Tis the season to not have to watch your kids?

[Mamadrae]

I haven't heard a think about Adam Walsh cause my TV never leaves the kid channel unless it's time for football. Even I know better then to leave a child anywhere unattended. Only time my son has been unattended is when he took off on me through the pet store while I was getting dog food. I was chasing him all over the store screaming bloody murder the second I could no longer see him. Turned out he just wanted to see the rats a little more but still my shrieking had a number of workers running to see what was going on and one making sure no one left the building till I found my son.

[Lace Neil Singer]

When I worked in the pet section at the garden centre, there were sadly a lot of SCs who left their kiddies in the petstore while going round the garden centre. Some were well behaved and tho it used to bug me that their parents were treating the petstore as some kind of free zoo/babysitter, at least they were just standing quietly looking at the animals and not misbehaving. However, not all the behaviour of kids was as good; here are a list of the following crimes committed by badly behaved kids:

1. Getting a rabbit out of its cage then setting it loose.

2. Getting a budgie out of its cage then setting it loose.

3. Tormenting the parrot. (tho the parrot got its own back by biting the child)

4. Banging on the fish tanks as tho they were playing the bongos.

5. Grabbing various pet accessories off the shelves and throwing them on the floor.

6. Poking fingers into bird seed bags and chucking it on the floor.

There were several instances of 4, 5 and 6; two of 1 and one of 2 and 3. We never saw the budgie again; it flew out of the door. Both times I managed to catch the rabbits that each kiddie released. And yeah, the parents did have to pay for anything damaged, any petfood wasted by being spilt on the floor and the escaped budgie.

[persephone]

Adam Walsh was left in a toy store by his mother while she went shopping elsewhere. Incredible that, with all the attention given to the Walsh case, some people still do this.

Thanks for the correction. I thought they were in the same store. But still -- that's proof that bad things happen when you do this and it's not the best idea in the world!

[Eireann]

Wasn't Adam Walsh taken from a store when his Dad was RIGHT THERE and look what happened to him? What if there was no parent or anyone there? Who knows how long it would be before anyone noticed the kid was gone!

Adam Walsh was left in a toy store by his mother while she went shopping elsewhere. Incredible that, with all the attention given to the Walsh case, some people still do this.

[persephone]

We didn't call the cops, but when I worked in a store in a mall (back when I was in high school), we called the mall security if we had a minor under about 10 in our store alone. We were a toy store, but you can't just leave children there alone! We called security once it got to about ten minutes (because maybe the kid wandered away and their parents would be right there -- we would give them a chance) and they would take the kids down to their offices, where they had a secure waiting room with toys and such and then the mall cops would try and find the parents through pages, ect.

It caused some near break downs when the parents of said children came back and looked for their kids. They were start screaming at us and all we would say is "Look, your kid is not our responsibility". Then we'd send them on their way to the mall security or put them on the phone with them.

Seriously. I would never ever ever EVER think of leaving my children somewhere out of my sight. If I don't want to take them with me, I leave them with a baby sitter or the Hubby or a friend. Who KNOWS what could happen to them!? Wasn't Adam Walsh taken from a store when his Dad was RIGHT THERE and look what happened to him? What if there was no parent or anyone there? Who knows how long it would be before anyone noticed the kid was gone!

Some people just don't think. I feel bad for those kids.

[Kyree]

When I worked at the toy store we had to get a sign that said any child left unattended would have the cops called. Of course my manager was too spineless to actually follow through...so we had tons of children running around.

Back on topic. Wouldn't it make more sense to drop the kid off at the gaming store at least? >.> If you're gonna be a crappy parent, at least let the poor kid be entertained.

[WageSlaveofDoom]

I used to work for a toy store called Zany Brainy. They're out of business now, but they were sort of awesome for selling a lot of neat thinking toys. Our store was in the same sitch - strip mall with a fabric/craft store and a book store... so Mommy & Daddy would drop off their precious in my shop and go away for hours... or so they thought...

I've called the cops for kids who were in my store for more than fifteen minutes
without a parent/guardian. Especially if I watched them drop their kids off at the store.
I remember one kid of maybe five point to another who was maybe seven and try to tell me that she was his mommy... yeah, I bet his mommy taught him to do that...
If anything happened to those kids in your store, you know SPs(Sucky Parents) would try to hold you or your store responsible... but that's another thread.

[Becks]

I was about to call the sherriff

You really should've.

Child abandonment and all that.

[Mara-chan]

As we get closer and closer to Christmas, I am reminded of many minor incidents dealing with children.

I work in an OFFICE SUPPLY store. Unless they are getting school supplies, there's really no reason for children to be in our store alone. We don't really even have any game software to speak of (just some $9 older jewel case games). We don't carry children's desks or furniture. No toys.

We ARE however right next to a major shopping center that includes 2 large electronics stores, a gaming store and several major department stores and a Toys R Us.

So parents will actually DROP OFF their kids in our store while they get their kids stuff at Toys R Us! We have watched them send the kids in, go into TRU, come out then come find their kids.

Meanwhile the kids are tearing up the place.

Since when does it say "Babysitting service" along with copy center and office supplies? Don't these parents understand how DANGEROUS this could be? I have seen kids under the age of 8 being left in our store like that. The kids could get 'stolen' or they could damage something in our store just because they couldn't find a way to keep santa's surprise.

Last week there was a kid (about 7 or 8) who sat for more than half an hour (nicely behaved) in front of our store. He said that his parents said to meet them in our store (apparently they were in TRU). He started to get fidgety and I was about to call the sherriff (literally phone in hand) to come try to find his parents when he spotted them outside. I really should have called the cops sooner, it might have been fun to watch them try to explain.