My dd2 was called a BRAT today @Walmart:(

[sbell111]

To be quite frank about it YES I would indeed knock someone silly over calling my child a bad name, you better believe I would. And besides who would REALLY, REALLY be so low as to come up to a parent and a child and have the nerve to say something like that to the child with the parent standing right there and then NOT expect to get flailed? Good grief, Ive actually sat here and ran that scenario through my head and to be honest I wouldnt expect nothing less than the parent to kick my butt from one side of the store to the next. ...

I agree with you, but I also agree with those people who post that the mother should have quieted the child down or removed her from the store.

There are two issues here:

First, how appropriate is it for a stranger to ask you to quiet down your kid and then call him/her a brat when you refuse? I think that most people would agree that the woman was nervy and rude. Personally, I lean towards not trying to control the behavior of strangers, so I would not have approached the mother of the screaching kid. I would not have been happy to be in the immediate area, however, and I would have hoped that the parent would have taken some action on her own.

Second, how appropriate is it for a parent to not take any action regarding her child's screaching even after she became aware that it was bothering other people? I think that most would agree that the parent should have 1) not taken an overly tired child to the store, 2) quieted the child when she began to get loud, and 3) removed the child from the store if she couldn't be calmed.

I think that the bickering in this thread began with the fact that people are discussing one of these issues or the other and interpreting those who are addressing the other issue as disagreeing with them personally.

 

[wdwfan16]

I just ran out to Walmart at lunch. I ran into a rude women who was telling another off. I threw a pair of bloomers at the rude women and guess what happened. She shut up and just started at the bloomers. That idea really worked!!!!

BTW I got the bloomers from this box that was sitting at the USPS.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I've been reading this thread since I replied to it back on page 13, and FTR, I didn't read pages 2 through 12.

One thing that everyone seems to keep missing is that the OP's noisy 2 year-old is her fifth child. She stated that she never had anything like this happen to her before, so my point is this. If the OP were the type of parent who didn't teach her children how to behave in public, she'd have heard some strangers complaining about her kids long ago.

One piece of info she didn't give--or least that I didn't read--is where in the store this incident took place. I would assume it happened while they were waiting for a cash register since that's the only place in the store where you'd be captive to the behavior of other people. However, if it were elsewhere, that would really make the lady in the story a much bigger villian, KWIM?

A bit OT maybe (and this is probably a whole other thread), but what is it about Walmart that makes kids misbehave there? Skimming through the thread, I noticed a whole bunch of comments about how people see this kind of thing happening at Walmart all the time, and that bewilders me.

I have no Walmart anywhere near where I live and work, so I never shop there. Being a Diser, I guess I should be glad because apparently Walmart has some mystical power over its customers that turns them into monsters. Does it really attract the dregs of society? But if so, why are so many Disers shopping there? I don't get it.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I just ran out to Walmart at lunch. I ran into a rude women who was telling another off. I threw a pair of bloomers at the rude women and guess what happened. She shut up and just started at the bloomers. That idea really worked!!!!

BTW I got the bloomers from this box that was sitting at the USPS.

Even though this post doesn't make much sense, I'm at it.

They had a box with bloomers for the taking at the USPS? Why would you bring them to Walmart? And throw them at someone?

That Walmart is one crazy place!

 

[Carly_Roach]

To be quite frank about it YES I would indeed knock someone silly over calling my child a bad name, you better believe I would. And besides who would REALLY, REALLY be so low as to come up to a parent and a child and have the nerve to say something like that to the child with the parent standing right there and then NOT expect to get flailed? Good grief, Ive actually sat here and ran that scenario through my head and to be honest I wouldnt expect nothing less than the parent to kick my butt from one side of the store to the next.
You may say, and Im sure you will from the looks of it, all kinds of things about me and try to twist what I say or mean into all kinds of pretzels, I honestly do not care one way or another but I stand by what I say because I mean it. You come up to me in a place like wal mart and say something to me directly you may or may not get a discussion about it. Depending on how I feel at that moment I may very well walk off and leave you standing there BUT you come up to my child and call him or her a bad name and there will be no discussion about it period, and I can assure you I will not be walking off and whoever said it wont be walking off either.
Now I may be the only person on HERE that is that protective over their kids but I can assure you that Im NOT the only person in the world like that so to anyone who will ever deem it necessary to approach a child (not necessarily mine) and say something, they might want to think "well how important is it that I say this; do I want to let them know how I feel bad enough to end up at the police station?"
You may get lucky enough to find someone who will mutter something and walk off but then again you might come up on somebody like me.
My kids are the most important thing in the world to me and I will defend them fiercely.
I know, I know, LOLOLOL
Now im not directing this at anyone here im just stating how I feel personally about a situation like this.

My ears are the most important thing in the world to me and I will defend them fiercely.

 

[luvmy3]

I've been reading this thread since I replied to it back on page 13, and FTR, I didn't read pages 2 through 12.

One thing that everyone seems to keep missing is that the OP's noisy 2 year-old is her fifth child. She stated that she never had anything like this happen to her before, so my point is this. If the OP were the type of parent who didn't teach her children how to behave in public, she'd have heard some strangers complaining about her kids long ago.

One piece of info she didn't give--or least that I didn't read--is where in the store this incident took place. I would assume it happened while they were waiting for a cash register since that's the only place in the store where you'd be captive to the behavior of other people. However, if it were elsewhere, that would really make the lady in the story a much bigger villian, KWIM?

A bit OT maybe (and this is probably a whole other thread), but what is it about Walmart that makes kids misbehave there? Skimming through the thread, I noticed a whole bunch of comments about how people see this kind of thing happening at Walmart all the time, and that bewilders me.

I have no Walmart anywhere near where I live and work, so I never shop there. Being a Diser, I guess I should be glad because apparently Walmart has some mystical power over its customers that turns them into monsters. Does it really attract the dregs of society? But if so, why are so many Disers shopping there? I don't get it.

Yes, yes it does

 

[JanaNs]

My ears are the most important thing in the world to me and I will defend them fiercely.

Give me a break! This is actually getting laughable!

 

[Carly_Roach]

Give me a break! This is actually getting laughable!

1). It was meant to be.

2). So's the person who happens to be a parent using their child as an excuse to become violent. Only that's partly laughable. Mostly it's shameful.

 

[Carly_Roach]

Does it really attract the dregs of society? But if so, why are so many Disers shopping there? I don't get it.

I'll agree with luvmy3. Yes. IMO Wal-mart attracts the dregs of society.

As for you're other question, I'll demonstrate my ability to actually shut my mouth when the occasion calls for it.

 

[ols386]

My ears are the most important thing in the world to me and I will defend them fiercely.

I understand that you don't like to hear a noisy, screeching, crying, child, in a public setting, and it is annoying to hear it, but the bottom line is, you nor I can change the behavior of other people, and how they parent their children....or in this case, how they control a child who may be behaving in a way that is annoying to others.

And as stated before, confronting them is not necessarily a good idea. You don't know how someone may react....it could lead to a really bad situation.

 

[sandramaac]

you folks are all reading into things the op may or may not have said or done at the actually situation

your creating scenarios the original op may or may not have been involved

your surmising the original said this or didn't say that

I say this thread should be closed!!! it has become harsh, mean and caustic and an embarrassment

 

[ols386]

I am not a parent, I am married to my DW and we both work with children in the school system. We are DVC members and go to Disney World often. We also frequent the mad house referred to as Walmart. I am going to make a few observations and then let it go.

1. When going into public places we, as adults, should expect to encounter people and children not acting perfectly.

2. Adults are supposed to be mature and be able to control themselves in normal situations in public. It seems that more and more these days people feel it's ok to say whatever is on their minds whenever it comes to mind. I am still in the school of belief that there are things we all think but don't say. We all think things like "I wish this kid would shut up" but most of us know how to control ourselves, have the thought and keep on moving.

3. Are we all not Disney goers? If so, how can anyone with children talk about not taking children out when they are tired and should be napping when I know everyone has run their children ragged at DW, kept them out later than they should have, and had their child melt down on the bus on the way back to the resorts? Granted the OP didn't seem to take other peoples comfort level into consideration and try to tell the child to hush.
On the other hand I have heard other parents on the bus screaming louder than the children telling them to stop acting up after keeping them out past their bed time. I would think that all these posters who are against the behavior of the OP look at themselves. I have been to Disney world and seen a lot worse it amazes me that we all would consider the annoying screech of a two year old this offensive.. just MHO

Side note: The old lady probably needs some attention and the only way she can get it is by pushing peoples buttons. I hope she has someone to care for her.

 

[Carly_Roach]

I understand that you don't like to hear a noisy, screeching, crying, child, in a public setting, and it is annoying to hear it, but the bottom line is, you nor I can change the behavior of other people, and how they parent their children....or in this case, how they control a child who may be behaving in a way that is annoying to others.

And as stated before, confronting them is not necessarily a good idea. You don't know how someone may react....it could lead to a really bad situation.

I think I was also making an example of the prevailing selfish attitudes running rampant in the United States today, which is:

MY (fill in the blank) is more important than YOUR (fill in the blank).

This thread is a perfect example. It's a perfect example of parents feeling that their children (their blank) are more important than anyone else's (fill in the blank). I think that's probably why this thread has gotten as long as it has. People are getting sick of being told that their (blank) isn't as important as someone else's (blank).

 

[luvmy3]

I understand that you don't like to hear a noisy, screeching, crying, child, in a public setting, and it is annoying to hear it, but the bottom line is, you nor I can change the behavior of other people, and how they parent their children....or in this case, how they control a child who may be behaving in a way that is annoying to others.

And as stated before, confronting them is not necessarily a good idea. You don't know how someone may react....it could lead to a really bad situation.

Gotta be careful of Walmart rage. You just never know when someone will ram their cart or scooter into you and threaten physical harm because you interfered with their peaceful shopping experience


There was this one time when I was living in CA and went to Walmart, as I waddled out 8 months pregnant out to get into my car there were two men in the parking lot shouting at eachother. I was right next to my car and teh one man brushed me to get to the other guy in the opposite aisle and he was trying to pull something out of his pants at the small of his back. I have no idea what it was, or if he just had an incredible urge to itch there, but I wasn't sticking around to find out. I got into my car andf reveresed out of the spot and kept going in reverse down the aisle. I didn't want to stop to put it in drive and get caught in any crossfire.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I think this thread is headed to a close, so I hope I'm not typing this for nothing!

I agree with the PP who stated that we need to expect to see and hear things we don't like when we go out shopping.

When we were in Disney World last month, we ran to get Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania as soon as we got to DHS in the morning. The FP return time was much later in the day, but the stand-by line was listed as a 40 minute wait, so we got on that queue.

The people in front of us in the line were a woman, a teenaged boy, two young men and two toddlers. The woman and the boy got off the line, but the two young men and the two babies stayed on it. My guess is that the woman was the mother of the boy and the young men, and the two toddlers were her grandkids. (So the young men were the toddlers' dads, got it?)

The young men and the boy and girl babies waited the whole 40 minutes with us in the queue. The little girl was whining the entire time. She wasn't really crying, just fussing non-stop.

I live next to NYC. Noise is something I am very used to, so I just tuned the baby out. Frankly, I was more irritated by the fact that she had no shoes on than I was by her whining. (I hate seeing barefooted babies in public because it's so unsanitary for both the child and everyone else. I guess the woman they were with in the beginning of the line had her shoes.)

Anyway, we got to the end of the queue where you go up the stairs to board the vehicles, and they left! They waited the entire 40 minutes with this miserable, barefooted baby and didn't even go on the ride.

I was just to myself because I thought if I were like a great many Disers, I'd come back home and post to complain about having to hear the kid whimper for 40 minutes straight.

Like I said, I just tuned her out. It's an easy enough thing to do when you're used to hearing noise all the time.

 

[Scurvy]

3. Are we all not Disney goers? If so, how can anyone with children talk about not taking children out when they are tired and should be napping when I know everyone has run their children ragged at DW, kept them out later than they should have, and had their child melt down on the bus on the way back to the resorts? Granted the OP didn't seem to take other peoples comfort level into consideration and try to tell the child to hush.
On the other hand I have heard other parents on the bus screaming louder than the children telling them to stop acting up after keeping them out past their bed time. I would think that all these posters who are against the behavior of the OP look at themselves. I have been to Disney world and seen a lot worse it amazes me that we all would consider the annoying screech of a two year old this offensive.. just MHO

I'm assuming, since you said you aren't a parent, that you are coming to this conclusion based on things you have seen on the bus at WDW. I can assure you, not all of us have done this. Maybe you just noticed the ones who did because they were the loudest people there. And I still maintain that the bolded is the most important factor in this thread for some of us. A frazzled parent who is doing the best she can and feels bad for disturbing those around her is very different from a parent who can't be bothered to empathise with those she is subjecting to her screeching child.


As for why people see so many children (and adults) misbehaving at Walmart, maybe the reason is because other people have the same view of the place as many posters on this thread do. So many posters seem to think the screeching was acceptable because "it's just Walmart". If so many people feel this way, it's no wonder that it is such an unpleasant place.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone at least attempted to maintain a standard of good behavior (and tried to minimize the discomfort they cause to their fellow shoppers) everywhere in public, rather than excusing poor behavior in some places because they aren't as nice as some other places?

 

[just4today]

To be quite frank about it YES I would indeed knock someone silly over calling my child a bad name, you better believe I would. And besides who would REALLY, REALLY be so low as to come up to a parent and a child and have the nerve to say something like that to the child with the parent standing right there and then NOT expect to get flailed? Good grief, Ive actually sat here and ran that scenario through my head and to be honest I wouldnt expect nothing less than the parent to kick my butt from one side of the store to the next.
You may say, and Im sure you will from the looks of it, all kinds of things about me and try to twist what I say or mean into all kinds of pretzels, I honestly do not care one way or another but I stand by what I say because I mean it. You come up to me in a place like wal mart and say something to me directly you may or may not get a discussion about it. Depending on how I feel at that moment I may very well walk off and leave you standing there BUT you come up to my child and call him or her a bad name and there will be no discussion about it period, and I can assure you I will not be walking off and whoever said it wont be walking off either.
Now I may be the only person on HERE that is that protective over their kids but I can assure you that Im NOT the only person in the world like that so to anyone who will ever deem it necessary to approach a child (not necessarily mine) and say something, they might want to think "well how important is it that I say this; do I want to let them know how I feel bad enough to end up at the police station?"
You may get lucky enough to find someone who will mutter something and walk off but then again you might come up on somebody like me.
My kids are the most important thing in the world to me and I will defend them fiercely.
I know, I know, LOLOLOL
Now im not directing this at anyone here im just stating how I feel personally about a situation like this.

Well, that's certainly a valuable life skill to teach one's children. If somebody calls you a name, just SMACK em!

Well it's hard to argue with that! So yes, that's certainly something to consider when trying to decide whether to ask someone to control their child. What if they are going to escalate to a physical confrontation? I must admit I don't know anyone who would do such a thing, but I've seen enough Jerry Springer to know that people like that do exist. I'd hate to have to spend my day at the police station filing charges because some nut assaulted me, so I'll remember not to approach bad parents directly if I am ever tempted to!

Be careful out there!

 

[JoBird]

Okay- so I just returned from Walmart.

Here's what I encountered-- a man, thinking that it was fine to turn up a stereo to decibels off the hearing chart, so that he could hear it. I couldn't just hear it, I could feel it coursing thru my body.

Then, he left it that way, while he stood there for a full 15 minutes listening to it. It was Metallica, BTW.

Now I'm all for playing Metallica, and everyone knows that when you play Metallica- it's got to be loud. Heck, I've been to afew of their concerts myself.
But seriously, I really don't want to hear it while I'm trying to decide Fuji apple vs a Red delicious. ANd yes, you could hear it alllllllllllll the way to the front of the store, b/c when he started playing it, I left the back and headed up front.

So- people who think it's okay to say something to a parent of a child that is screeching-b/c the parent wasn't "In control", would you have said something to this man who made the entire store listen to his stereo because it was in your opinion, rude?

Or would you have silently shook your head and walked off?

What if the parent of the child had of been a male? Would you have said something like "Control your child" to him? If not, why???


Just curious.

 

[wdwfan16]

Even though this post doesn't make much sense, I'm at it.

They had a box with bloomers for the taking at the USPS? Why would you bring them to Walmart? And throw them at someone?

That Walmart is one crazy place!

A PP asked "Why was the old lady so rude". Another PP stated "Her bloomers were too tight." There is also a thread on there about a person who shipped a box via USPS that had underwear and the underwear was missing (plus other things) when the box arrived.

 

[Scurvy]

Okay- so I just returned from Walmart.

Here's what I encountered-- a man, thinking that it was fine to turn up a stereo to decibels off the hearing chart, so that he could hear it. I couldn't just hear it, I could feel it coursing thru my body.

Then, he left it that way, while he stood there for a full 15 minutes listening to it. It was Metallica, BTW.

Now I'm all for playing Metallica, and everyone knows that when you play Metallica- it's got to be loud. Heck, I've been to afew of their concerts myself.
But seriously, I really don't want to hear it while I'm trying to decide Fuji apple vs a Red delicious. ANd yes, you could hear it alllllllllllll the way to the front of the store, b/c when he started playing it, I left the back and headed up front.

So- people who think it's okay to say something to a parent of a child that is screeching-b/c the parent wasn't "In control", would you have said something to this man who made the entire store listen to his stereo because it was in your opinion, rude?

Or would you have silently shook your head and walked off?

What if the parent of the child had of been a male? Would you have said something like "Control your child" to him? If not, why???


Just curious.

I'm not sure it was okay to say something to the OP about her parenting, and I definitely think it wasn't ok to call her names. I doubt that I would ever say something to a parent I thought wasn't doing a good job, whether the parent was male or female.


I would totally say something to the guy with the loud music, though. (And I have before, but not at Walmart.) I'd try to be casual about it, but I would assume that he didn't realize how uncomfortable it was for everyone else to have to listen to music at that volume. The worst he'd be likely to do would be to say "No". But then, people don't tend to be as irrational about someone criticising the volume of their music as they are when they think someone is criticising their child or their parenting abilities (or lack thereof).