to stick in their mouths to shut them up (pacifier, popsicle, something chewy to snack on so their mouths are busy doing somethin else).

No I don't have kids, but I have been around kids all my life and I do plan on following the above when I have kids. I understand time constraints and all but I just don't feel the rest of the world around you should have to have a headache the rest of the day b/c you brought your kids with you to shop and you couldn't shut them up so they screamed for an hour throughout the entire store.......

Oh thank you! That is a HUGE pet peeve of mine; yes, i agree kids will scream, however, in my mind, there is a difference between a child whose tired, and crying, and one that is just plain bratty. This could be a whole other discussion, so I'll stop...but if your kid is crying/screaming, PLEASE take them outside until they calm down. There is no reason why we all should be subjected to them.

However, I don't agree with giving them something to keep them from whining. To me that's just rewarding bad behavoir. My solution, and perhaps not all that practical, but i don't have kids so I have no first hand knowledge, would be take them out again, or simply leave. That reinforces the idea that if they misbehave, they don't get to stay. But giving them something reinforces that if they whine ENOUGH, they will get a reward. Just my two cents.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I suggest duct tape. XD Maybe it's for the best that I don't have kids.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Gaaah--there are times when a kid will be screaming in apparel and I will hear it in seasonal on the opposite end of the store.

Or the screaming kid's in toys and I'm in Health and Beauty or Candy--again the opposite end of the store..

I am not in any particular hurry to have kids of my own.

[Nakajo]

Our warehouse is so busy all the time that I just drown it out.

But if the kid is at my membership desk screaming, I pull out the secret weapon!

Stickers. $5 for a roll of 500 of the cheap generic smiley faces.

$5 is worth 500 quiet kids loving those stickers. They'll last me a month or two.
I know I seem like I get 'into' my job too much, but the parents and coworkers appreciate it too.

[XCashier]

I politely told said customer that my conveyor belt was broken, so she could either push it down herself or go to another till. She looked at me as tho I was speaking Japanese.

"Why should I have to push it down?" she said in an offensive tone of those. Kind of like the voice you use to tell a five year old not to stick their fingers in a plug socket. "Cuz the conveyor belt is broken," I replied. "Then fix it," was her reply.

"Oh, sure, why didn't I think of that? Let me get out my toolkit and take this sucker apart right now. It should take only about two or three hours to fix, you don't mind waiting, do you?"

I replied, "If you have a complaint about the store, then go to Customer Services." She replied, "Why can't you tell them?"

"Because they don't listen to employees, only customers. If they listened to the employees, not only would the shelves always be full and the tills always in proper order, we'd also have self-cleaning bathrooms, carts that bring themselves back to the store and trapdoors installed in front of tills to send Sucky Customers to the dungeons beneath these floors!"

[AriRashkae]

My mother and I (and my grandmother, before retiring) all drove/drive Special Needs for the local school districts.

Half the kids we got were genuine Sn: deaf, wheelchairs, Downs Syndrome, etc.

Half just needed a good cuff upside the head and some manual labor. (Hey! Farm work since age 5 never hurt me! Except the electric fence... )

My favorite was "Lets have th obviously pregnant woman (me) drive the kids that need wanding and patting down before being allowed in the building!" Maybe they thought my condition would shame them into behaving. Either way, I never did have an incident more than the little jerks not showing up for the van in the morning.

In closing, I'm for (mild) corporal punishment.