The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

Its because people are pieces of trash. The other night my store had a Toys for Tots thing going on and the adults just let the kids run rampant in the toys section before a team lead had to step in and say something.

This kind of stuff drives me nuts. I got in trouble at work a couple of months ago because there was a family in the store with 2 boys, probably about 4 and 6. The 6 year old put the 4 year old in a headlock and was dragging him backwards through the aisle and they just about ran into a clothing rack. If that rack fell over on the kids, it could really hurt. And the parents were standing only about 5 feet away and didn't say a word. So I tell the kids "Please don't do that. This is not a playground." and the younger one immediately hid behind mommy and glared at me, and then started crying. Now, I HAD heard the mom telling the kids to behave a few times, to no effect, so obviously they are used to being told to behave and just ignoring it, and dad wasn't jumping in to support mom, so I think mom had just given up at that point. So little boy starts crying because the scary lady scolded him. I didn't even yell. All I did was say that it wasn't a playground. The dad said something to the kid and then the whole family walked out the door, and my boss said I shouldn't have said anything. Yeah, and what would have happened if they had knocked over that rack? Or some of the glass on the display table next to it? If they would have gotten hurt, it would be our fault for having that stuff where the kids could knock it over. And if a kid is so entitled that they can't stand someone setting boundaries, then the parents need to either make sure they have control over the situation themselves, or they need to keep their kids at home. When they are in public, they need to follow the rules of the establishment! If they don't want other people to discipline their kids, they need to make sure it isn't necessary for them to!

And we keep finding gumball packages where one or 2 are missing after this one family comes in. The mom lets the kids run all over the store while she's looking at other stuff and she doesn't watch them, and of course the kids go for the toys and the candy. It's really amazing to me what parents allow their little "angels" to do.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

This kind of stuff drives me nuts. I got in trouble at work a couple of months ago because there was a family in the store with 2 boys, probably about 4 and 6. The 6 year old put the 4 year old in a headlock and was dragging him backwards through the aisle and they just about ran into a clothing rack. If that rack fell over on the kids, it could really hurt. And the parents were standing only about 5 feet away and didn't say a word. So I tell the kids "Please don't do that. This is not a playground." and the younger one immediately hid behind mommy and glared at me, and then started crying. Now, I HAD heard the mom telling the kids to behave a few times, to no effect, so obviously they are used to being told to behave and just ignoring it, and dad wasn't jumping in to support mom, so I think mom had just given up at that point. So little boy starts crying because the scary lady scolded him. I didn't even yell. All I did was say that it wasn't a playground. The dad said something to the kid and then the whole family walked out the door, and my boss said I shouldn't have said anything. Yeah, and what would have happened if they had knocked over that rack? Or some of the glass on the display table next to it? If they would have gotten hurt, it would be our fault for having that stuff where the kids could knock it over. And if a kid is so entitled that they can't stand someone setting boundaries, then the parents need to either make sure they have control over the situation themselves, or they need to keep their kids at home. When they are in public, they need to follow the rules of the establishment! If they don't want other people to discipline their kids, they need to make sure it isn't necessary for them to!

And we keep finding gumball packages where one or 2 are missing after this one family comes in. The mom lets the kids run all over the store while she's looking at other stuff and she doesn't watch them, and of course the kids go for the toys and the candy. It's really amazing to me what parents allow their little "angels" to do.

That's one of the few good things about the US being kind of lawsuit happy. As a worker you can say "I'm sorry, would you rather me not have said anything, the kid get hurt, and then the store get sued?"

I mean, not that I've worked in retail, but for the most part, managers here seem to back their staff up on safety issues because they'd rather have a mildly unhappy customer than a lawsuit.