Omg.........scared me half to death

[Department stores *sigh*]

So we have escalators in our store and i have ranted about peoples misuse of them before. (carts and such) but yesterday was the SCARIEST moment i have seen on one.

As i was going down the down escalator i hear a child scream from the upstairs one. I look over and there is a child on the wrong side of the elevator going up!

Basically he was on the outside of the escalator holding onto the side rail as it was moving up and he kept on moving up. He had about half a foot of room on the ledge he was on and was about 3M from the top where he had NO room to move and would have undoubtedly fallen. This child was probably about 4.

Fortunatly a co-worker was going up the up escalator behind and pulled the child onto the escalator and pretty much saved his life.

The mother through all of this? Saw the child go up and told him 'I told you not to play there.' and moved on.

>.<

[wagegoth]

!

Time to call the police. OMG!

[Cedophile]

Doesn't this count as criminal negligence?

[Gurndigarn]

Doesn't this count as criminal negligence?

Not necessarily. Kids will do some of the damndest things, no matter how closely you try to keep an eye on them. This experience was, hopefully, a learning one for her child. And the mother recognized it as one. What would you want her to have done? Started yelling at/hitting her kid?

Now, a "thank you" to the employee who helped the kid would have been highly appropriate, however.

[Zombi]

Well, you know, a bit more of a reaction than 'I told you not to play there'. Had the phrase been uttered in conjunction with much tearfulness and concern for the child, then fair enough, but I think some people really just don't care.

[draftermatt]

I think it's the whole "let him do it, he'll learn"

But really as parents you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Because if she had started getting hysterical someone would have said that it never would have happened had she been paying better attention, or she should have gotten him herself.

Which is true, and should be what we are discussing instead of her reaction

[Gurndigarn]

Well, you know, a bit more of a reaction than 'I told you not to play there'. Had the phrase been uttered in conjunction with much tearfulness and concern for the child, then fair enough, but I think some people really just don't care.

The problem is, we don't know how much concern she had for the child. You can be a good parent without screaming, tears, or the other histronics that some parents have.

At the same time, I'm not saying she wasn't a deadbeat parent, either. But I was occasionally criticized about my parenting skills when I was younger by people who didn't have the full story. And now that they're older, I regularly get complimented about how nice and well-behaved my kids are. Part of that is my children-- I got a good set. But part of it is also how I raised them-- despite the occasional person who thought I was terrible for [fill in the crime].

[friendofjimmyk]

Let me tell you - if it was me - my ass would have been grass - public location or not - mom would've let me have it! And if Dad were there - forget about it - I'd be done for!

[friendofjimmyk]

OT - well, sort of - but this is funny...

When my bro and I were little ones, I believe I was 5 and he was 3 - youngins' - we went to the mall with my folks. We stopped at one of the fountains and sat for a minute - well, my bro saw all the nice shiny coins at the bottom of the water and wanted those coins - so, he reached for them and fell completely in the fountain trying to grab some - he didn't get in trouble for that one - it was an innocent mistake. But he was leaving a trail of water on our way out!

[zzapp the witch]

I have 3 children, 3, 5, and 7 years. I would have had the same reaction, only adding a thank you. But then, I make it a point to tell everyone that I'm a horrible mother, can't seem to convince my kids of that though.....defiant little things that they are.

I mean, what would you have her do? Stand there blubbering, sobbing about how her son almost won a Darwin award and now she wishes she would have aborted him because he's such a sneaky idiotic child? There's not much to do in that situation except be grateful that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and maybe the little lout learned something.

[Jester]

Honestly, had I done something like that, I would have been expecting the wrath of several angry gods to come pouring out of my father with the heat of ten thousand suns. I would have literally been shaking in my shoes.

And knowing him, he probably would have looked at me....looked at me some more...shook his head sadly...and turned silently away with an air of disappointment.

And that would have been far worse to me than the reaction I would have expected.

[Department stores *sigh*]

Wait, wait. I just want to be perfectly clear about what happened here. Said child was hanging on to the moving rail of the up escalator from the outside (ie not on the escalator itself) and pretty much rode it to the top?

yup......granted he had feet space as there was about half a foot on the side that IS blocked off (i have no idea how he made it past that barrier though) so he had his feet on something solid.