"I am not a babysitter!"

[friendofjimmyk]

I ran into this issue waiting tables. It's amazing how many parents pay no attention to thier child as they run up and down the aisles of tables zig zagging between servers, popping out quickly behind wait stations. Not even just running around, but bothering other tables from their tables or making a complete total mess of the table they are sitting at.

I used to work for Chili's and they serve fajitas there that come out on a sizzling platter. When you would carry large trays you can't always be looking at your feet for small people, rather you look ahead of you not always below you. One server had a child dart out of nowhere in front of him and he nearly dropped his tray complete with hot fajita platter on a baby sitting at the end of a table in a high chair. It was such a close call - he was in the back crying because he was that close to dropping it on the baby.

[Mikkel]

Ree was right, I didn't mean to infer anything about her weight (and I wouldn't have any room to talk in that instance - ). Anyway, among my group of friends "heffer" is a derogatory term meaning just about anything, but usually a very stupid or otherwise inane person. I sometimes forget for the rest of the world it means someone who's a fat cow.

Incidentally, we came up with that because we generally think of cows as one of the world's dumbest animals. I don't know about anybody else, but when I look into a cow's eyes, I see a complete vacant stare and a creature completely unaware that they even exist. Could just be me though...

It is a long time ago I worked on a biodynamic farm near Bristol so I am not quite up to date with English words for livestock, but isn't a heifer a young cow (or an old calf) that haven't had her first calf? Then the cow in the story couldn't be a heifer since she had a calf .

[South Texan]

In '92 or '93 when I was a supervisor for Hardee's, we called the cops on a young woman who had been dropping her three or four year old off at our play room in the morning and coming back for him eight to ten hours later, when she was done with classes.

That story actually breaks my heart.

I can only imagine the neglect and perhaps verbal abuse that poor child must have endured while growing up. And what is sadder is that this will be the example he will have for how to be a parent to HIS children.

[Cia]

She seemed incapable of grasping that she was the one at fault for abandoning her child, and not us for NOT having a full-time day-care staff on hand. She seemed to think that the cops were giving her a ride to talk to somebody about filing a complaint against us, and NOT that she was, in fact, under arrest. I wonder if she ever sorted that out.

I guess the shiny silver bracelets the cops put on her wasn't a clue, to her that is.

[air914]

I remember seeing a kid at an amusement park that was crying and I found out that his parents had "abandoned" him there.... I just felt sooo bad for the little kid.... I also remember working/volunteering at a "kid's cafe" and watching these two VERY YOUNG (maybe 2 & 3?) boys come in - and found out they had WALKED there from a pretty good distance for a 2 & 3 year old.... I just wanted to go off on their parents..... and then the kids had to walk home - in the dark....... if I wasn't female and it wasn't such a "scary" neighborhood (at least I was scared) I would have gone with them..... I just can't imagine what I'd do after meeting the parents though......

I somewhat agree w/ the "these people should be sterilized"..... although my mom came up with the BRILLIANT idea that you should have to have a license to have a kid - you gotta have a license to drive a car, own a gun, buy cigarettes or alcohol - why not one to have a kid?? Meaning that you had to take SOME parenting lessons about BASIC childcare.... like how to change a diaper, how to feed the baby a bottle - what to do when the kid is crying...... - so that you could have a baby. Without a license, you are not allowed to take your child home from the hospital.... of course I see where problems arise with this - more people would have kids at home and if any complications occured they could die, etc. - but it may give those people who don't even want kids a good place to leave thier child - like an easy way out.... "oh I didn't have my license so I HAD to leave my kid at the hospital".... not that I want all these abandoned children either - but it may be preferable to sending them home to be neglected & abused or abandoned later when they actually understand that they've been abandoned...... it's just heartbreaking.

Has anyone heard of childhelpusa.org? They help abused, abandoned children - they had a lifetime TV movie too about how they started.... I think it was called "For the Love of a Child" but I could be wrong.... anyway they take donations and I just thought I'd mention it- sometimes the good people in the world have to "even out" the bad....

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"I just wanted to go off on their parents..... and then the kids had to walk home - in the dark....... if I wasn't female and it wasn't such a "scary" neighborhood (at least I was scared) I would have gone with them..... I just can't imagine what I'd do after meeting the parents though...... "

I think detaining them long enough to get some cops in there to drive them home would have been appropriate.

[Luna]

I've had small children dropped off in every place I've worked since I've started working at 18 years old. The worse case scenarios were at the bookstores.

Parents would drop off children - most of them under the age of 8 I'd say, for HOURS. I would get into shouting matches with parents who would walk up to me - inform me that their child would be in the kids section and I am to supervise them, and start to leave the store. Now this was a store that was no less than 28,000 sq. feet of retail space. Not talking a lil mall store.

I've called the police more times than I can count. Each time the child was taken, and eventually the parents found elsewhere in the mall, and they would come back screaming about how they're going to sue me, sue the bookstore, how dare I tell them how to raise their children, this was OUR jobs to watch their children. I smiled as they were taken out of the store by police.

I think the saddest case I had, was an elderly woman with the personality of a pitbull and viper combined. The bookstore opened at 9am and closed at 11pm. She would drop off her mentally handicapped son (about 45-50 yrs old) and pick him up at 11:10-11:15pm. I don't know what his handicap was, but he had the mentality of maybe a 9 year old. He was freaked out by loud noises. She only gave him maybe $5 to eat all day. He pissed in the chairs. He'd start screaming for no reason. Sometimes we'd find him huddled in a corner with his arms wrapped around himself slamming his head on the wall and crying, but if you tried to go near him he went berzerk.

Some nights, the mother wouldn't be by to pick him up until midnight or later - when we had the store closed and ready to leave, he would still be waiting on the curb. Sometimes he'd be on the pay phone calling and calling her asking if he could come home now. Then he'd ask us for more money to call again b/c no one picked up. WE tried calling her and demanding that she pick her son up.

The SM wouldn't let us call the cops. The old SM would have in a heartbeat. So this went on for weeks and weeks. I think him pissing in the chair was the last straw. One of the AMs even would wait outside to have a "word" with the mother, and the mother told her off.

Finally the cops were called, and were waiting with him when she showed up over an hour after closing time. We never saw them again.

[Kiwi]

Just before I left the craft store I inventoried the back room one last time, (our counter staff were incapable of noting down when our valuable or rarely sold item was sold so the counts where always off)

it was located right by the "kids craft asile" a dumping ground for kids and shoplifters

all day long parents left there kids there, and almost every single time I informed the parents of the MANY signs saying "children must be supervised at all times, all breakages must be paid for"

after coming back from my break a young girl (maybe 5) was there and I asked her where her mum was, she didnt know, so I paged her from the craft counter and the mum came and yelled at the 5 year old for leaving the aisle.... god that pissed me off, my manager was NOT impressed (my manager was a saint and a mother of 8 children) and gave her what for

still... imagine having a pathetic mother like that.... who tells you off when SHE abandons you in the "kids" aisle.... I felt so bad for the little girl, she just looked so desperatly sad, im pretty sure she had been yelled at before for the same thing

its not a crime to be a child.... why have a kid if your going to be lazy and selfish and I dont mean... ill do the dishes tomorrow because im worn out or i need a couple of hours of mummy time each week because thats NOT selfish, thats life

i mean, leave my children to fend for themselves in a world full of sickos lazy and selfish.... they are usually the ones who cant wait inline because they have a baby in the car!

[Jester]

It makes me so angry that this idiot has been blessed with children who she obviously does not want to take responsibility for and meanwhile all I want is to have children but I can't due to medical complications.

There are thousands of children of all ages who desperately need a home but don't have one. Talk to any person who was adopted, and they refer to their adopted parents as their TRUE parents. Adoption is one of the truly wonderful things we can do for children AND for ourselves. If you want children and are unable to have them biologically, this is something you should definitely consider. Not going off on you here, so please do not take this personally, but I am sick to death of people saying they want their own children and going through all kinds of fertility procedures when there are so many children out there desperate for the loving home that those people could provide them. True parents are not necessarily those people who provide the egg and the sperm, but the people who provide the love and the care and the parenting and the nurturing and the teaching that parenting calls for. I wish more people, both who cannot give birth and even those who can, would consider adoption as a viable alternative for making a family.

This is one soapbox I will never step down from.

I ran into this issue waiting tables. It's amazing how many parents pay no attention to thier child as they run up and down the aisles of tables zig zagging between servers, popping out quickly behind wait stations. Not even just running around, but bothering other tables from their tables or making a complete total mess of the table they are sitting at..

I may have posted it here before, but I have to tell you about My Hero.

I have worked in the food service industry more years than I care to admit--let's just say Reagan was in the White House when I started!--and parents who let their kids run willy nilly throughout the restaurant when others are trying to enjoy their meal and the company of friends and family, and staff is trying to work, are just absolutely infuriating to me.

So, one day, out of uniform, I was sitting down enjoying lunch on a break from work in my restaurant. Suddenly, these two approximately ten year old boys go streaking by at Mach 2. Typical situation as described by Heather above. But then My Hero came along. A guy, about my size (not large), apparently an adult with the group that had the boys (not sure if he was related to them or what, but am guessing he was their father or uncle), comes up quickly behind the two boys, grabs each one firmly by the shoulder, and in a very calm and quiet and FIRM voice says, "THIS is a public restaurant, and you WILL conduct yourselves ACCORDINGLY!!!" The two boys went absolutely limp in My Hero's grasp, and obediently followed him back to the group's table, and there they stayed for the duration. I have never forgotten him, and just wish that more parents would be like My Hero.


Now, my parents were no saints, but they did a decent job (I think) of raising three children, and we were definitely no angels. On this topic, I remember many shopping outings with Mom when I was a younger child, and while she would allow me to wander about within the store she was in, she would never dump me in one store to go shopping in another. And if it were a big store, I was not allow to wander far from her. I DID, of course, but learned the error of my ways when she located me. If I were lucky, she would not tell Dad. If I were not lucky, I had to face Dad for my misdeeds. Well, let's just say I learned my lesson quickly, and did not wander too far from Mom most of the time. Of course, when I got older, was provided with more leeway, but from my upbringing, I just cannot imagine someone dumping their children in one store while they roam about doing whatever.

And while I am not a parent, I am an Uncle, and often have one of my nieces with me when I am doing whatever. I do not dump them in a store while I traipse about shopping, I bring them with me. They are old enough to wander about the store on their own, but no when I call, they best be a-coming, and quicklike. Dump them in a store to go to a bar? Hell no. Closest I ever came to that was one time, while running errands and shopping with my one niece, decided it was a hot day (we live in the tropics) and I needed a cold drink (bars in this town are everywhere). So I went to a bar, with my niece. I had a beer, she had a soda, no muss, no fuss, no problem. I did not get drunk, I did not abandon her, we just had a quick pitstop. I just cannot believe the neglect so many of these stories show the parents capable of. Sadly, it's always the dumbest and least capable people having the most kids. *sigh*

[One-Fang]

That sucks too. Just because the individual is over 18 years old doesn't mean they're an "adult". Obviously this guy wasn't capable of taking care of himself even to the extent of going to the bathroom when he needed to. He should have had 24 hour supervision.

It must be very hard to look after your 'child' for 45 years. We have kids, expecting to be looking after them for maybe 20 years, tops, before they're out making their own way in the world. And then along comes fate and says "yeah, but you're an exception, you're going to have a nine year old for 60 odd years". It's gotta suck, and I sympathise with people who find themselves with no idea what to do with this person, especially if they can't get support for some reason.

But dropping them on a store every day??!

I sympathise with nappy changers, too. Doesn't mean I think you can leave baby on the Postman Pat ride all day.

[Spiffy McMoron]

There are thousands of children of all ages who desperately need a home but don't have one. Talk to any person who was adopted, and they refer to their adopted parents as their TRUE parents.

This is true. Someone very near and dear to me is adopted, and I honestly forget that she is, because she always refers to the people who raised her as Mom and Dad. She's even been told that she looks like them, by people who are usually quickly embarrassed.

It is a long time ago I worked on a biodynamic farm near Bristol so I am not quite up to date with English words for livestock, but isn't a heifer a young cow (or an old calf) that haven't had her first calf? Then the cow in the story couldn't be a heifer since she had a calf .

You are right on the money. A calf is a bovine-male or female-under a year old (I think it's about a year), a heifer is a female who has yet to give birth, and a cow is a female who has given birth. If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you the difference between a steer and a bull!

[LostMyMind]

If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you the difference between a steer and a bull!

I've been told the droppings makes the difference. The bulls is more full of it.

[Tria]

If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you the difference between a steer and a bull!

*Snip* Hehe.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Hmmm, professional, cheap daycare, or fast-food joint??? What to do? What to do?

Did you even have to ask? The fast food joint is free!

Anyhow, we used to have our video game interactive displays set up right outside the recieving doors. Sometimes I 'd come in for a 6-hour shift or longer and notice certain kids playing the games when I came in, and sometimes they'd still be there playing the games when I left.

Some people should not have kids.

[CrazedClerk]

Wow, glad to see this thread picked up some steam.

Personally I believe parenting is something be taken VERY seriously and I plan to be the best parent I can be for my kids. You can bet I'll never leave them in a store for the day.

And I will definitely call the police if I see someone else try and do it.