This kid could've screamed for England...

[biscuitchan]

Doing work yesterday. Like you do. And a family comes in, about five people, Mother, Father, two kids and a baby. The babys probably about a year old, year and a half. She obviously gets denied something, or wants out of her buggy, because she starts SCREAMING the place down. Not just crocodile tears, but HIGH pitched deafening screams that go RIGHT through you.

Parents ignore it, of course. It's usually the best thing to do, isn't it? I don't know, I've never been in that situation, but you'd think the husband could've taken her outside or something. The rest of us just had to pretend we couldn't hear her. I'm sure she could've been heard on the other side of the shopping centre. Oooh. Colleague just says "Someones not happy...".

Not really a sucky customer, but has anyone else been half deafened on the job?

[Skank]

I feel your pain.

Also I really hate the kids that starts punching their parents because they are denied something they want.

[Tejas]

it happened in church on sunday - this really gets me going, as the church has a childrens programme. the kid screamed for at least 10 mons before it was taken out into the lobby

[blas]

I was at Wal-Mart getting steel toe shoes for my job (don't laugh, they were only $20 and they've lived up to their slip-proof/chemical proof ansi certified name very, very well!)...

Oh where was I? Ok, so I was in the shoe department, and in the distance, I can hear a baby crying. The way that the Wal-Mart in my city is designed, the shoe department isn't very far from the infant/toddler section, so the cry wasn't from too far away, but it really wasn't that bad.

Then it got louder.

And louder.

I tried to ignore it, but it got so loud that my ears started to hurt. Still the same distance away, but this baby had started to scream so loud, you'd think someone was beating it. It was blood curdling...........

I picked my shoes and walked away as fast as I could, but I heard the scream get closer and closer.......just my luck.

Stupid parent wouldn't take the kid into the bathroom or outside, she just let it scream that ear piercing scream! It wasn't just a typical baby cry, it was the most painful, shrill, high pitched, blood curdling scream I'd ever heard.....

And you guessed it. Stupid mother........10 feet away, talking to a friend.

Sorry, but some of us really despise children, and being around them is bad enough, but when you get a baby that is being so neglected in a store that it's cry is blood curdling, you need to be asked to leave. I wish the people at Wal-Mart were more gutsy and would have said something.

But if I'd gotten any closer, I'm sure I'd have gone deaf.

I realize a lot of parents can conveniently "tune out" their kids' screaming, but I don't know how ANY human being who can hear can tone that out.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I personally think that it should be made a rule that any parent with a screeching kid should either take the kid out... or be banned from the store for say a week on a first offence, more after that. I'm not being mean to anyone with kids, just pointing out that none of us innocent people are here to revell in your kid's ceaseless howling. Either shut it up, or if that's not possible, take it outside.

Before anyone says, "Well, you did that as a kid surely?" I will say that no, I didn't. My mum hated grizzling and screaming and if either me or my brothers did so, we'd get told that if we didn't quit it, we'd be taken out to the car. That meant getting a smack and having to stay there all alone. So, we learned not to do that.

One thing that really annoys me is when a kid is going, "AHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHH!" for no other reason other then the fact that it wants to scream. I remember one kid doing that at my till; the father noticed my involuntary wincing at his kid's screeches and said in a snotty tone of voice, "It's just happy noise." F*** that, I don't care if it's happy, sad or indifferent noise, it can still give me a splitting headache! Sort it out!

[Canadian In Maine]

I had a "right through the ear like a knife" screech on Saturday from a kid while I was scanning the items through.

It was so loud I dropped the item I was scanning in shock and said,"Jesus christ!". My ears were ringing for an hour afterwards.

Selfish, rotten little bastard.

[SwanJun]

<Sighhhh>

As a parent who has a 16-month old who has just discovered tantrum throwing, I can say in an embarrassed manner that I have been the mommy-with-the-sreaming-brat once or twice.

I usually, immediately, take him outside the store and let hubby finalize whatever purchase. In restaurants, we immediately ask the server to bag it to go.

There was one day, however, that I was a little slower than normal, and was eyeballed in disgust by parents and store staff.

Not my fault!

It was a kiddie-clothing store, and my little new-to-walking guy was wandering away, with me hot on his heels. A rather nasty woman swatted her hand at him (I can only assume she was trying to stop him for me) with far too much oomph and knocked him backward.

His head hit the tile floor hard with a gnarly CRACK.

Well.... My little guy started to wail....BUT...the wail where he simply cannot take a breath.

I was standing in the middle of the store holding my little guy, with my child not breathing for a good 30 seconds, panicked because...well...he wasn't breathing.

Rather than anyone asking me if I needed help, I was glared at by all there in a manner to suggest I was an evil parent.

Now...I was chanting, loudy, while I was patting his back "Breathe, baby, breathe"... There was obviously a problem...

I finally got him breathing again, threw the purchases at hubby and bolted out of the store (in tears, myself)...

So all I can say....Is on behalf of all of us who do actually try ... is I am SO SORRY there are those out there who are so ignorant.

Some of us really do try to keep our little spawnlings in check.

[Rubystars]

I was working at Famous Footwear one morning and I was walking around straightening and keeping an eye on this woman who seemed a little suspcious.

She had a little boy with her, and just as I walked past him, he let out a high pitched screech that was so loud it literally hurt my ears! I even involuntarily said "Ouch!"

I walked away as fast as I could, and watched her from the other side of the store. He kept making that godawful noise now and then. I think it was some kind of excitement noise.

However, I was shocked that a little boy could manage that high of a pitch, it was horrible.

Another day I was at Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market working and I started hearing this roaring sound from the back of the store, like some child was being horribly, horribly tortured. This went on for a straight 30 minutes or so.

Other customers were commenting on it. Some were laughing a little, some expressing annoyance.

The screaming eventually stopped.

Then the mom and a very small girl, maybe about 4 years old, came up to my line. The reason the kid was screaming? Her mom wouldn't get her a toothbrush with a cartoon character on it.

[chainedbarista]

as a parent myself, i can sympathise with the screaming issue to a degree; kids get tired, are teething, not feeling well, etc. the parent needs to stop what they're doing and attend to the child, rather than ignore the cry. kids have cries and then they have cries; parents learn which is which pretty quickly, and one that ignores either kind in public isn't doing their job.

if the child is tired/ill/teething, they need care; provide it, rather than ignore it to continue your shopping or chatting.

if they're doing it for attention, shut their ass up. others have a right to shop or continue about their business without the air raid siren shrieking nearby.

[Canadian In Maine]

In my case, the high-pitched screech was caused when the parent tried to remove an item for scanning from the death grip of said child.