Why do we care more about your kid more than you?

[Geek King]

Astronomically low? Says who?

Basic Math. The number of actual kidnappings (strangers rather than non-custodial relative abductions) from locations outside the home (retail stores, restaurants, et al.) is a very small percentage compared to the total population of children. Likelyhood of such a kidnapping happening spikes with children of wealthy parents or girls averaging 11-years-old.

I would run all the numbers, but the various sites I looked at did not break things down clearly between realatives kidnapping the children and strangers, much less the numbers on those taken from retail locations. The high-end estimate of the sites I saw, suggested less than 500 kids total are taken by total strangers from a store environment in a year.

BORING MATH STUFF (cause I'm bored )
Using worst-case scenario numbers (that I admittedly found in a short search on the net) and the estimated 2008 census numbers for the U.S. (73,886,513 children under the age of 18), the chance that any given child in your store will be taken by a total stranger is .00000677% (rounded, less than a seven-millionth of one percent). Very, very tiny.

Not very comforting to those who do have it happen, though. Watch your kids people!

[HeatherWolf]

Sheesh, I don't know where you live in NC, but in this part most of the kids are brats. They steal things, use profanity, take their parent's credit cards, and that's just what I can remember at 3am in the morning...... Maybe I should move.....

Statesville, NC. I have yet to go to the library here. I've seen kids pretty well behaved in stores, except for a few screamers here and there, but that's kids for ya.

[cactus]

We've put in a new policy saying parents are only allowed two alcoholic drinks when they visit, it's getting that bad.

I want to applaud, but it's really sad you actually have to make a POLICY about it!

[customersruinmylife]

It worse at a pub. Parents come in and get ridiculously drunk in front of their kids, and believe handing them a Nintendo DS to keep them quiet is a form of parenting.

We've put in a new policy saying parents are only allowed two alcoholic drinks when they visit, it's getting that bad.

[LillFilly]

Kids getting left for hours to play the demo games at the game stores in my last mall was a regular theme. Course the parents were pissed when they got paged. Never mind there was an arcade AND a daycare in the same mall. "But you have to PAY for that!!!"

[Willis]

The odds of a kid being kidnapped are astronomically low.

Astronomically low? Says who?

[GiftShopGirl]

Yeah, good idea. They probably took care of it by now. I don't think they do that much here in NC.. Seems like the kids are well behaved for the most part, complete with manners. (This was again another Gallup, NM related incident. I have a lot of those to report lol)

Sheesh, I don't know where you live in NC, but in this part most of the kids are brats. They steal things, use profanity, take their parent's credit cards, and that's just what I can remember at 3am in the morning...... Maybe I should move.....

[HeatherWolf]

Yeah, good idea. They probably took care of it by now. I don't think they do that much here in NC.. Seems like the kids are well behaved for the most part, complete with manners. (This was again another Gallup, NM related incident. I have a lot of those to report lol)

[Mike Taylor]

Similar problems at the library too. They think it's a free baby sitting thing, and they leave their kids in the children's section, and go to the store. The library staff would bitch about it, but never do anything.

Check your local laws about child abandonment. When I lived in Chicago, leaving a child unattended for an hour in a public place was considered abandonment. You can then call CFS/DCFS/CPS (whatever its called locally) and have the cops come pick the kid up.

[HeatherWolf]

Similar problems at the library too. They think it's a free baby sitting thing, and they leave their kids in the children's section, and go to the store. The library staff would bitch about it, but never do anything.

[Mike Taylor]

Kudos to the sup for actually scolding the mother. Why do parents think stores are babysitters?

Fixed your typo.

[Mike Taylor]

At FAO Schwarz, we used to have these solid glass shelves which we used to display product. On more than one occasion, we have had to rush to stop children from climbing these shelves. That's just the tip of the iceberg. You'd think that in an upscale toy store like that, the customers would have more sense. Not the case.

[bainsidhe]

Kudos to the sup for actually scolding the mother. Why do parents think bookstores are babysitters?

[simplyanother]

The odds of a kid being kidnapped are astronomically low. But the odds of a child getting hurt, suffocating, or breaking something, pretty damned high.

People are idiotic. How big was the bin and child? People lose all sorts of common sense when they leave the house, don't they?

[kdruboen]

similar situation

There is a letter on PFB to Barnes and Noble, about a situation similar to this. A woman let her 8 yr old alone in the store while she got drinks and enjoyed herself some alone time. The employees brought her son to her, letting her know that there wasn't a problem, but that children shouldn't be left alone. She got hers all in a twist and wrote a complaint letter. I mean, how dare the staff interrupt her peace and alone time to look out for the safety of her son.