A newly developing pet peeve (a rant)

[king4aday]

Ok so I am finding myself having a new pet peeve which has been really irritating lately. I'm not sure if anyone else here has had this experience but it has been happening more and more to me EVERY day.

Here is what it is...Parents who use me to make their kid behave. I'm sorry, I don't have the time to reinforce what you say to your kid so you don't look like a bad mommy or daddy..

For instance today I had one mother come in and say "you better behave or the mean underwear guy there will throw you out and I will never see you again!" So for the rest of the time they were in the store, the kids were absoloutley terrified of me.

Then later, this grandmother asked me in a loud voice so her grandkids could hear: "What does your store policy say about children running in the store?" My response: "absolutley nothing...kids can be kids as far as policy is concerned." The woman just gave me a death glare and hissed that it wouldn't hurt to help parents and grandparents out once in a while. Sorry, again...thats not my job (I didn't say this). The woman left making note that she WILL be contacting my corporate offices to file a formal complaint and she will NEVER return.

There may have been some suck on my part with the last instance, BUT I'm getting really sick of being the bad guy so parents can be the friends.

Sorry just a little rant....

[JLG]

Happens to me also. Parents will lets their kids play with a toy just to shut them up while they shop and have no intention of buying it for them.

Then when they are checking out they say to their kids "Give that toy back to the lady or she is going to get really mad at you. You can't have the toy because it belongs to the lady." Or they want me to be the one that grabs it out of their clutched hands as they are screaming.

Seriously, a one year old does not think that once they are handed a pretty, shiny new toy that it is not theirs to keep.

Sometimes they toy is handed back wet and chewed on

[Sheldonrs]

..."What does your store policy say about children running in the store?" My response: ...

"We shoot the parent or guardian and use the skins to make the underwear."

[king4aday]

"We shoot the parent or guardian and use the skins to make the underwear."

LOL I would LOVE to use that line

[jjllbb]

Ugh! Tell me about it! When I was 16 I had some hag scream at me because I didn't correctly recite this mini-script she gave me about how mommies and daddies pick out things in the store and then tell santa(because her kids were right there).

If you don't want them to know yet don't go shopping for the presents with them! Or at the very least don't suck me into your stupid facade. I don't have enough to worry about? Let's just add on the potential destruction of their childhoods? But god forbid something ring up slightly more expensive while i'm trying to explain the complicated inner workings of santa's toy factory.

gdmn it!

Long Story Short: I sympathize

[BlaqueKatt]

Seriously, a one year old does not think that once they are handed a pretty, shiny new toy that it is not theirs to keep.

Sometimes they toy is handed back wet and chewed on

and this is why I always grabbed two of something if my son really wanted something-he'd scream if you took something away from him(autism-not bad parenting)-he very rarely wanted anything(wouldn't touch anything unless it was handed directly to him-but you could see the look in his eyes change when he wanted something-and his hands would clench) so when he reacted in a certain manner towards something I got it for him.

[Megg]

Okay, I pulled the "pick the things out at the store so we can tell Santa what to bring" with my daughter last year, but she was 4 and I did not involve any employees. That's just nuts! Argh ... what ever happened to parenting your kids? /sigh I hate most people so much. (Oh, and for those interested, I totally got away with it too. I won't be trying it again this year, she's WAY too smart. )

[sms001]

I feel for you king4aday - I've been made the boogieman on several occasions. It's sheer laziness on the parent's part.

Slightly off topic, but my favorite store policy was a posted sign in a coffee/gift shop in Door County:

"Unattended children will be given an espresso and a puppy."

[king4aday]

Slightly off topic, but my favorite store policy was a posted sign in a coffee/gift shop in Door County:

"Unattended children will be given an espresso and a puppy."

Off Topic: Door county? Must be another wisconsinite..same here I'm in the big waterpark area

Back on topic: I guess this has just been bugging me more and more because it seems as though its becoming more common...meaning almost every day...

I don't know if it happened a lot before and I just didn't really notice...but whatever.

[LadyAndreca]

Okay, I pulled the "pick the things out at the store so we can tell Santa what to bring" with my daughter last year, but she was 4 and I did not involve any employees. That's just nuts! Argh ... what ever happened to parenting your kids? /sigh I hate most people so much. (Oh, and for those interested, I totally got away with it too. I won't be trying it again this year, she's WAY too smart. )

My parents were sneakier...they brought my sister and I to the toy store and told us to "think of what we most wanted for Christmas, and we'll give it to poor kids that don't have Christmas presents, think of how happy they'll be!". Then bought the presents right in front of us, brought them home and had us help wrap them, and then stashed them out of sight until Christmas, when every toy we'd picked out was waiting for us under the tree.

It's kind of funny, but to this day, I still MAKE room in my holiday budget for a small teddy bear for the Toys For Tots bin...