Annoying kid...

[raine_naoe]

Okay, I normally try to have patience with kids at work, at least more than I do otherwise, but this one...

I'm horrible at guessing ages, but I would say under 10 easy at least. I've seen this kid back in electronics by himself before, trying to buy an m-rated game (denied!) so I wasn't that surprised to see him come back and ask for another one. I told him that we didn't have it in stock, and he felt that deserved a five minute speech on why he wants that game.

He wanders off, but I'm not that lucky, he comes back a little bit later and says he wants a controller, so I grab the key for the pegs and show him where they are. after about 3 minutes of talking about the controllers, he says "oh, I can't buy one." Then cue about 2 minutes talking about how he wishes they were $20. I suggest going over to the game store just across the street to see if they had a used one (I had also suggested it for the game we didn't carry too.) and go back to my counter.

a couple minutes later he comes over and starts playing with the display phones. eventually something like this conversation happens. for each of his lines insert about 50% more stuttering and unnecessary words.

kid: If I was banned from xbox live in one game, could I play it on another game?
me: (I have no xbox (yet, cross fingers) so only the most rudimentary idea how it works) were you banned from xbox live in general, or just on the game?
k: it said on my profile that i'm blocked from xbox live.
m: on your xbox profile or your profile in the game?
k: in the game...
m: w-
k: ...and on my xbox live profile...
me: 0_o than it sounds like you were probably banned completely.
k: oh, well it didn't sound like that so much...
me: what were you banned for?
k: I was telling jokes, and they were ignoring me.
me: 0_o well, you probably shouldn't be playing m-rated games on xbox live anyway since you're not technically supposed to play them (get the hint and stop trying to BUY them, please)
k: oh, my parents let me. sometimes they don't let me watch movies cause they have swearing, but they let me play the games cause they know I like guns.
me: (then your parents have some messed up priorities) uh-huh

at that point I kinda ran over to the photo counter to hide until he left.

the time i mentioned before that he had come in, he also felt the need to talk at me for about 10 minutes about the different types of guns in that game.

[b2addm]

...he felt that deserved a five minute speech on why he wants that game.

I hatehatehate that. And not just from kids, from anybody. Whenever we tell them we don't have what they want, (or can't let them have it, in this case) why do some people then feel the need to explain WHY they want/need/musthave the item in order to blah blah blah. As if we don't understand their pain at this failed shopping excursion and how all of their hopes and dreams were riding on it and if they don't get it right this minute the cosmic tilt of the universe will be forever altered and it'll be all my fault and etc. etc. etc.
Because I think they expect us to be so moved by their plight that we miraculously pull the item from our ass, give it to them free of charge and feel total fulfillment in our lives all because we made them happy!!!
Sigh. Sorry, kinda ranty but it's been awhile since I had a day off.

[Andara Bledin]

me: what were you banned for?
k: I was telling jokes, and they were ignoring me.

Wow... I wonder what he started doing after they ignored his jokes that he managed to get himself banned, 'cause diarrhea of the mouth is not a banable offense. So, unless the jokes themselves were the problem (such as racist stuff), he must have gone off on whoever hadn't muted him already.

k: oh, my parents let me. sometimes they don't let me watch movies cause they have swearing, but they let me play the games cause they know I like guns.

Yeah... Cause we all know that those M-rated games with all the guns and killing don't have any swearing in them at all...

^-.-^

[Tama]

You'd be surprised what parents will do. Or grandparents (I was raised by mine).

They would let me watch gangster movies with lots of expletives, but one day I was playing GTA:San Andreas, and some random guy said BITCH and they're like "TURN THAT OFF YOU CANNOT PLAY".

[chainedbarista]

my son tried to do a run around the end job on me by tricking his grandmother into buying him some gta game. he returned it the next day, had to apologize and give my mom her money back.

he should know better by now, but...

[MoonCat]

I love how parents like that have no problem with shoot'em games but show a bit of skin and it becomes NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT!!!!!

Speaking of annoying children...last weekend my sisters & a friend went to a nearby wildlife refuge for a walk (saw a nesting pair of ospreys!! )...Anyway at the visitors' center they had a list of "recently spotted" wildlife. Somebody had written on one line "annoying child" plus a few comments about what should be done with said child (I will spare you the details). Made me wonder what the kid had done.

[EricKei]

We had kids try to buy these sorts of games back at GameStore all the TIME >_< It was really bad whenever a GTA game came out. The funniest things to hear were usually the PArental Failures giving excuses why they let their eight-year-old play: "It keeps him quiet" was by far and away the most popular, but we also got "It's OK, I just turn the volume off" or "He sees worse than that on our street every day" (o_O I'm sorry) or "He can handle it". Even more amusing were the reactions of more cautious parents when they discovered that Junior either had tricked, or was in the process of, tricking them into buying them such a game. We didn't legally HAVE to try and keep kids from buying those games, but we did anyway.

[Mr Hero]

Thanks kid, for reinforcing the negative image I have of XBL users.

[Lots42]

I've seen a little girl try (and fail) to buy a Grand Theft game.

Bonus weirdness: She seemed to be trying to snap it in half the entire time. Fortunately she was so tiny no damage happened.

[bankworking]

I always feel bad for kids like that. Feel like they just aren't getting enough attention at home,so they try to get it where they can.

Reminds me when I was working at an after school daycare for extra cash during college. There was an eleven year old who I picked up from school. VERY active eleven-year old boy who played violent games like that at home. We passed his house on the way to the daycare, and he'd point out dad's car in the driveway. Apparently dad didn't work and mom got home around 5pm. Which the kid was quite aware of, but he was sent to after school daycare anyway. He was ALWAYS one of the last kids picked up at 6pm (or ten after. we didn't start charging late pickup fees until after 6:10). And when he did go home, it was straight to the video games, at least according to him. Guess his parents didn't REALLY want a son they had to actually deal with at all during the day.

Part of the reason I started reading Harry Potter. This kid, who was insanely all over the place, actually sat quiet for weeks reading that series, so I figured it had to be something special.