Unruly kids at retail establishments

pipersjo

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
996
Purraise
3
Location
Home of WVU Football!!!!
So, we were at Walmart last night (that should set the tone for this post, lol) and while waiting in line to checkout, we were behind a woman with 3 children. 2 were tunning around being brats and the other 1 was little, like 2 or 3, STANDING in the front of the cart. The woman was paying no attention to him (I'm sure you see where this is going) and he fell out of the cart, headfirst. I tried to catch him, but I had stuff in my hands and so did Chris. I managed to get hold of him enough to keep him from cracking his head on the floor, but he still hit the floor and I am sure, ended up with bruises. Is it something about Walmart? You always see people screaming at their kids, toddlers wandering around by themselves, and that type of *excellent* parenting. Do you guys see stuff like that? That woman last night kinda thanked me for catching him and then he almost did it again when she got ready to leave.
 

luvmy2cats

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
4,616
Purraise
11
Location
Goshen, IN
Almost everytime I go there I hear a screaming child. I try and avoid that place as much as possible. If I have to go I do it late at night when there's not so many people.
 

krazy kat2

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 14, 2001
Messages
8,085
Purraise
41
Location
Somewhere in Georgia
It is ridiculous how people act in Wal-Mart. It must be something in the air.
I would hate to see how those kids behave at home.
I worked in a craft store when 2 women came in with an infant that could not have been more than a few weeks old. They plopped the carrier up on the top of the cart, where it immediately flipped over and wedged the baby between it and the carrier. I ran over to help, and they acted like it was no big deal. I was horrified, and dearly wanted to call social services. I was so hoping they would write me a check so I could find out who they were.
 

jack31

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
1,819
Purraise
15
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Unfortunately--as someone who works with kids, I notice that stuff everywhere. I really feel like every high school student should have to take a class completely motivated towards parenting.

The one thing I hear the most often said by such parents (that makes me boiling mad) is "I told you to stay right next to me, get over here or I'll spank you" It's not the spanking part that upsets me--its the fact that if perhaps they explained to their child why they wanted them to stay near by (kidnappers, safety, etc) kids might actually stay.

If you said to me "Leslie don't move" I'd move, whats the big deal. If you said "Leslie don't move, there is a hornet on your shoulder" I wouldn't move.

Leslie
 

badninjakitties

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
503
Purraise
1
Location
Middle of Nowhere, Alabama
Originally Posted by Jack31

Unfortunately--as someone who works with kids, I notice that stuff everywhere. I really feel like every high school student should have to take a class completely motivated towards parenting.

The one thing I hear the most often said by such parents (that makes me boiling mad) is "I told you to stay right next to me, get over here or I'll spank you" It's not the spanking part that upsets me--its the fact that if perhaps they explained to their child why they wanted them to stay near by (kidnappers, safety, etc) kids might actually stay.

If you said to me "Leslie don't move" I'd move, whats the big deal. If you said "Leslie don't move, there is a hornet on your shoulder" I wouldn't move.

Leslie
I definitely agree!! One thing I love that my mother did when raising me and my sisters was that she always told us "why". She NEVER said "because I said so." When I grew up and went out on my own I never felt like I had to do stupid things just to see why I shouldn't do them. I have thanked my mother for her wisdom in this area of raising her children and if I am blessed with children of my own, I will practice the same wisdom. I hate it when a parent tells a child to do something simply because they "said so"
 

h~chan

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
2,162
Purraise
1
Location
USA
Ugh, I hate going to Walmart, I only ever go if I want something realllly bad, and I can't find it anywhere that I look, and think they may have it, or if I happen to be out with someone and they want to go.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

pipersjo

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
996
Purraise
3
Location
Home of WVU Football!!!!
The only reason we went was because it was late and there were a couple of things that we wanted that we couldn't get at the grocery store. I just couldn't believe that that woman let her kid fall out of the cart! It was almost 11PM and I couldn't believe how many kids were running around the store.
 

buzbyjlc10

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 14, 2005
Messages
1,981
Purraise
5
Location
State College, PA and Haddon Township, NJ
OMG! Similar story on Friday! My mom and I went to walmart for a few things and as we're standing in line/leave 3 kids (NO PARENTS IN SIGHT!) each take a motorized scooter and take off in the store... they were running over people and into displays - knocking them over! AND NOT A SINGLE WORKER SAID ANYTHING! As far as I understood, at least at the walmarts at school, you have to be of a certain age (or situation) to even be allowed on one of those things! I hate when people have kids and then don't actually care for them/raise them... it's like people that get a puppy and just chain it outside by itself all the time, occasionally throwing some food at it... why have them if you don't actually want to put the time and love into them?! Ugh, people really annoy me in that way
 

rubsluts'mommy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
2,211
Purraise
11
Location
On the west side of... of... somewhere.
I've told little kids standing, or trying to stand, in shopping carts that they need to sit down on their butts before they fall out. They listen to strangers. Usually I'm working (one job is retail). At the library, when I'm in the kids area, I get little ones running around and yelling. I've told them to use their inside voices or whisper, and we also have theses vinyl upholstered benches that the kids love climbing all over... some have taken to running up and down them... I usually go over to them, if the parents aren't doing this, and tell them the benches are for sitting, not running on.

Speaking of those motorized carts? I had a kid, about ten, last week at the store who wanted something... he interrupted me while I was ringing up a customer, and I told him I'd help him in a minute. Now, in our store, we have a lounge area I call the Lost Husbands Lounge (it's a fabric store)... and we have satellite TV, and chairs and a table... I thought the kid wanted the remote to change the TV... nope. When I got over there, he pointed to the motorized cart and wanted the key... I told him it's not a toy and that unless he needed it, he was not to play on or with it. Shortly thereafter, he grabbed a regular shopping cart and backed it up... then started running with it toward the front door. I didn't have a customer, so I logged back off of my register and walked over there ... again. I told him the shopping carts are also not toys. He was a rude, inconsiderate brat... his daddy was sitting in the lounge area zoned out on TV... the women of the family were off shopping in the store...

No one ever needed to explain to me why you didn't do things... I was an observant child who watched my older siblings do stupid things and get hurt/punished for them... I knew better...

*sigh* God help us when they grow up...

A.
 

catkiki

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 17, 2005
Messages
4,591
Purraise
66
Location
Somewhere in the US
Many years ago when I was a teenager, I observed 2 little kids walking down the street. The boy was about 4 and his sister was about 3. They were heading toward where they were building a new freeway. Well, I followed them and found them in the bottom of a sandpit! One false move and the whole thing would have collapsed and buried them alive! I grabbed both kids by the hand and marched them home to their mother. I had to wake her up! I read her the riot act that her kids could have died and they probably never would have found them!

About 10-12 years later, the boy, now a teenager, knocked on my mom's door to ask if he could have a couple of pomegranates. (we had 2 trees) He asked how I was doing and that he remembered me yelling at his mom for being so irresponsible!
 

denice

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
18,836
Purraise
13,144
Location
Columbus OH
It seems like almost every year right before Christmas I will hear a story about people getting into a physical fight over the last one of whatever the current must have toy is. It seems like it is always in a Walmart. I have avoided Walmarts for years but if the economy deteriorates much more I will have to start going again.
 

tara g

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
5,678
Purraise
96
Location
On the farm
I've seen stuff similar to that at WalMart all the time. At Bi-Lo, I saw a kid standing on one of those carts that has the big plastic seats attached ... he fell right over and started screaming. The mother acted like she was aggravated he fell, and grabbed him by the arm and put him back in the seat. The manager of the store was making sure she wasnt going to cause problems and sue them because she wasnt paying attention to her kid.

 

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
I think it's just the general tenor of the times. No one wants to take any responsibility. Sometimes I think we've raised a whole generation who aren't even useful for canon fodder.

We were on a cruise some years ago, and one particular teenager was a pain to everyone for the whole week. Finally, I told his dad if he ever took the brat on another cruise, he needed to get him neutered, microchipped, and kept on a leash for the whole week.

All that said, Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he saw what his kids have done to Wal-Mart.
 

materialsgirl

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
92
Purraise
1
Originally Posted by mrblanche

All that said, Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he saw what his kids have done to Wal-Mart.
The typical clientele of Wal-Mart is just one of the many reasons I refuse to shop there.
 

carolpetunia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
9,669
Purraise
17
Location
Plano, Texas
Originally Posted by Jack31

If you said to me "Leslie don't move" I'd move, whats the big deal. If you said "Leslie don't move, there is a hornet on your shoulder" I wouldn't move.
This is a point I've been trying to make for YEARS! People act as if children are idiots, incapable of grasping even the simplest reasoning -- but they are NOT. They need and deserve to understand WHY when you tell them something... and if you give them that level of respect and inclusion, then they're more likely to understand that you always have a good reason for what you ask them to do, and maybe they'll obey more quickly in emergency situations, when you only have time to say, "STOP!" or "NO!" or whatever.

And although I have no children myself (
), this theory of mine has been borne out with my nephew. My brother used to get annoyed with me for explaining my reasons when I asked Grant not to do something, claiming, "He doesn't understand that stuff, just tell him to stop." Finally one day when Grant was about five, he piped up, "Yes I do, Daddy!"
 

carolpetunia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
9,669
Purraise
17
Location
Plano, Texas
Originally Posted by mrblanche

...Sometimes I think we've raised a whole generation who aren't even useful for canon fodder.
Sometimes I think it's two generations. And of course we're speaking in broad generalities here, because there are good people of every age and walk of life... but it's a miracle to me that most children actually survive and grow up, considering the utter lack of responsibility I see in most young parents these days.

And it's not just a certain class of people who shop at Wal-Mart. I live in an upscale suburb in one of the richest counties in Texas, where plenty of wealthy soccer-mom types shop at Wal-Mart in their cute little I-just-played-tennis-at-the-county-club outfits, and I see the very same kinds of parenting failures here too. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw a supermodel-quality blonde with a Gucci bag snatch her sobbing toddler up by the elbow and throw him into the backseat of her Jaguar. So it definitely crosses class lines.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

All that said, Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he saw what his kids have done to Wal-Mart.
He certainly would! Ol' Sam seems to have been a reasonably good guy, but his corporation has become Evil Incarnate. I try to avoid Wal-Mart, but we're just too poor, especially now... we have no choice but to go wherever the prices are lowest. But someday, I dearly hope to be able to boycott them.
 
Top