We are NOT Baby Sitters!

[MamaMootz]

Story

I was a cashier at a toy store during Christmas. This mom apparently left her child at our store while she shopped elsewhere at the mall.

I had a line of 50 people at least with this woman screaming at me that she left her child in the store and I was supposed to watch him. I simply paged my manager and let her deal with this lady. Security was called and the mom was hauled off. I don't know if she ever located her child or not.

Seriously... bad enough to leave your child in a store alone while you shop elsewhere, but a toy store at Christmas????????

I also more recently lived in a town that had a bounce house where all the local kids would go - I would bring my daughter there as it was $3.00 for the whole afternoon.
However, there were parents who would just drop their kids off there (I'm talking kids 4 and 5 years old) and leave to go shopping, expecting the store employees to babysit.

The scariest thing about the bounce house was they had no security at all - one employee watching the floor and trying to enforce the rules, and security had no idea which kid(s) came with which parents so it was a child abduction scene just waiting to happen.

[Lady J'ssem]

First off, thank ye, thank ye for all the welcomes secondly...

Where was it written that you had to let them listen to your PSP? What would have happened if one of them had broken it or decided that it was *theirs*?

I have a special purse/pouch that hangs around my neck and keeps my psp safe and close while I work, they didn't even get to touch the psp, I just let them use my (brandnew/cheap) headphones. If they had tried to take those, they could have 'em.

The worst part about people leaving their wee ones at my library is, it is also downtown. We get a LOT of homeless people, a lot of drunks, and a lot of just plain scary individuals. We've even had a KNOWN child abductor's/flasher in before , (course they were thrown out by secruity... one of our secruity guards still scare ME and I've been there for 4 years, and know he's a teddy bear!)

I just don't get it...

[Dips]

How many kids get snatched away or wander off and get hurt or killed when the "parents" look away for just a moment?

As some have pointed out that's very rare. That's good news because odds are that children whose parents lose track of them (either accidentally or on purpose) are going to be OK.

But what I'M going to point out now is the rarity doesn't matter to the purpose of THIS THREAD. The number is more than ZERO and the media reports things like that to death.

So there's NO WAY even the stupidest parent on the planet hasn't heard that it's a possibility. And they abandon their children anyway?

Might as well play Russian Roulette and quote statistics that most accidental gunshot wounds don't come from playing Russian Roulette when someone calls you an idiot.

[Misty]

Actually, the whole "stranger danger" thing is usually blown massively out of proportion. Your kid is more likely to be struck by lightning than kidnapped by a stranger. Now, the chances of being kidnapped by someone they know is much higher.

True, but the fact remains that this sort of thing can and does happen. Tempting Fate is just a bad idea, period.

If I was a pedophile I'd hang out where the kids are, like a toy store, video arcade or library, just waiting for an unattended child. Granted, children are more likely to be molested by someone they know rather than a complete stranger, but like I said before, why tempt Fate?

[taxguykarl]

On the other extreme

For a change of pace:
Last season (Superbowl Sunday, if memory serves), a single mom brought in her 8 y.o. daughter and the kid went to sleep in the waiting area. The young'un had one of those fevers that kids seem to spontaneously catch, so she did probably the best thing you can for that malady. Even healthy that girl is quite well-bahaved.

[labgirl27]

Oooh my turn!

I was working cash register one afternoon when this woman and her two "children" came through my line. I think it was a little boy and a younger girl.
Anyway, the parent was an atypical sucky parent... ignoring her kids, letting them climb all over the cart, letting the son hit the little girl, call her names... all while the girl is screaming and crying, mind you.

Anyway, I was doing my thing and trying to drown out the horrible noise, when I caught the little boy's eye. I'll always remember this... he turned right towards me, and stared at me...all while taking a candy bar off the shelf, unwrapping it, and putting it back.

Then he stands there and gives me that "what are YOU going to do about it" look.
Oh. It was on. It was on like Donkey Kong.

So the woman paid, and I made sure I waited until the very end for this. When she went to take out her checkbook, I politely asked her if she was going to pay for the candy bar.

"What candy bar?"
"The one your son took off the shelf, unwrapped, and put back."

Now, at this point the kid is freaking. He's got those big bug eyes, and is just shocked that I ratted him out.
I never would have expected the mom's reaction...she GRABBED the kid's arm, and started shaking him, all while screaming at him... "WHAT THE *EXPLICIT* IS WRONG WITH YOU...I CAN'T BRING YOU ANYWHERE...."


Needless to say, I was VERY happy when they all left.

[Jay 2K Winger]

My coworker CR at the wholesale club has a zero tolerate policy regarding people who abandon their kids at our food court while they go next door to Wally World to shop. I think he'll let it slide if they're only going into our store to shop, but if they walk out the door for anything more than getting their car, he'll be quick to inform them "You can't leave them here, it constitutes abandonment, and I WILL call Child Services."

Why, yes, CR tends to get angry parents yelling at him a lot, why do you ask?

Me, if I come across a child by themselves, I'll escort them up to the desk, or if I'm at the front door, I'll ask our cart guy or the food court lady to take them up to the desk and have the parent paged.

Most of the time, however, the most I've had to do is at the front door, or out in the aisles, blocking a runaway kid from escaping their parents, who are usually chasing them. Especially at the front door. It's far too easy for a kid to run out into the access road in front of our store, where we have been known to get speeders zipping past.

When the parents thank me, I usually quip, "Among the other job titles I don't get paid for is 'child wrangler.'"

[EvilEmpryss]

I saw a woman get stopped by a bell ringer today. Apparently, she went rushing into the foyer of the Wally World, grabbed a kid by the wrist, and then rushed out again. He stopped her and challenged her about whether or not she was the kid's mother.

He apologized once she confirmed that she's the kid's step-mom. Apparently she had thought the little boy was following her, but he got distracted by the soda machines.

[Crime Scene Scarf]

Both places I've worked sold pretty sparkly things. This means that parents liked to bring their children in, and have their child paw the merchandise, and then leave.

That was annoying enough when they were gnawing on a windchime that we had to throw away for hygene reasons, but when I worked at the dress place, it was infuriating!

There would be kids who had been pawing at a chocolate bar, or a lollypop, and then want to touch every dress there. The good parents told them not to touch, and had them sit out of the way, but the bad ones would find it cute!

The very worst were the people who would bring in their kids, and when we asked if we could help, would put on this irritating little cutesy voice, and say "Oh, (child) wanted to see you pretty princess dresses/sparkly gowns/fairy frocks!" Which would then result in twenty minutes of their child touching all the dresses, and then parent and child leaving.

[tropicsgoddess]

Welcome to CS! I hate those "Parent(s) of the Year" SC's. I guess being responsible for their own kids is a foreign concept to them.

[Kristev]

You will not believe how many missing child calls go on where I work. The parents simply refuse to watch their kids. A lot of the time, the kids turn up in the toy isle, and even more frequently, electronics.

But this one takes the cake: A family was walking through the parking lot. A woman on a cell phone, talking to a boyfriend and caring only about that. She had an slightly older daughter, a very little girl, and an older woman.

The older woman goes to get a shopping cart, and the little girl runs after her. The oldest girl tries her best to get her mother's attention, but cannot get her away from that phone no matter what, and she's not really old enough to intervene herself.

A car is coming, and it's coming rather quickly. Luckily, the older woman sees the little kid running in front of the car and rescues her in time, while the car stops. The family reunites at the cart pen, and the older woman tells the younger woman off for not watching the child.

Can you imagine what would've happened if the older woman hadn't been there?

[TonyDonuts]

I just know she didn't pay for them.

*sigh*

"But why should >>>I<<< have to pay for those? They're damaged!"

Something I overheard at a bookstore in Mankato, after employees confronted a woman whose child was happily tearing pages out of books. Many, many books.

[kibbles]

Now, at this point the kid is freaking. He's got those big bug eyes, and is just shocked that I ratted him out.
I never would have expected the mom's reaction...she GRABBED the kid's arm, and started shaking him, all while screaming at him... "WHAT THE *EXPLICIT* IS WRONG WITH YOU...I CAN'T BRING YOU ANYWHERE...."


Needless to say, I was VERY happy when they all left.

I would have been worried about what would happen to the little boy.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I've mentioned this Parent of the Year before; might as well do so again.

There's this woman, who comes into the swamp with her children, and they always manage to get separated while in the store.

This invariably results in us calling our version of "Code Adam," and everybody's got to drop whatever it is they're doing and hunt down the child(ren) and/or the mother and get them reunited.

I haven't personally dealt with her, but other people in the store have. Next time this happens I'm dropping some not-so-subtle hints about CPS.

[LadyAndreca]

Being that I work at an Orange Apron, which is pretty much an active warehouse, most of my coworkers stay pretty alert for younger kids. I mean, most of what we sell is somehow heavy, sharp, breakable, poisonous, or in some other way able to hurt a little kid who's just curious. Thankfully I've only seen one Code Adam called--and we cashiers knew instantly which kid we were looking for because we'd seen him toddling slowly behind his mother gawking at things. He was actually found and held by an employee before the alert was ever called, and his mother was hysterical trying to find him without losing track of her two other boys. Happy reunion, yay!

At the Bullseye, though, we had "Code Yellow" at least once a week. At least a quarter of the time, it was the kid who initiated and the parents never knew their kid had wandered off... *sigh*

When I was very little, my own parents were the type to use harnesses on us. Mine was white, my sister's was pink, and we thought it was GREAT fun to get a running start and try to drag our parents around! Or pretend to be dogs and run around on all fours barking. They got so many nasty looks, but they never lost my sister and I, either. When I was older, though, and the harnesses had broken, one of my brothers had to have a bell put on him because he wandered off so often--and did so on a vacation in Salzburg, Austria! Man, that was scary. I was all of twelve, my sister eleven, and we get told "sit here on the church steps and DON'T GO ANYWHERE until we come back!!!" and have to watch our seven- and four- year old brothers while my parents race around looking for the missing one...