"Can you watch my kids for me?"

[flyonthewall]

So I had to emerge from my safe haven, BOH the other day to fetch an item. There is a deadline and this task has to be finished quickly and correctly. I grab the item and am about to turn around to start running towards safety when this happens:

"Have you seen my child?"
"Can you watch my children?"
"My child may leave the store!"
"My child has left the store!"
"BTW, can you watch my children?"
"I need to go to the bathroom, watch my kids!"

Me:

All from the same woman in a one minute time frame. WTH.

I was confused about what she was saying. I started with:
"There are guards at every door, they would not allow a minor to leave the store without the adult they came in with." After some more ramblings and finally getting her to back off, I do a final brush off with "Would you like me to call a sales associate over the help you?" Somehow, I flee. Turns out she'd been pestering the entire retail team about the same thing. >.<

SOOO, has anyone asked you to watch their children while you are working?

[Strathclyde]

People don't ask at my store (a pet store), they kind of just assume. We have had lots of kids wandering around on their own with no parent in sight. Sometimes the parent isn't even in the store as far as I can tell.

It's especially fun when the run around upsetting the dogs we are taking care of or asking for free stuff.

[Shyla]

Was there an actual child? She seems to have problems.

[notalwaysright]

Has anyone actually asked? Noooo. They just walk away, leaving the child in the cart or stroller. I mean, I'm cutting their fabric and they're like "oh I forgot this item I must have!" and dart away, without the child. I'm like ??? Once I stopped a lady, because the child kept trying to stand up and I was concerned he would fall out of the cart. She did that condescending sigh, like I was being silly.

But seriously, people make no sense. I bet they would never let their kid be outside by themselves, and their house is probably hardcore child-proofed, yet they think nothing of parking a stroller and wandering down an aisle. Also, this happens almost every day. A little toddler, barely able to walk is trying to follow his parent down the main aisle. The parent is walking at a normal pace (too fast for child) and not watching to see if the child is even in sight. I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world, but it just baffles me.

[Arcus]

I did when I was working in an arcade. I would tell them no and try not to laugh when they try to tell me that it's my job. Sorry. I was an arcade attendant not a baby sitter. More so on a busy day when I'm almost running trying to take care of everything in the store. When they tell me that they are leaving their kid and I better watch them, I would tell them I'll watch them until security can get there to pick them up (and they always called the police to report a "lost child".) Oh the outrage that I would dare threaten to turn them in.

[Kanalah]

I owned a toy store for a while. At least once a week I'd get a kid dropped off while the parent(s) shopped at another store. My shop was between a ladies clothing store and a fancy light fixture store. Sometimes I'd get a dirty look. There was one dad who would bring in his daughter and stand in the corner and read a paper and I was supposed to play toys with her.

[raudf]

I was a den leader... that should explain it all. Fortunately, my den was too young to be left, so I would get one parent who would pay the dues, show up a couple of times, attempt to leave their kid... only to be cock blocked (seriously in one case) and told, "No. Tigers are required by scouting policy to have a parent here, interacting. If you can not do that, then I suggest hiring an actual babysitter."

Apparently, our dues for one month were cheaper than the babysitter. We were looking at raising our dues to reflex that

[Ironclad Alibi]

It is once again time to reveal an insight from the Acts of the Gord.

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 27: Wherein The Gord proclaims he is not a babysitter.

[Kheldarson]

It is once again time to reveal an insight from the Acts of the Gord.

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 27: Wherein The Gord proclaims he is not a babysitter.

All hail the Gord!

[EricKei]

All hail the Gord!

intones a chant "Door's to your leeeeeeeft..."

[Kogarashi]

I only recall seeing it done once while in retail, with a couple kids left by the claw games and similar at the front of the store while the dad was goodness-knows-where. No, he didn't ask. At least the kids were in the ballpark of 8 or so years old. Better than very little ones.

I will occasionally park my cart in one place while I duck down an aisle to get something. The difference being that usually I have all three kids with me (ages 8, 6, and 4 right now), and I'm always within sight and 100 feet of the cart. And I only do this when the aisle I want to get something in is already very crowded and not really feasible for pushing yet another cart and two tired and rowdy grade-schoolers down. I would never dream of asking a store employee to watch my kids for me.

[Kheldarson]

intones a chant "Door's to your leeeeeeeft..."

"Account forwarded to collections...."

[AnaKhouri]

People looove to dump their kids in the kids' section of the bookstore and wander off. My 'favorite' was the family at old bookstore who would drop their kids off and go to a nearby restaurant to eat dinner. There were 5 kids, the oldest maybe 12, and he was supposed to watch all of them for a couple hours, in a public place. He tried hard, I admit, but I hated the parents for putting him in that position. One night as we were closing up (at 11 pm, mind you) he came to the manager and sheepishly said his parents had dropped them off, and now the store was closing and he didn't know where they were. The manager had to call around to several nearby restaurants before finding them. The mother breezed in 20 minutes (!) later and then had the audacity to demand that we look up and order a book for her- 20 minutes after closing. Luckily all the computers were already off. Did she apologize? Ha.

[An Haddock]

It is once again time to reveal an insight from the Acts of the Gord.

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 27: Wherein The Gord proclaims he is not a babysitter.

Came here to post this.


My store is too small for a child to get "abandoned" like they could in a department store, but that doesn't seem to stop parents from not paying attention to their special snowflake while talking to me.

Like the one who was about to yank on a video cable on a CRT monitor above their head on a shelf which would have crushed said snowflake.

Or my favorite was when I thought it would be fun to put a lawn chair and beach ball in our front window - not counting on EVERY small child thinking it was okay to crawl through our front window to play with it, ending with one of them knocking a laptop off its stand.

The beachball was summarily dispatched thereafter.

[wolfie]

One night as we were closing up (at 11 pm, mind you) he came to the manager and sheepishly said his parents had dropped them off, and now the store was closing and he didn't know where they were. The manager had to call around to several nearby restaurants before finding them.

Bad move on the manager's part - he should have called the police to report abandoned children. Maybe that would be a "wake-up" call for the sperm- and egg-donors (wouldn't be right to call them "parents").