"Don't you care about my child?" (long, nasty language)

[Jester]

At the risk of going into fratching territory (and I hope I'm not), I see no problem with a parent scolding or correcting a child with a swift whallop to the bottom. Mind you, I am NOT in favor of a parent grabbing the child violently as described in the above post, nor in a barrage of blows to any part of their body, including their butt. However, a swift whack to the tush serves as an attention-getter, while generally not injuring anything but the child's pride. As I've often said, that is why there is padding down there! This is a method my parents used to snap our attention back to what we SHOULD have been doing, and alert us to the fact that what we HAD been doing was WRONG. I.e, wandering off without informing them where we are going, not staying where we were supposed to be, or any of a gazillion other things that kids do when they know they shouldn't.

Now, if the child is a toddler, there is no excuse for leaving them alone to wander in a public place. If they are grade school age, then it's smack to the butt time. A 12 year old, which is what I believe was in the OP, well that might be really humiliating for the kid (I was more prone to use my voice to indicate trouble with my nieces when they got to that age), but again, if they are doing something they shouldn't be doing, they brought it on themselves.

None of the above should be taken to say I approve of the mother's behavior in the original post. My earlier comments about her were very clear, I thought. Nor do I approve of parents being violent towards their kids when the kids have done wrong. I just think that some people have gone overboard in thinking, and even saying, that a smack to the tush is worthy of child protective services. It is to a parent-to-child equivalent of a Gibbs-to-DiNozzo head smack. As in, "Ya goof...you're smarter than that. Now shape up!"

Make sense?

[depechemodefan]

I was going to say, "parent whapping the kid's butt like it was on fire," but I meant more like "whipping the kids butt so the kid won't be able to have kids". I see some whapping on the butt, where it hurts, which isn't bad, but some people go overboard. That was what I meant.

[Mr.Customer]

My advice:

Phone the police, charge her with assault.

Phone Child Services and report that she abandons her child in stores

Get the info from the lawyer customer, he is a witness.

Sue her for: Agravated assault, Pain and suffering from emotional damage, and slander (she publicly called you a child molester at your place of work and accused you of kidnapping her child) The slander caused embaressment and emmotional distress, you have had nightmares of people attacking you at work, etc etc etc. you should be able to wring a tidy sum from her over this.

[Flyguy]

I can relate

I get the occasional "You lost my child!" call at the airline. Then I look at the ticket and find SC booked their 13 year old precious on Expedia, to avoid paying an unaccompanied minor fee. Yeah, our bad for not catching them at the gate and denying them boarding. But then you'd be calling to threaten a lawsuit since we called Child Protective Services on your ass for dumping a kid at the airport unattended.

Here's the number for our legal dept. Now get off my phone.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

I'll tell my friends about this!!

...if her friends are like her (as friends are prone to be)... good for you. I wonder what the Police would have had to say about this...

[ZedOmega]

...if her friends are like her (as friends are prone to be)... good for you. I wonder what the Police would have had to say about this...

I can take a guess.

"Suspect was arrested at 7:33 p.m. on the charges of aggravated assault, terroristic threat, attempted blackmail, negligence and being a total jizz-boiler. Miranda rights were read to her, to which she responded, 'They were supposed to <censored> my <censored> kid! <censored> you, you <long string of censors>'. Let the record also show that while she talked, our K9 units started howling in pain."

[KMCA]

Oooh ooooh! *raises hand* Can I be CC? I've never played with the video feature on my phone and I'd love to get a clip of SC being forcefully escorted from the building. Perhaps the local officers have some silver bracelets SC would enjoy.

Sorry you got pushed. My WM days were no cake walk, but I somehow avoided total insanity.

As a security guard who has done Loss Prevention I must ask that you please don't record the security guards, it keeps us from using pain as a warning about what will happen if they return, granted most of us know how to make simple grabs painful but having to justify it on camera is harder

[EvilEmpryss]

1st: Bravo for keeping your cool when the twat-waffle went physical on you. Things could have ended up much worse if you hadn't.

2nd: Bravo for your customer for stepping up and speaking up for you. Too many people figure it's none of their business and stay quiet. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and not assume he was just taking advantage of a possible assault and battery case to prosecute.

3rd: Bravo for your manager for backing you up and enforcing the ban. Way too many weak-willed managers out there who worry too much about the customers' feelings over their employees'.

and Finally: Bravo to the little girl. Seriously. She left the video game section to go to the book section! Did no one else notice this? There may be hope for her yet! Somebody call CPS and get her into a home that will cultivate that first blush of intelligence and maturation.

[Daemonmonkey]

I'm sure the full and more accurate story is floating around the site here somewhere, but iirc, the origin of that began as a misquotation. It goes something like this:

The Owner of a really high-end clothing store in London (?) determined that a small % of his customers were responsible for the overwhelming bulk of his profit -- a tendency that still applies to most businesses to this day. In order to keep the patronage of the big spenders, he felt that it would be best to "treat these customers as if they were always right". Big difference in the meaning, there Thus, naturally, it got warped over time into the absurdity we see today.

The origin is one, the actual absurdity is another. Sadly the absurdity seems to be ruling...

Welcome to CS! ^_^

Thank you!

[chainedbarista]

yes indeed; bravo to the little girl for making a better choice; there might be redemption for the future generations of this particular bloodline.

[Tama]

Hey, no fair. I'm a rabid reader but I can only read so much of interest to me before I naturally gravitate towards a videogame....with lots of reading.

[Jester]

you should be able to wring a tidy sum from her over this.

That's assuming the woman has a tidy sum in the first place. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that's probably not the case.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and not assume he was just taking advantage of a possible assault and battery case to prosecute.

Only prosecutors can prosecute. And they are employed by the city/county/state, and don't get any special financial advantage for going after one case or another. Yes, high profile cases can help boost their career, but this hardly seems like a case that would be high profile.

Admittedly, if the lawyer is in private practice, he could sue civilly, but only a government prosecutor can actually bring criminal charges. Just saying.

[mariamousie1]

Find out who she is and sue her for assault! This kind of thing makes me so mad!

[mattm04]

I'm sorry, right up until she pushed me I would have behaved the same way. Maybe even gone "Sorry, what is your daughter's name? We'll page her on the intercom."

After the push?

"No, boss, don't evict her from the store yet. I want to press charges."

Which would cue the inevitable racism* charge for hating her and her child.

*Note: Racism claim does not have to be of different races to be used.

[Kereminde]

Which would cue the inevitable racism* charge for hating her and her child.

*Note: Racism claim does not have to be of different races to be used.

"Racism is not a charge, it is a claim. And it's also slander. PULL that noose tighter! Besides, I don't hate your child, I pity them."

I do apologize, though; I handle matters differently. Notably, I respond to abusive customers by removing their ability to abuse me. Generally this is done by departing their location, or by staring them into silence if I cannot leave my station. Preferably with a blank, level stare which cannot be construed as a threat.

Practice that. IT generally makes problem customers go away.