The "YES" Man. Also, Sucky Mom

[Kisa]

O-kaaayyyyy......

Jody: Hi how ar-
SC: Do you have free water?

Jody was so stunned by the rapid jerk from greetings into questions that she could only repeat the question.

Jody: ......Do I have free water?
SC: ..........*drives off*
Jody: Well....that was weird.

The YES Man

CW: What can I get for you?
SC: A #2.
CW: The Deal #2 or the Combo #2?
SC: YES!
CW: Umm....that wasn't a yes or no question.
SC: YES!
CW: Sir, the deal or the combo?
SC: Umm....what's better?
CW: *explains the difference in price and contents*
SC: Combo.
CW: And what to drink?
SC: YES!
CW: No, what is the drink?
SC: YES!
CW: .......WHAT. IS. THE. DRI-
SC: Pepsi.
CW: Is that it?
SC: YES!
CW: Would you like to add a dessert to your order?
SC: YES!
CW: Ok, cinnamon twist or empanada?
SC: YE-wait no.....
CW: Ok... Is your order correct on th-
SC: YES!

Sucky Mom

A woman comes in with her son who appears to be about 17-20. Halfway through her order, her son starts screaming bloody murder, clapping his hands, stamping his feet and dancing in a circle. I was in back, with a massive migraine, and couldn't tell if he was a punk trying to be "cool" or a mentally handicapped person. He carried on for 45 minutes total. About 10 minutes in, one customer (in the most polite way possible) asks the son to please quiet down a bit. The mom goes all SC on her ass and screams, "EXCUUUSSEEE MEEEEE??? He has AUTISM"!!!!

The customer apologises and leaves. Another customer later asked the mother if she can please please please get him to stop because his ears were ringing. She death glared the guy, "LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! HE HAS AUTISM"!!!!! She then took her suck to a new low by encouraging him to carry on. She started screaming, clapping, laughing, mimicing his movements and telling him what a good boy he is and how smart he is and how silly he is.

I, head pounding, gave mommy dearest a nice long death stare hoping she would take the hint and stop being a bitch. No such luck. Now, whenever I left, guy shut up. I come back into sight, guy carrys on where he left off.

*no, I do not dislike diabled individuals. I had no problem with the son*

[Mr Hero]

Yeah that's clearly bad parenting even if the son still needs more care and attention even at a later age. Kisa you need a Hero Hug.

[morgana]

Friends of mine have a son, now 18, who is deeply autistic. Oliver, though, knows better than to behave like that in public.

Oh, wait, Eric and Opal are good parents. Never mind.

[thansal]

The YES Man

And THAT is why we are trained to offer offer offer :P

Sucky Mom

Yah, craptastic parent. Between obviously not getting help for her son, and intentionally inflicting that on others (oh, and then ENCOURAGING HIM?), le sigh.

[mikoyan29]

I forget which was which...so I apologize in advance.

Did the Yes man look like Fred Flinstone and did he have a shorter guy who looked like Barney Rubble next to him? Maybe the yes man could only say yes and the no man was on break or something?

[Nemesis44UK]

Oh dear

The mom goes all SC on her ass and screams, "EXCUUUSSEEE MEEEEE??? He has AUTISM"!!!!

Kisa - love your posts very much. There is so much suckiness going on, I don't even know where to start

I'm afraid, that I can see both sides of the story. My son has Asperger's Syndrome and I was taking him shopping. He was freaking out because the store was big, loud and very busy. It is my fault, as I should have known better, but he was crying and making a huge fuss (he was about 4), some guy walked past saying "Shut that f kid up." I was all about punching his lights out, but my wife held my arm and said "make as much noise as you want" to my son.

So, whilst we would definitely fall short of copying him, unlike the SC, I can understand that other people just see a bratty kid. It can be hard to control an autistic/aspy child and in honesty, we dread any family outings because of other people's comments.

[PepperElf]

CW: The Deal #2 or the Combo #2?
SC: YES!

To me that says he want's both.


as for the mother, i'm mixed on that...

on one hand yes i know it's annoying to have kids screaming and making painful noise. on the other hand, considering his age it would be obvious that it's something he can't control so my tolerance level would go up... or i'd just leave before i said something horrible.

on the other hand, i disagree with the mother's final response. spinning him up on purpose like that doesn't really help him... all it does is exact revenge on everyone else because of her pent-up anger. and at that point it's not even justice, just lashing out.

[zombiequeen]

Lets see, when my autistic cousin acted up in the store, my aunt would apologize to whomever he was bothering, and talk calmly to him until he started to relax. It's not that hard to calm someone down if you stay calm yourself.

[Seraph]

My first reaction to the water dude would've been to slap a ditzy expression on and say "No, but I have Free Willy!"

...wait, that could be misconstrued in today's culture.... <.<

[Andara Bledin]

He carried on for 45 minutes total. About 10 minutes in, one customer (in the most polite way possible) asks the son to please quiet down a bit.

At 15 minutes it hits the, "get control of your son or we will have to ask you to leave" threshold. There is absolutely nothing in your store that cannot be purchased within 15 minutes and it doesn't matter what the kid's condition is if he is being disruptive. That he is autistic is a reason, not an excuse.

And once she started it, she would be pitched out post haste.

^-.-^

[Bright_Star]

I used to work with someone when I was working at Wal-Mart who had an autistic child. She used to raise her voice to a near shout whenever she was speaking to me & after a while I had enough of that & I told her. She said..."Well, my child is autistic!!" & I said..OK, BUT I'm NOT!!!"
After that encounter, she avoided me. I had enough trouble with SC"s yelling at me, I didn't need to be yelled at by a co-worker.

[Cai1987]

Autism or no autism, there's no reason to stay for 45 minutes once your child starts carrying on like that. You can't expect a special needs or very young child to stay quiet all the time, of course - the guy in Nemesis44UK's story is obviously in the wrong. But if my toddler started screaming like that and didn't stop after more than a few minutes, we'd get what we absolutely needed to buy and get out of there. The rest of the world shouldn't have to put up with it.

[MidoriDelSol]

What about people with perfectly healthy screaming infants in a store? They can't control it either but you don't let them carry on. You remove them from the situation so they don't annoy the crap out of your fellow man. Letting the baby, or in this case autistic teen, carry on knowing full well it is BOTHERING other customers is just unacceptable. Would it have been so cruel to just leave? Some people are so selfish.

[Kisa]

I'm afraid, that I can see both sides of the story. My son has Asperger's Syndrome and I was taking him shopping. He was freaking out because the store was big, loud and very busy. It is my fault, as I should have known better, but he was crying and making a huge fuss (he was about 4), some guy walked past saying "Shut that f kid up.".

Ok, now that guy was just an ass. I'm sure it can be very exausting and very challenging to raise a mentally disabled child and I could understand her getting a bit upset over the customer asking her son to please quiet down. However, all the other customers guessed that he had some sort of condition and approached her instead. No one yelled at her, no one scolded her, no one was rude about it. They would politely ask, "sorry to bother you, but could you please get him to quiet down"? Or, "Excuse me, can you please try to calm him down"? Also, she was being intentionally sucky about it. She was encouraging him to keep it up, yelling at anyone who said anything to her or looked irritated, and stayed for 45 minutes even though she got her food at the 10 minute mark. Seriously. She just stood in the middle of the crowd with her bag of food screaming, laughing, clapping, stomping and praising her son. She wasn't eating, waiting for anyone, nothing....

[Nemesis44UK]

Some clarification

Whilst my wife said to my son "Make as much noise as you want" I should clarify, that we left within 30 seconds of her saying that, and it was a comment to piss that guy off.

Re-reading Kisa's post, I feel horrified that a grown woman would:

a) Carry on like that

b) Wind her autistic son up even more. As zombiequeen says, apologise to people and try to calm him down is the best course of action and is what we normally do.

c) There is no need to stay there for 45 minutes whatsoever. If my son kicks off, we try to calm him down and take him to a quiet area. If that doesn't work, then we will leave.

I think that the store management should have said to her that whilst her son's behaviour can be explained, hers cannot and she should leave

I guess that what I was trying to say is that her behaviour was horrible to the nth degree and that she should have some control and some empathy for other people.