Why yes.... we are indeed free babysitters.

[LillFilly]

I sense a story here.

Our town as a curfew. The theater let out, but there were 3-girls, maybe 12 or so, left in the lobby. When the lobby closed, they had to stand in the closed mall. They tried calling everybody on their cell phones for about an hour; by now it was 1AM. They couldn't walk home because of curfew and it was too far. So the police had to come and give them rides home after verifying their addresses. It was sad that they were just...forgotten about like that.

And yes, to get to our mall is a couple of 2-lane streets, 1-8 lane road and 2-4 lane road. It's amazing how many little kids ride their little bikes in the dark to get home.

There should be signs or something, I agree, at least then they can't argue that they had no way of knowing.

[Sheldonrs]

Maybe you could print out some of those pages from the sex offenders web site for ones listed in your area and post them on the front door.

[Draco]

Back when I owned a toy store, I couldn't tell you how many parents we'd get who'd drop off thier kids.

"Oh hey, we're going to go shop in *expensive lighting store* or *fancy boutique*, isn't it nice that they provided a free babysitting service so we can shop?"

Forgetting the whole STORE part of the toy store thing. *sigh*

I'll need to write up some of my stories and post them sometime.

And that's when you demand they spend a minimum of $50 in the store before they leave and they have to be back within 30 to 45 minutes or you'll be calling the police.

Oh, and no refunds. <.<

[Tama]

If only they could do that...

[Kereminde]

Hmmm. I'm a little torn here. My parents did allow me and my brother to wander off in the mall to either the bookstore or the library. Mostly because my mom would sometimes lose track of time while browsing and we had nothing to keep our minds occupied. On the other hand, they did not expect anyone to be responsible . . . I think.

And yes, my mom would indeed drop me at a library for hours if she needed to run errands. Of course when I was in the library I usually . . . read the books. There'd be a stack of them I'd worked through as I voraciously had my way with the fiction section. Since the library discouraged me from re-shelving them (rightfully so, I expect) I would just let the stack grow and either pull it to returns or to check-out . . . depending on the books. I found some truly amazing books that way, which I can neither remember the authors nor titles but can recall they were really intriguing.

[candyshopgirl]

Then there is my mom....
She wouldn't leave us anywhere without first checking out EVERYTHING.....
I wanted to sleep over the at a friends house and she first had to see where they live, how the house looked (if it was clean inside) and she had to meet both parents or just the one whatever. And when I started dating dear god. All my dates had to come inside and meet mom and dad. They said well we wanted to make sure he wasn't a serial killer. Ughhh I was so fricking embarrassed, but now that I'm older I understand now. I had people drop kids as young as 5 off at the laundry mat by themselves to do laundry. The parents would say well they are doing laundry. I had to practically beg my bosses to put up a sign that said children not allowed to be unsupervised.

[emax4]

As a kid I can relate to this. my Dad would go shopping in Gimbels but he knew I'd be down in the entertainment section playing the old console games. I even remember a cashier asking me if I was going to buy something, but I asked her if I could just play games here while my Dad shopped, and she ok'd it. or I'd be off in the arcades playing pinball or video games until my Dad came and got me (or I ran out of quarters and waited for him).

The ballsiest move was when I was about 5 or 6 (1978/1979) with my Mom and relatives, and I got lost at Eastland Mall (small). My logic at the time was; instead of hunting all around the mall to find each other, I would wait outside by the car so they would see me before they leave. I had some patrons parking, wondering why a kid was standing all alone by himself. I think a few approached me too and I said I was waiting for my Mom. Years later she said she remembered that and kept saying, "ooo, I'm gonna kill that kid when I find him..", but was more overjoyed than angry when she found me.

Even then i remember learning to go to a policeman or security guard, but even these days you can't always trust those in authority.

[taxguykarl]

Back when I owned a toy store, I couldn't tell you how many parents we'd get who'd drop off thier kids.
...
I'll need to write up some of my stories and post them sometime.

Don't keep us waiting I have no doubt that you have some great tales to tell.

[depechemodefan]

I have tons of stories of kids left at the library/being hurt at the library, but this I always crack up with this one:

During the Summertime, there would be teens volunteering at the branch I was at back in 2007. The Young Adult (YA) librarian was in charge of the volunteering there. But unfortunately she either forgot or didn't read from the person in charge of all volunteering that teens less then x years (I think it was 14 years) could only volunteer 2 hours. Or else the volunteers could only volunteer 2 hours (no matter the age, ie, adults too).

There was this family that came in a lot, mom, dad and preteen and teens. The parents seemed responsible, since they were always with the kids. So the two oldest wanted to volunteer. All the kids who volunteered at the library did it for 8 hours. Now they didn't have to volunteer that much time, it was left up to mommy/daddy how much time-who dropped their asses off all day at the library so not to pay a babysitter for the kid.

sorry for the thread-jack

So the YA librarian called the boy's house. No one there. She called other numbers, no one answered. She calls the person in charge of volunteers, who told her the kids couldn't volunteer for 8 hours. Uh-oh. kids over 14 could be at the library w/o supervision, but it's against some code for a kid to "work" for more than 2 hours.

Anyway, mom was suppose to pick up the two after 5pm, so we are waiting until mom shows up; YA librarian didn't know if she should have called an ambulance, though the boy's thumb didn't look bad.

So no more of these teens volunteering 8 hours. Oh, and the volunteers brougth their own lunch and kept their lunch in the librarians's fridge.