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It's there for my kid to break!
While on patrol on a CRAZY Wednesday at the mall, I heard a 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' I was just coming around the corner and recognized the sound as someone pounding on the glass of one of our claw win-a-prize games (sad, huh?). As these are new games, I ran around the corner and called-out "Hey, stop that!" Then I saw it was a little kid (4-6yo) pounding his fists on the glass; honestly, from the strength of the blows I'd thought it was a much bigger kid. So I stopped and I said very sternly and waved my finger "No no, you can't do that, you'll break our games." He didn't seem fazed and just looked at me with a smirk. I started to look around the area...
When Mom came storming up to me from the food court about 30ft away. Late teens-early twenties, obviously pregnant. She grabbed her boy and scolded me
"THAT was completely uncalled for! He's just a little boy!"
I told her "Ma'am, he was hitting the games and he needed to stop before they got broken"
She told me "Well, THAT'S what they're there for; for KIDS to PLAY with!"
I told her "Well Ma'am, he wasn't playing with them, he was hitting them, which is the reason our games are always out of order and why we just bought THESE new games."
She just kept telling me that I shouldn't have yelled at him, he's just a child, there's NO WAY he could break our games, etc. I just cut her off before I got mad and said "Ma'am, I'm not going to argue with you, just please keep an eye on him."
To which she said "I WAS watching him!" (Yes, from half the width of the mall away) I DID correct her, saying "So Ma'am, you're saying you were watching him try to break our games?"
She put her nose in the air and carried her son back to their table, raging about me to the rest of the family. As my luck would be, I was ferrying paperwork back and forth for the next 10 minutes and had to keep passing their table, hearing them make comments about me the whole time.
I admit, I was sharp with him, but my first reaction was to stop damage to the game and it wasn't until after I spoke that I saw the age of the child, so I tried to be more friendly. But the look on his face told me that he was mommy's angel and NEVER gets in trouble. My Coworker disagreed with how I handled it and said that I should have called out for a parent to collect the child. I asked him if he thought calling her out to half the mall would help, meanwhile the child could have broken the glass and hurt himself? Not to mention that the mother struck me as someone who would have complained just because I DARED to correct her child. My coworker then said that I should have led the child from the game to look for the family. I told him that unless I was sure the child was lost, I was not going to even attempt to touch them.
Sigh.
When Mom came storming up to me from the food court about 30ft away. Late teens-early twenties, obviously pregnant. She grabbed her boy and scolded me
"THAT was completely uncalled for! He's just a little boy!"
I told her "Ma'am, he was hitting the games and he needed to stop before they got broken"
She told me "Well, THAT'S what they're there for; for KIDS to PLAY with!"
I told her "Well Ma'am, he wasn't playing with them, he was hitting them, which is the reason our games are always out of order and why we just bought THESE new games."
She just kept telling me that I shouldn't have yelled at him, he's just a child, there's NO WAY he could break our games, etc. I just cut her off before I got mad and said "Ma'am, I'm not going to argue with you, just please keep an eye on him."
To which she said "I WAS watching him!" (Yes, from half the width of the mall away) I DID correct her, saying "So Ma'am, you're saying you were watching him try to break our games?"
She put her nose in the air and carried her son back to their table, raging about me to the rest of the family. As my luck would be, I was ferrying paperwork back and forth for the next 10 minutes and had to keep passing their table, hearing them make comments about me the whole time.
I admit, I was sharp with him, but my first reaction was to stop damage to the game and it wasn't until after I spoke that I saw the age of the child, so I tried to be more friendly. But the look on his face told me that he was mommy's angel and NEVER gets in trouble. My Coworker disagreed with how I handled it and said that I should have called out for a parent to collect the child. I asked him if he thought calling her out to half the mall would help, meanwhile the child could have broken the glass and hurt himself? Not to mention that the mother struck me as someone who would have complained just because I DARED to correct her child. My coworker then said that I should have led the child from the game to look for the family. I told him that unless I was sure the child was lost, I was not going to even attempt to touch them.
Sigh.
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