Sweetie, please don't play with that...

[Witch of Endor]

There must be a statement somewhere that says whether it's the parent's or the store's responsibility when a child gets hurt on the premises. If it's the parent's responsibility, the parent should be legally held responsible for any damage caused by a child; if it's the store's responsibility, the company should stand behind any employee who tells a kid to behave (when the so-called parental unit isn't doing its job).

I know it probably falls under the heading of things that make sense and are therefore simply not done... but this is heading out of the realm of 'common sense' (which we all know corporate and legal executives are lacking) and into the realm of 'economic sense' (because it prevents product loss and lawsuits).

[iradney]

Hmph
When I was a sproglet, if I didn't listen the first time my Mom told me not to touch something, we would either leave the shop immediately or I'd get a light spanking.
Result? I learnt to walk around shops with my hands behind my back or in my pockets, and if I wanted to see something, I could ask my Mom nicely if I could look at that book/toy/object
Of course, you can't do that nowdays, can you? Why parents expect shop assistants to do their parenting FOR them is beyond me... *shrug*

[BookstoreEscapee]

we had a little boy run into the corner of a table once. It was really just an accident, not a case of the parent not paying attention or anything like that. The table top was just barely below his eye level...they got him some ice from the coffee shop next door but even before they left the store you could see the bruise coming out right at the top of his cheek. He was fine but if he'd been an inch shorter it could have been much worse. poor kid . But at least his parents realized that, hey, things happen with kids and weren't upset with us.

[hawkchick11]

At the clothing store I use to work at, we had a lot of fixtures that were low to the ground, with really sharp corners. I should know, I whacked my knees on them about every day and always had bruises. It never failed that we had kids tear around the store, their parents completely ignoring them. The only people who could say anything to the parents or children were members of management. I was really nice about it when saying something, although parents would freak out on me for 'disciplining their child/ren'. The store manager, not so nice. Surprisingly, people didn't freak out on her like they did to me... I should have been mean about it.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I was working in the kid's department one day, a long long time ago. There was a little kid-sized picnic table and benches in the middle of the dept. at the time, and these 2 mothers were sitting there, chatting away....While their 2 daughters, maybe 4-ish years old, dismantled the "porch", (the area under the little green roof at one end of the B&N kids dept.), which housed lots of book & kit type things, and stuffed animals. Stuff ALL OVER the floor, the must have cleared every shelf they could reach. Then they climbed on the little kiddie adirondack chair and pulled some more. All while there moms chatted maybe 15 feet away. When they started climbing ON the bargain book fixture I finally told them they needed to get down and sent them back to their moms, who kind of gave me a look, but left. Guess who got to clean up the mess?

-ams-

ps I love the word "sproglet"

[Becks]

I am ringing up this woman when her five year old kid starts grabbing the wheel and twisting it in the opposite direction.

After deducing that Mommy didn't give a crap I politely called out to the kid "Please don't touch the display" Mom went ballistic lecturing me about assuming that all kids are gonna break things. <snip> During her tirade the girl twists it one more time and you guessed it broke off the wheel. Mom grabs her food in one hand and daughter in the other, with red cheeks she hightailed out of there without uttering a single word.

Oh, that's justice!!!!!!!!!

[GayleShy]

About a year or so ago, some woman let her kid stand up in the shopping cart (something that they even warn against on the shopping cart seat, not to meantion over the PA system) and the child fell out. Thankfully it was on a carpeted area, not concrete. Well, the mother flipped out, and not in a worried way. As the AM and safety team are fixing up her child, she's going on and on about how she was going to sue our store for not having sturdier carts and all that good stuff.

[Blueberry]

When I worked at my baby store, this grandmother came in with her utterly beautiful granddaughter, maybe 5 or 6.
The little girl was mesmerized by the lovely girls dresses with had.
She quietly and carefully went through them while her grandmom and friend gabbed by the strollers.
She found one she really liked and carefully lifted the hanger off the rack and brought it over to the women while making sure it did not touch the ground.
She waited until a pause in their conversation to quietly ask 'Grandma, may I try this on? I really like it.'
Grandma turns, stares at her, then me, and says 'Put that back or that lady will scream at you.'

I smile at the adorable little girl and say to her,'Oh, I'm not going to yell at you, sweetie.'
Her grandma snatches the dress from her and yells 'She doesn't know that !! Don't tell her that!!!'
Again, a sweet smile at this amazingly polite girl and another 'I'd never yell at you.'
Grandma drops the dress in a stroller, grabs the girl and leaves in a huff with her friend.

[Noelegy]

Just before we close the store, the couple comes up to me at the counter, and says, "She's five, . Is there anything we can do to make your job easier for you? Tidy up? Anything?"

"How about watching your child?" That's what would have leapt to my mind and struggled desperately to escape my mouth.

The book/music/video store had something of an odd layout in that the children's book department was located on the opposite side of the store from the rest of the books. The thinking was that the children's books could just sort of run into the children's sale video, but it confused a lot of people.

And it was hard to keep an eye on. People liked to grab adult magazines (sealed in green bags that obscured all but the title) and take them over to the kids' books to peruse their porn in private. And parents liked to let their kids run amok in the kids' books, and then complain to us that nothing was ever in order over there and it was hard to find books.

And I can't tell you how many "pop up" books we had to write off because they were torn to pieces by little darlings who never learned, as I did, that books were to be handled carefully.

[SongsOfDragons]

I smile at the adorable little girl and say to her,'Oh, I'm not going to yell at you, sweetie.'
Her grandma snatches the dress from her and yells 'She doesn't know that !! Don't tell her that!!!'
Again, a sweet smile at this amazingly polite girl and another 'I'd never yell at you.'
Grandma drops the dress in a stroller, grabs the girl and leaves in a huff with her friend.

The first word that came to mind here was 'ingrate'...ungrateful of having such a wonderful, well-brought-up child as a blood relative like that. Poor kid!! I wonder what hell she has to learn to deal with when she's at home.

[simplyanother]

Just before Christmas I had a mother tell her son that if he didn't stop doing something (whatever it was, it didn't bother me enough to annoy me), that I was going to call the police on him. I said, no I'm not. And she started to tell me oh, wait till you have kids and went on and on about it. Finally I told her, I have two of them (I do, and the oldest is about the same age as her DS). She finally shut up.

I had another mother tell her kid that I was going to tell Santa not to come to their house if he didn't behave. Again, I said I'd do no such thing. She seemed pretty surprised that I'd say that.

There are things I'll gladly play along with, but not that. I'll take the super-secret-crafty thingy they are buying and bag it behind the counter so the kid won't see it. I'll pretend to scan the bag of candy--while really sticking it in my go back cart. Etc. But I will not be the bad guy for you.

My kids are not perfect, and the way checkout lines are designed, I'm sure it's to bring out the brat in all of them, but I've never had to threaten the cops on my kids @@ (BTW the little boy mom was going to have arrested? About six years old.)

If a cashier or someone has to speak to my kids, I'm usually a little embarassed because it means I'm not doing my job properly. But I don't get snippy with the person (unless, perhaps its something totally unreasonable. Like people who want to comment on the baby's pacifier. "You don't want that nasty thing." yeah.).

I have had parents give me the evil eye when I tell their hellions NOT to mess with things. Or not to climb up where i'm bagging. Or not to throw stuff I haven't scanned into the bag. Though when they get annoyed at THAT, I just have to print out the non-sale thingy and check each and every item against it, because I can't be sure what was scanned and not scanned, even if junior only threw in one item.

[Rapscallion]

I don't understand these parents who expect CSRs to do the bad parent act, in the way of the good cop bad cop routine. What happens when the child acts up at home? Do they expect to use the threat of "Be good or I'll take you shopping!"?

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I used to date a cop, and you can imagine the comments when I met him for lunch somewhere if he was in uniform. It used to annoy the heck out him, and frankly, it annoyed me, too.

"You better behave or that policeman will put you in jail."

Way to give your kid a warped sense of reality, there. Way to undermine your own authority. Why not just tell him "you don't have to listen to what I tell you because I don't hand out consequences."

People who make other people into their boogieman are weak, impotent wussies.

[Anakah]

Quite honestly I don't have kids but I believe it is the parent's responsibility to watch out for them. The cashier should not have to play the parent. That is pawning off disiplining their own children.

I was working in a Mikasa (where everything is at least twenty-to fifty dollars at the cheapest and filled with breakables) and this woman wasn't watching her child, the child was running around and when she broke something the mother said:

"She's going to yell at you now!" Pointing at me. I got that deer in the headlights look because I was only 18 at the time and had no idea what to say.

I was glad the child was unharmed because she broke a small vase. I'm soo glad she didn't cut herself. I guess while running around she ran into a display or something and knocked it right off.

She was so scared she was crying. I don't blame the kid--if there's no boundaries, no disipline how do they know its wrong? I was just really scared that she hurt herself. I remember dropping tons of vases and glasses. It is scary and in a store where everything is glass and lead crystal, maybe its a good idea to watch your child...

Luckily for her we didn't have the policy: You break it, you buy it. But if your child does something wrong, then YOU should punish them. I can't see how they think its acceptable to have the cashier be the bad guy.

Or this one time I was working in a good sized family dollar when I heard a weird sound and noticed this cute little girl going around with one of those plastic children's chairs and was literally dragging the damn thing all over the store. Of course there was no parent to be found and she was going through the isles and pulling off as much stuff as she could.

I ran to my manager told her there's a child walking around by herself, I found her again and tailed her. I was worried that she'd be kidnapped or something. Finally in the children's section I see two women. Finally the little girl stopped in front of one of the them and I was praying it was her mother. Stupid me, went up to her and asked.

me: Ma'am is she yours?

SC: Yes. (snottily)

Me: Well, she needs to stay with you.

SC: Fine. (Grabs her daughter and storms out).

Hey, you know I was trying to look out for the poor kid. I would never let my baby (the future ones of course) walk around like that. That scares me. They'd either be attached to my hand, in a stroller or on my hip.

[karma_gypsy]

Hey, you know I was trying to look out for the poor kid. I would never let my baby (the future ones of course) walk around like that. That scares me. They'd either be attached to my hand, in a stroller or on my hip.

Well, yeah, especially with all these kidnappings that are happening lately. It doesn't take much to steal a small child away, especially if your not watching them. I've seen it both ways, parents who won't leave children out of their sight - my husband is one of these parents with his 9 year old son - won't even let him a few feet away (his son has ADD anyway, has a really hard time paying attention to anything except video games).

Then there are those parents who will let their little ones (as young as 3-4 years old) run amok. I've seen small children just blazing around the store. Playing around dirty chainsaws, tools, rickity shelves. Parents are wandering around, not a care in the world. We have to tell kids to stop running bofore, and not to play with this or that.

One young lady even got left at the store once (I can't remember if I told this story or not). She was probably about 8-9 years old. Poor girl. I was across the store when my manager said, "ohhhh, don't cry" to her (she said it kinda loud ). Luckily, manager (who was one of those doting mothers) was able to get a phone number off of the girl and call the girls' grandmother. Needless to say, girl didn't leave the sight of the manager until grandma came and got her.