"let drop off junior at the library" uh, no (longish)

[Brightglaive]

Reminds me of this idiot (his name is Jeff Farnham) in SLC that went to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight (the new batman movie which is 2-1/2 hours long) and left his kid in the car. The police and fire department were called after the child had been in the car more than 2 hours in almost 90 degree fahrenheit heat with the windows rolled up on the car. The police actually walked into the theater after stopping the movie and turning up the lights 10 minutes before the end of the film. They told the audience what had happened and who they were looking for. When Jeff stood up and walked down to the police the whole audience boo'ed and threw popcorn at him. They arrested him and he's up on charges of child endangerment and child abuse.

[depechemodefan]

I narrowly prevented a ditz from using my tax office for that. She forgot a 1099 and wanted to leave her brats (boys about 4 and 6) who were already exchanging blows in the waiting area.

Long story short: I threatened promised to call the police and child protective services. The office does not have insurance coverage for hyperactive kids injuring themselves and/or each other and staff does not have the training.

I can understand a parent leaving their kid at a library or bookstore or toy store, where the kid can entertain him/herself. But a tax office?!?

[Comechatcha]

Reminds me of this idiot (his name is Jeff Farnham) in SLC that went to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight (the new batman movie which is 2-1/2 hours long) and left his kid in the car.

He left his kid in a car in the middle of the night? That's just asking for a kidnapping to happen. Glad the got him.

[jedimaster91]

The number of people who treat the library as a sort of babysitting service is mind-boggling. I can't think of any particular stories offhand, but it was far and away the #1 gripe children's librarians had against patrons.

Oh, I've got several if you ever want to PM me about it. My favorite are the welfare moms who bring their twelve kids with them--most of the kids under 10, and at least two screaming infants--and let them wreak havoc while Mommy checks her MySpace, completely ignoring the kids....and uses all of her kids' cards as well as her own and the current squeeze's. We've had kids arrested for threatening/assaulting staff, and no parents to be found cuz they don't want to deal with their little hoodlums.

[depechemodefan]

Oh, I've got several if you ever want to PM me about it. My favorite are the welfare moms who bring their twelve kids with them--most of the kids under 10, and at least two screaming infants--and let them wreak havoc while Mommy checks her MySpace, completely ignoring the kids....and uses all of her kids' cards as well as her own and the current squeeze's. We've had kids arrested for threatening/assaulting staff, and no parents to be found cuz they don't want to deal with their little hoodlums.

Yeah, we have tons of families who come in, stay all day, mom uses her kids cards to log on for the whole day, baby is in the carriage not making a fuss but the other kids are sitting around mom, and mom didn't bother to get them books or anything to amuse themselves with. So sometimes the kids are just sitting there and mom chews up their butts if they make any noise, then there are the kids who are fighting each other and mom says stuff, and the kids arn't listening to her because they are bored.

[taxguykarl]

I can understand a parent leaving their kid at a library or bookstore or toy store, where the kid can entertain him/herself. But a tax office?!?

We have a television in the waiting area--broadcast only as we're only open full-time for 4 months a year. In this case they were entertaining themselves quite well by fighting.

[jedimaster91]

And then they get all huffy when staff/security asks them to get a handle on their kids.

[Misanthropical]

My children would have freaked the heck out if I had just up and left them some where by themselves when they were younger.

Case in point. The grocery store I go to has a child place that children under the age of 9 can go to while their parent shops. It has an employee of the store in there with the children.

My little guy loved that place, so one day he sees me in the check out and gets ready to leave. I had to go to another counter to get something, so when he looked up I was gone. A complete melt down ensued, because he thought I left without him.

The employee couldn't get him to come out from behind the chair to tell her what was wrong. He only came out when he heard my voice calling for him.

He was 8 at the time. Yes, I felt like a complete jerk for scaring him, even though I didn't mean to. I just assumed he would know that I would never leave without him.

[Lady Legira]

This happened today

I walked out of the women's changing room and thought I saw a child's foot in the distance but wasn't really paying any attention so I dismissed it as one of our lot wearing funky shoes. Get down to my dept and start work only for a child to shoot into our dept and scare the living daylight out of L & G my co-workers, since I was busy with a customer I only caught glimpses of child. Child get chucked off dept into managers M waiting arm only to shoot off (we hoped back to mummy) this had been happing for about 10-15 mins on and off, kid had it fingers in the salad bar and fresh fish before I came down.

Two minutes later...

Kid comes running back round, manager had gone to look for parents to give them a earful by this time. Said child runs in to MEAT counter area and picks up a KNIFE! Manager M see it and grabs it as Manager G zooms over a scares the living daylights out of the child (scares the daylights out of me too).

Apparently the parents thought the supermarket would be a safe place to leave a child of about 5-6 for a "few" minutes while they went and got something from another shop. Erm NO, we have sharp objects and hot things in here not good place for small wild child.

[Mr. Security]

Yeah, we have tons of families who come in, stay all day, mom uses her kids cards to log on for the whole day, baby is in the carriage not making a fuss but the other kids are sitting around mom, and mom didn't bother to get them books or anything to amuse themselves with. So sometimes the kids are just sitting there and mom chews up their butts if they make any noise, then there are the kids who are fighting each other and mom says stuff, and the kids arn't listening to her because they are bored.

I do security for the main branch in my city that's smack dab in the middle of downtown and I see that a lot at the Library and then they decide to get books at the last possible second and then bitch me out when I tell them we're closed and that the staff have left and there's no one to check them out. one time comes to mind where this women who had 3 kids with her 2 who were maybe 1 and 3 and a son who was about 7 but the thing that stuck out was that the son was wearing a giant inflatable bubble ball suit . I'm serious this kid was walking around for about 1 1/2 hours in this suit and came in wearing it so who knows how long he had it on any way she came down to late and couldn't take out the books and videos she wanted and she bitched me out that she wasted 2 hours and demanded I give her the library main number so she could file a complaint she then alked out with her son waddling behind her in his bubble suit


For the most part parents don't leave there kids(under10) alone the library where I am just because where we are downtown isn't the most desirable place downtown. lots of dirty homeless drunks but one incident comes to mind. One of our female guards was doing a patrol in the walkway system runs threw the building and came across 2 kids who couldn't of been more than 7 or 8. Both who were crying and seemed a bit dirty and there were no parents to be seen. She brings the down and then her and some other guards(I wasn't working when this happened) tried to see where there parents are. Both were dead quiet and wouldn't say a word. The guards got them something to drink and to eat and one of them finally talked a bit and we found out that they got lost and had been walking around for HOURS. We called the police and also were able to get a phone number off one of the kids and got a hold of a grand parent. Turns out that these kids lived a significant wise away like were talking just by car a good 15-20 min drive. The police came and I believe the grandmother came. Turns out that the kids were friend's and both family thought that they were at the other friend place. It's amazing how much parents don't pay attention