Bad parents and child thief

[Lace Neil Singer]

This happened today. I have a bad cold at the moment so have been coming to work armed with cough sweets and tissues. The problem started when this family with a little girl and a slightly older boy, came to my till. The boy grabbed at my cough sweets and said, "Can I have them?" I replied, as nicely as I could given the circumstances, "No, they are medicine." That got him handing them back. He then tried to snatch my pen, but I pulled it out of reach of his grabbing hands.

While this is going on, the parents take no notice whatsoever of what their son is doing, let alone telling him to keep his hands to himself. The little girl starts to scream, "I want sweeties, I want sweeties" over and over again; again, no notice taken. After they've packed up their shopping, the boy then takes a handful of the good bags (which cost 10p each) and throws them in the trolley. Right in front of his mother, who then acts like she didn't see. Now, I'm not about to let that one go so I say loudly to the mother, "Excuse me, your son just put some bags for life in the trolley. Those cost 10p each."

The woman then takes out the bags and chucks them on the belt, meaning I have to get up and put them back. The little girl is still whining; the boy is looking around; probably to see if there's anything else for him to steal. I give them their receipt after payment and they finally go.

[iradney]

Jeepers! If I'd done that, I'd STILL not be able to sit down coz my ass would be tanned. That's stealing!

[MMATM]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1442/use_condoms/

And that's all I have to say on that.

[tropicsgoddess]

If I did that, my parents would've smacked me till I couldn't sit.

[blas]

Don't worry, they'll come to their senses when Little Johnny starts stealing from Mummy's purse and betting his trust fund money on cock fights in Mexico.

[Forensic Waitress]

The sad thing about that story is that I can see my niece doing the same thing, the screaming and demanding, and that her mum would eventually cave and give her what she wants, sadly a lot like it is now and she is only 18 months old.

[derangedperson]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1442/use_condoms/

And that's all I have to say on that.

The first time I saw that, I thought it was going to be a leather belt commercial.

[blas]

I'm really starting to wonder where children are learning to do stuff like this, or if their parents never bother to tell them that it's wrong.

Personally, I'd tell them "There are some places in the world where they'd cut your hand off for stealing."

[Lace Neil Singer]

Strange, that was my thought. XD

What got to me, more than the stealing, was the fact that the parents did nothing. Not only did they not try and stop their klepto son, they didn't tell him off. As for his sister; I'm not very hot on child ages, but she was way past the stage where shrieking is all she can do to get her point accross; the parents should have at the very least told her to sit down and shut up while also telling the boy that stealing is wrong.

My parents would not only have given me a smack for stealing, I also would have been forced to put the bags back and apologise to the cashier.

[Fyzzle]

It definitely is easier that way though.

I have a 5 year old and it takes a lot of effort to keep him polite and respectful. Especially after he gets back from daycare after hanging around with all the other future SCs. It'll be worth it one day (I keep telling myself)

Man do they love to test limits.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

My namesake is almost 5 and I only get to see her twice a year. Her parents & nearest 'auntie' are trying to keep her polite. And it is hard. It's hard to keep repeating the 'please, thank you,' etc messages. So far, so good though.

To make it worse, she's an incredibly sensitive child. I made her absolutely bawl twice this past weekend. Once when I said 'I'm trying to be quiet, so I don't disturb your nap' & again when I gave her hug & said goodbye.

If she ever makes the mistake of stealing though? Whew, I'll be able to hear her from here (her mom's worked in retail for the past 15 years).