My store is not a playground

[Tigress]

A quickie from tonight:

As I was walking through the computer department, I found a woman letting her 2-year-old daughter hang from and climb on our big ladder (used to get heavy stuff down from the top shelves). Even worse, the dumb broad was encouraging her little angel in this exercise of Darwinism.

I asked the woman to not let her child play on the ladder. She shot me a dirty look and replied, "Well, I was holding her, but I'll stop now." I explained that we were liable if the child falls and busts her head open or something equally horrible. When the child said she wanted to get back on, the bimbo shot me another dirty look and told her child, "I can't do it anymore. That lady over there won't let you."

I quickly walked away before I was tempted to say what I wanted to say:

"This is not a goddamned playground, lady! And if you are dumb enough to encourage your child to climb on a piece of industrial-grade equipment, then you're definitely dumb enough to sue us when (not if) your little angel falls and hurts herself. If you're not going to watch out for your kid's safety, then I will."

Geez, what thought process would lead someone to think something like that was okay?

[AZangel]

I've seen some of those only where I work, they choose to stand up in the seat of shopping carts and make monkey bars out of the handles on the cart as well. Climbing on the counters is another option for the bored, unamused children. Perhaps you've had the little maniacs that run through the store with their mothers yelling 'Stop that honey' Like that's gonna stop them.

[MissVendetta]

Geez, what thought process would lead someone to think something like that was okay?

You're talking about sc's now, so I doubt there's any thought process involved.

[DigitalEyes]

Wow, doesn't that count as a form of child neglect?

I once had customers who let their dwarf-sized terrorists run amok through a packed restaurant. We served our fajitas on iron skillets that were heated by being placed on a flame burner until needed. (One manager told me those pans were about 400 degrees Fahrenheit.) Well, one of my customer's munchkins ran right into me on the stairs as I held a fajita pan in my right hand and five other dishes stacked up my left arm. The sheer weight of that skillet could have seriously injured that little boy if I had dropped it on his little head... that's to say nothing of the burns he would have suffered. Of course, when I chastised the child the customers became angry. I had no choice but to point out their stupidity and apathy. (At that moment all I could think was, "How could I live with myself if I hospitalized a small child?") In the end, the customers shut the heck up and forced their children to take their seats.

FYI, no court would award a law suit to a blatantly negligent parent. However, a court just might find a better suited guardian for the child, since the mother seems to be lamentably insane.

[Discourtesy Clerk]

I've had several mothers come through my line who not only allow their child to ride in the bottom of the cart, they ENCOURAGE IT. If you've never noticed, that's a rather risky place to put a child, especially when the cart is moving. There are dozens of ways that kid can get themselves seriously hurt doing that. If they were my kids, I'd bitch 'em out for it, but these brain-deficient "parents" actually want them to.

[Retail Associate]

I've had several mothers come through my line who not only allow their child to ride in the bottom of the cart

I once saw a little girl with long hair riding on the bottom of a cart. Her hair got all tangled up in the front wheel. She started screaming but the mother just kept pushing the cart.

EDIT: We don't take pleasure in others' pain, even if they are sucky.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Isn't it sad when the child is cared about more by strangers than by her own parents?

[tollbaby]

My kids have each gotten precisely ONE smacked bottom in public for doing something stupid and/or dangerous. My son decided to push a shopping cart while his sister rode standing on the front bar. I caught them at it about 5 seconds after they started, and they both got a smack on the butt. Now they behave impeccably when we're out (they occasionally whine when tired, but then I just try to get done as quickly as possible so they can go home).

[Dragon_Dreamer]

I once saw a little girl with long hair riding on the bottom of a cart. Her hair got all tangled up in the front wheel. She started screaming but the mother just kept pushing the cart.

She could have been seriously injured!

Oh, that poor, poor girl. I hope her idiot mother or someone else finally rescued her before she was.

[XCashier]

I quickly walked away before I was tempted to say what I wanted to say:

"This is not a goddamned playground, lady! And if you are dumb enough to encourage your child to climb on a piece of industrial-grade equipment, then you're definitely dumb enough to sue us when (not if) your little angel falls and hurts herself. If you're not going to watch out for your kid's safety, then I will."

I would have gone ahead and said it. The children don't know better, they only know what their parents or other adults teach them. But Mommie Dearest needs to learn that SHE is responsible for her child's well-being.

Any manager stupid enough to side with the customer and yell at the employee who is looking after the child's well-being is not a manager you want to work for.

[Lace Neil Singer]

We often get little kids running up and down the aisles screeching as their mothers shop. I just want to shout, "This is a supermarket, not a playground! Control your damn hellspawn before someone slams a trolley into them and hurts them!" Cuz that's what will happen one day. They also use the trolleys as moving climbing frames, and that is just so dangerous.