The worst behavior I've ever seen!!!

[ckay87]

It's all these entitled, spoiled parents that make speaking up more difficult these days. I work in retail & MANY times have wanted to ask a parent to supervise their child or ask rowdy teens to leave the store, but in this day & age everyone is sue-happy & can claim verbal harrassment over anything!

I work at Yankee Candle - literally tons of glass in my store - and I love the parents that come in with 2, 3, 4 + very small children in tow, screaming the entire time "Don't touch! I said stop touching!" then inevitably CRASH. Of course it's always our fault, the lid wasn't on right, it wasn't placed on the shelf properly, etc. We clean up more broken glass & fill out more accident reports in a week involving children than adults. Why would you even bring that many kids, that young, into a store that it primarily GLASS?!?!?

Just this weekend I had a bunch of teens checking out our new lip balms. I showed them the display ones so they could smell them. They proceeded to break the seals on the ones for sale, claiming they couldn't smell the display ones. I said I'd get the candle for them in the same scent to smell, since we can't sell a lip balm once the seal is broken. The girl shrugged, said "well you don't have to pay for it so what does it matter?" and proceeded to laugh & snap the seal on yet another one. 20 years ago I probably could have asked her to pay for the items, leave the store, or called security. In today's world the teen would text mom & dad who would call their lawyer & then call corporate on me for being mean to their precious child. I had to walk away. They left the store without purchasing anything, and I was left to damage out 6 lip balms that they broke the seal on. And you wonder why the lip balms are $3.99 - you're now helping pay for those 6 that were in a sense, vandalised on purpose!

Or the time a mom wasn't watching her 1-2 year old child BITE into any votive candles he could get his hands on. I was following the child around, loudy saying within earshot of the mom "no no, that isn't safe to do, that can make you sick, stop eating the candles, etc." She had the nerve to come up to me, laugh & say "oh he must be teething!" She never offered an apology or to pay for the items. She just left me to clean up & damamge out 16 bitten votive candles dripping with slobber. Fun fun!

Oh I could go on & on.....

oooooh, I didn't know Yankee had lip balms!!!

Regarding the bolded, don't be so sure. I mean, what ever did happen to "you break it, you bought it?" We lived by that as kids in stores. If these were my teens, I would expect you to charge them for the products they damaged. If they refused, I'd expect you to call the police for shoplifting. And I assure you, I would not be blaming YOU. Don't make that assumption about all parents of teens. My kid wouldn't DARE text me to tell me they were getting in trouble at a store!!

 

[TaraPA]

oooooh, I didn't know Yankee had lip balms!!!

Regarding the bolded, don't be so sure. I mean, what ever did happen to "you break it, you bought it?" We lived by that as kids in stores. If these were my teens, I would expect you to charge them for the products they damaged. If they refused, I'd expect you to call the police for shoplifting. And I assure you, I would not be blaming YOU. Don't make that assumption about all parents of teens. My kid wouldn't DARE text me to tell me they were getting in trouble at a store!!

LOL ckay you & your kids can come shop in my store anytime!! I'm not too far from Berks County at all!

Our corporate policy is to never ask a guest to pay for something broken, most likely because we sell a product at such a high risk of breaking. Even though some days I really want to ask them - especially the ones that break more than 1 item, or laugh & run out (as many teens do) or turn around & get angry with me & put the fault on me (once again, I didn't have the lid on right, I didn't place it on the shelf in the right position, I didn't tell them how heavy they were.)

I will say however, that the majority of adults do apologize & ask if they can pay for the items.

Yes the lip balms are divine. I have my Sweet Strawberry and my Vanilla Lime ones right here by my computer!

 

[Erin1700]

I think I ran into some of these parents that never say no to their kids today.
We were walking into the toy store today and I stopped and looked at my DS2 and told him he needed to use his walking feet in the store or else he would have time out.
The people next to me looked at me like I was satan!
So what happens when you shop with a 2 yr old??? He got half way thru our 20 minute store visit and started to run. I got him, took him by the hand out of the way of people, and sat him down. As I was saying "I told you if you did not use walking feet, you would sit" the same people walk past and say "That poor child!"
Their kids were running around like crazy!! My DS pointed to them and said "They no using walking feet!!!"

 

[TaraPA]

I think I ran into some of these parents that never say no to their kids today.
We were walking into the toy store today and I stopped and looked at my DS2 and told him he needed to use his walking feet in the store or else he would have time out.
The people next to me looked at me like I was satan!
So what happens when you shop with a 2 yr old??? He got half way thru our 20 minute store visit and started to run. I got him, took him by the hand out of the way of people, and sat him down. As I was saying "I told you if you did not use walking feet, you would sit" the same people walk past and say "That poor child!"
Their kids were running around like crazy!! My DS pointed to them and said "They no using walking feet!!!"

And that's when I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut, and would have said nice & loudly to DS "and those children will run & fall & get hurt, or hurt someone else, or break something that they will have to pay for." And in my head I'd be giving them the "Carrie eyes" - ever see the 1976 movie Carrie, where after they dump the pigs blood on her she uses her telekenetic powers to just shoot a glare at the gym doors & they magically all slam shut, trapping them all inside a raging fire? This is really mean & yeah I'll get flamed but I would just give those kids Carrie Eyes & picture those tots running down the aisle of the toy store & falling & crashing into a display!

 

[horseshowmom]

See, now maybe people will understand why others do that.
I would have reacted the same way that you described. That behavior is disgusting.

Yes, and I can guarantee you that particular mother would be highly offended that her "princesses" weren't invited.

 

[luvsJack]

And they "unschool"!! My cousins wife was like this....no one was allowed to say anything negative to their son.You couldn't say , NO do not draw on the walls-it had to be along the lines of, What a talented artist you are!

My cousin finally blew a gasket one day and went on a rampage. The kid now gets time outs and punishments and you can stand to be around him.

There actually is a productive way of speaking only in positives, the problem is parents don't actually learn the technique.

Its like instead of saying "don't run" you say "walk inside" or instead of saying "don't yell" you say "speak quietly". It is saying the same thing, its just telling the child what TO do not what NOT TO do.

The theory is that if a child constantly hears "no" and "don't" they will soon tune it out and in speaking in positives they don't hear these same words all the time. Its not supposed to reinforce bad behavior.

 

[Gabes_mommy]

And they "unschool"!! My cousins wife was like this....no one was allowed to say anything negative to their son.You couldn't say , NO do not draw on the walls-it had to be along the lines of, What a talented artist you are!

My cousin finally blew a gasket one day and went on a rampage. The kid now gets time outs and punishments and you can stand to be around him.

I truly believe that a lot of these parents are going to seriously regret their choices as their kids get older. I know my 2 year old is going through a very difficult stage right now, despite getting steady enforcement and clear expectations. I can't even imagine how much worse he would be if we never told him "no". He would be a nightmare.

 

[horseshowmom]

I truly believe that a lot of these parents are going to seriously regret their choices as their kids get older.

So is every teacher and coach and every other person of authority with whom they come in contact.

 

[DarthKTrava]

My sister got to where she can't take her stepkids anywhere. Due to a lack of proper parenting by their mother, they don't know how to listen or behave. They were allowed to do whatever they want to do. And my sister is trying to correct that. Hmm... maybe it's the LACK of parenting is why they're on meds for school and to go to sleep at night.....