I am not a free babysitter!!!! (Language)

[Tama]

SC comes through my line and decides she needs a new can of mango juice since the one she has right at that moment is damaged.

So she asks me: "Can I leave my kids here while I go get it?"

Her kids are two girls. One's a year old at the most, and the other's about four or five.

I say, "I don't think that's a good idea." And it's not. I cannot keep my eyes on your kids while you are looking for something.

So she GOES OFF ANYWAY!

The four-year-old skips off to look at something.

Leaving the baby alone.

Do you hear this?

THE BABY IS ALONE!

Now, I can't watch your baby for very long, and I have customers to wait on. What kind of fucking mother leaves her baby out where anything could happen to it???

Nothing happened, and the mother came back (Looking for the four year old, and getting snippy when I told her she was a couple aisles over) but...that's just a new low in stupidity.

[Legal Eagle]

and why wasn't the police called?

[raw456]

If I had been in your position, I would have told her

"No - you cannot leave your children here, they must stay with you"

Because you said "I dont think thats a good idea" All the mother heard was that you didnt say no, so it must be ok.

Not condoning what she did, merely offering an opinion as to why she did it.

Perhaps check with bosses as to what the store policy is. They may have scripted responses you can use in future.

Glad that the kids were ok - things like that can go bad really quick, and if they did, you can bet your life she would have tried to hold you guys responsible

[Android Kaeli]

I think the parents in my store think that the toys we have for sale will babysit the kids themselves and the employees will keep an eye on the kids too. Um, no, I don't get paid enough to do my job, I sure as hell don't get paid enough to watch kids.

Mother leaves a one year old by themselves at the register, expecting me to watch them for even two seconds? MOD gets called up front for an abandoned child.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

The baby was alone.

And so was the FOUR YEAR-OLD.

EW. Sounds like my Grandmother. (Believe it.)

[Tama]

I know I probably should've put more emphasis on the four year old...I don't know why I didn't...

Guess the whole situation has just boggled my mind too much.

[Cretin75]

I had that happen last week. A guy forgot his wallet, ran off to his car leaving his twin babies in the two carts. There were 3 of us near the registers. The other two don't have much retail experience on how these SC's work.

I was pretty upset about it, the other 2 cashiers weren't. Heck, even one of the customers waiting in line wasn't upset, she was more mad at me for telling the other cashiers that that wasn't a good idea.

SC lady said.. well, there's 2 babies and 2 cashiers, they can still keep an eye on them. I forgot what I mumbled, but then SC lady said something like "I have more faith in people." Ooooooh, okay... not at this store honey, we have THE highest theft. Hell, this area is known as "theft hill" by the Fedex drivers. I seriously wanted to say more, something like "ok, wouldn't you be upset if your husband left your 2 babies by themselves in the store?"

ARGH!!!

[tropicsgoddess]

What a dumbass. She's lucky nothing happened to the 4 year old that scampered off.

[Jack]

Hello, police, I'd like to report a child abandonment.

Bet they wouldn't do it again.

[HawaiianShirts]

"No - you cannot leave your children here, they must stay with you"

Because you said "I dont think thats a good idea" All the mother heard was that you didnt say no, so it must be ok.

I remember reading about some psychological studies a while back that suggested that our brains have a hard time processing negatives (like "not" and "don't"). One even suggested that a person's IQ was directly correlated with his or her ability to accurately process negatives. That could be partly why so many childcare books suggest that parents should distract their children with some activity after telling them "no" for something else (like, "No, don't play in the street. Come pet the dog with me instead.").

raw456 may be right on with that analysis, but I'm thinking that "I don't think that's a good idea" translated in this customer's head to, "That's a good idea." It might have been more effective to say, "Your children must stay with you," but that is assuming that the customer was going to accept the answer from a lowly retail peon anyway.

In any case, leaving your kids alone in any public place is just asking for trouble. When I go grocery shopping, my kid is never out of my sight. I may leave him in the cart and take a few steps down an aisle, but only if I can see him while I get whatever it is I need.

[MoonCat]

Anybody remember the story from a few years ago when a tourist from Europe (I forget which country) left her baby in its stroller outside the restaurant -- in New York City-- while she and her husband went inside to eat? Somebody called the cops. The parents said that was common practice in their home country, and since they could see the stroller through the window, they didn't think it was a problem.

[Mikkel]

Anybody remember the story from a few years ago when a tourist from Europe (I forget which country) left her baby in its stroller outside the restaurant -- in New York City-- while she and her husband went inside to eat? Somebody called the cops. The parents said that was common practice in their home country, and since they could see the stroller through the window, they didn't think it was a problem.

I remember it clearly, she was Danish. It IS common practice in Denmark but if I were in another country and I was informed that it wasn't safe, I hope I would listen better than that silly cow.

[depechemodefan]

"No - you cannot leave your children here, they must stay with you"

Because you said "I dont think thats a good idea" All the mother heard was that you didnt say no, so it must be ok.

the other day a woman walks in to the library with a dominos pizza in a box. Why security ddidn't tell her "no", I have no idea. She was asking where "passion" books were, her daughter wanted a passion book, which she (the mother) thinks are books with explicit sex. I was telling her, though, "ma'm you can't have food in here, you have to take it outside," and she kept on asking about these books. She still didn't respond to me, and security was too busy. Finally she understood what I was telling her so she said, "I'll get my daughter to get the books, just tell me where they are." So I showed her where some paperback romance books were and she walks over there to look. Instead of sending her daughter there to look.

So I'm used to people not hearing what I or my cw have to say if it's something they don't want to hear.

[NorthernZel]

I remember it clearly, she was Danish. It IS common practice in Denmark but if I were in another country and I was informed that it wasn't safe, I hope I would listen better than that silly cow.

I remember that story as well. And I also tend to think that the whole debate about the incident caused that more parents actually DID bring the babies indoors with them, or chose to eat at places that provided an outdoor patio instead. At least, that's what my general impression was when Lil'Zel was younger.

(Then again some SC's may complain how parents block restaurant pations or/and the aisles in the stores with their prams/strollers instead of parking them outside, but that's another story )

[Sparky]

I'd guess the mother's reasoning (for leaving kids at the checkout counter) is "I'm holding up the line; I can get back faster if I park the kids here."

Still wrong.