My name is Cijay, you're very welcome to use it.
Thank you, but I will continue to use the customary for discussion boards OP to refer to an
Original
Poster.
Yes I've learned here. Wait until a child is severely injured before calling anyone, never mind this ounce of prevention crap. Don't help lost kids even if it's my job. Page security ... oh wait, that's me, never mind. Don't talk to random strangers...ever.
Hyperbole. You are making this all about the worst possible scenario. Back to the child at the table. What was happening there? What was happening that needed you to step in for an "ounce of prevention crap." The mother left the child playing at a table and you took it upon yourself to engage a 5 year old in conversation. Which by the way, is nowhere in the same category of for instance, engaging another adult sitting at the table on the other side of you. An adult to adult conversation - great. A 53 year old woman trying to start a conversation with a 5 year old sitting alone at a table after you knew the mother left for a minute to get food, (you even knew where she went, McDonalds); weird and for some parents, very creepy.
The child on the escalator, you were not even at work in all these jobs you work at, therefore, you were not security there. If you thought that an ounce of prevention crap was needed, why didn't you call mall security?
Kids staying with their parents is company policy, not mine. I'm with you. If the kid isn't being destructive, let them play or sit with a book. But my business *IS* following company policy. Do you know the crap our store would be in if a kid got hurt or taken out of our store? That's nothing compared to how I would feel. I hate seeing kids fall down! However, if a parent is going to mess her pants in fear for her child, why would she leave them alone? That's my question. That has been my question all along. I recognise parents are different but why wouldn't the anal parents keep their kids with them? You see, they WERE the ones afraid of the gun and drug selling hoodlums around. That's why I am wondering why they left their kids alone.
Your question does not really make sense. The lady at the mall, her daughter was taught not to talk to strangers. Yet when she returned, her 5 year old
was talking to a strange older woman, which the mother realized is not a normal thing an older woman would do. So, of course she would admonish her child for breaking the rules. I don't get your confusion there. The child was to sit at the table and not talk to strangers. She did talk to a stranger, breaking her rules, so she was admonished. I don't see any crapping the pants there, just a mother reinforcing her rules to a child who broke them.
The mother in your store was probably just worried that her child was not where she told the child to stay. Her worry, unfortunately, was probably taken out on you. Not ok, but it happens. And for all you know, the mother was scared out of her wits and after that, never, ever left her child alone again. As a parent, sometimes you make mistakes. Maybe she thought her child was ready for the toy section.
Yes, I took the bus (train didn't come along 'til later) when I was six but my mother wasn't the type to tell me to fear strangers. Be wary and talk to a store clerk if you need help. I talked to strangers, just didn't go with them or take anything from them.
And yet, you keep going on and on about how dangerous your mall is, something about ounces of protection, and that the mother was wrong to go waaayyy over to McDonald's. So what is it? Should children be allowed to have freedom at 6, or should parents have them with them at all times? You have said both.
But as I said in my first post, it is very refreshing that the OP only had 3 stories of very mild, controversial parenting, stretching back to a few months ago. I would have bet the bank that working in retail, she would have at least one horror story a day. So, 3 in a couple of months, maybe there is some hope for today's children.
