This a grocery store not your living room...

[pudddykat]

Or your play yard. I am currently in the process of adjusting one med so I don't know if that was making me so damned tired or if it was my fibro. Either way I decided to drag myself to at least get a couple grocery items. Due to the above I had about thismuch patience. I snag a cart and head toward the water aisle and there is a girl who had to be in the 7-9 range sort of hiding behind a display and poking around it repeatedly to look down the aisle. Clearly she had no concept or care of anyone around her. I maneuvered around her and next thing I know she runs up and down the aisle. Paying no mind to anything around her and getting completely in my way. I usually wouldn't say anything, but as I said my patience was a bit thin so "Sweetie you can't run around here." meanwhile thinking *people need to learn to tie up their...uh I mean corral their kids*. She ignored me of course.

Me: *sees ramen noodles stashed among the cereal* Sigh. well that is one or two aisles over I'll put it where it goes. At least this time it wasn't a perishable stashed among non perishables. I couldn't find the exact spot for it in the aisle but at least it was in the correct aisle and section. Continues shopping *dodges running child* continues shopping...*halts* wait is that an avocado in with the salsa? Well at least it kind of makes sense. Sheesh. Ah well I am going that way I'll put it back. *dodges child* Heads to self scan. Scans and/or matches pictures and names or types numbers with no trouble what so ever cuz I haz smarts. Grabs empty basket next to the self scan stand as I roll by with my cart (bought two gallon bottles of water and some milk so I needed the cart) and puts it back on my way out to save the check out peeps the trouble.

Every time I saw the child there was no indication of who her parents were or that they were even around. Seriously? Don't get me wrong I love kids its idiot parents that annoy the living out me. She was being a child and that is why children have parents. Parents are supposed to teach their children proper behavior and supervise them. Thanks for letting me rant.

[notalwaysright]

Every time I saw the child there was no indication of who her parents were or that they were even around. Seriously? Don't get me wrong I love kids its idiot parents that annoy the living out me. She was being a child and that is why children have parents. Parents are supposed to teach their children proper behavior and supervise them. Thanks for letting me rant.

Do people not worry their kid might get abducted? Also, when did it become okay for everyone to run in stores? The other day I was grocery shopping in one of the larger stores, one with long wide aisles. Two girls (don't know age, 6-8?) were racing up and down the aisle while the person who looked to be her grandma shopped. I have a real issue where I don't move for aisle-hogs, little or grown. So instead of squeezing off to the side to let them run, I stayed where I was and they ran around me. Once before I ended up playing chicken with a little kid pushing a mini cart. I had a regular cart, and I saw the kid purposefully push the mini cart into another shopper's cart. WTF? As he was coming at me I glared at him, and he did not hit my cart. Who knows where the parent was...

[An Haddock]

Do people not worry their kid might get abducted? Also, when did it become okay for everyone to run in stores?

Obviously it's puttykat's responsibility to watch people's children. How dare you suggest someone actually watch their own offspring! THE VERY NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE!



You know if something - god forbid - did happen to the kid the parent would immediately start blaming the store.

[Racket_Man]

What gets me is this:

Parents who let their children walk home from the park only 4 blocks away (ie. Free Range Parents) get arrested or charged with Child Neglect

BUT Parents seem to think that if they and their children are in vague vicinity inside of a huge store this is OK and NOTHING will happen to child inside of said store.

Then you have the Parents who think nothing of "dropping" off their children off at some toy store or movie theater or "place" and leaving for hours at a time doing "something else" and little precious will be just fine.

This polar opposite thinking makes NO sense to me.

[Food Lady]

I see 13-year-old girls--whom I consider to be children when I think of my mental development at that age--wandering all over the mall unsupervised. Nevermind one got assaulted a couple of years ago. The mall employees are not babysitters.

[WishfulSpirit]

Most grocery stores have a security guard by the door (or maybe I just live in a bad neighborhood and don't know it) but all stores have some kind of LP person. I'm wondering if it would do any good to talk to whoever is in charge of security and say "there's an unattended child in aisle X."

[raudf]

Toy isle of Mart of Wal.. It isn't uncommon in my area to see kids taking bikes off the bike racks and riding them around the store. It's not uncommon to see a young tyke or two unpacking a toy to play with it. It's not uncommon to find a few bouncing the balls around. It's also not uncommon to see kids climbing the gondolas. What's uncommon is seeing a parent anywhere around. It's like, "Oooh, toys! I'll leave Precious to play and do my shopping in PEACE!! And if something happens, it will be the store's fault, not MINE!!!" I also imagine them cackling with great glee at the idea.

I hate my fellow parents sometimes.. err, most of the time.

[pudddykat]

@An Haddock. Good one. Wishful spirit she didn't stay in one place. I think there is sometimes a security guard but not always. It is at times like that I really appreciate what an awesome parent my best friend is to my little niece. She is not overprotective but is aware of the world around her and the impact of her child on others.

[Aragarthiel]

This reminds me of the complaints I've seen on here about parents letting their babies chew on toys that haven't been paid for, then putting the toys back when they're done shopping. It's why I made it a rule before she was born that if she chews on something, we're buying it. So far, she only has one extra toy from this (we were going to get it for her anyway though). Occasionally, if we're buying something like a bag of string cheese that crinkles, we'll let her hold it and she'll crinkle it and maybe gnaw on a corner. She likes things that crinkle,can't you tell?

When I was little, my mom used to tell my sisters and me (there were three of us within three years of each other, we could be terrors if we wanted to) "Hands in your pockets or on the cart." It kept us from touching things or running off. If one of us was being really antsy that day, she'd let us help get things off the lower shelves so we'd have something to do.

[pudddykat]

Aragarthiel proof wonderful parents beget wonderful parents. Crinkly things are fun cuz they make noise! I love the pic of your little one in your avatar. Cutie patootie! My uncle has your mom beat with four girls and one boy. My Granddad and Nan had 5 boys and 5 girls. Why yes I do have a lot of cousins.

[siskaren]

It's like, "Oooh, toys! I'll leave Precious to play and do my shopping in PEACE!!

I guess they've never heard of Adam Walsh.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I guess they've never heard of Adam Walsh.

If they have heard of that child, they'd probably think it was a Hollywood Movie of the Week.

I was 12 years old when he disappeared.

Another well known disappearance was Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979 while walking to school in NYC.

[raudf]

During the year I worked at the Mart of Wal, we had 5 "Code Adams." FIVE. One was an actual attempt at kidnapping*, the other one was "mommy turned away for a second and toddler darted out of reach before mommy could nab them,**" and three were, "I left the kids in the toys department while I looked at clothing over in Women's. They weren't there when I got back!"

*The attempted kidnapping was a father in custody dispute with the mom. I'm assuming that thanks to this little stunt, the guy lost total custody.

** Toddlers are FAST. I don't care what people say about short legs, because I swear my own toddler could create a force of magnetic attraction with how fast those little legs can move when he's determined. My oldest child has decided to try out for track due to all the running he does to keep up with his little brother. I've probably insured I won't have grandkids until I'm at least 50.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I had one of those (code Adam)called on my son, when he was about four. I looked at the shelves at a product, looked back and he wasn't there holding the cart anymore. From the time I saw him, noticed him gone, looked up and down the nearest aisles, asked an employee for help, got the code called, had him found by another employee and returned, about 4 1/2 minutes, 600 new gray hairs, and the start of heart failure. The employees were super nice though, and said not to worry it happens a lot.

Eta: I lost a bet with myself, when I first saw the thread title I was trying to decide if someone was trying to hook up a tv to watch at a grocery, or had a laptop, papers, keyboard, cell phone and all spread out around them in an aisle

[Seanette]

In the thrift store I work in, I've been approached twice by children who misplaced Mom.

In one case, I walked around with them until we located Mom (three young girls, oldest of whom was VERY watchful over her sisters). Mom was quite happy to be reunited with them (apparent miscommunication about who was going where).

In the other, distraught toddler. I got him hugged and calmed, then involved the manager on duty. We found out Mom's first name, then paged her to the front with a nicely generic "your party is waiting for you". VERY relieved Mom rushed to the front to claim the little guy, who'd slipped away when she was browsing (he was supposed to be right with her, but we all know about toddler attention spans).

In both cases, I was quite happy to see that the kid(s) in question knew to go to an employee of the store for help. My being female and middle-aged probably made me a little more "this person would be able to help me" than some of my coworkers, and I do notice and keep track of children in my vicinity anyway.