So, I work at a home good store and now that it is summer parents have been bring their kids into the store with them during the day. We are not a kid friendly store, we have a minuscule section of toys, that’s about it.

Some parents let their kids plop down (or even jump, yes – I’ve seen it) on the beds, play with all the display appliances and pretty much run around the store without any supervision. This annoys me to no end, but what can you do? When we tried to tell a couple of sisters that they could not jump on the beds because they were not very sturdy, the mother defended them claiming “they were just testing it out.” How do you test out a bed that we don’t even sell? We don’t have any mattresses for sale in the store, display purposes only. Though, most parents do make their children get off the bed if we say something to them about it.

So, that stuff is all just agitating… but the one thing that really gets to me is when mothers let their little, tiny children wonder off on their own. This mother today had a little boy, he was no more than three, I would guess about two was standing by himself in our toy section and his mother was calling to him from two or three rooms down. Just calling to him, he was not answering. He was completely out of her sight and she just kept shopping and looking around. Finally, after about 10 minutes of her looking around the comforter room she went to find the little boy and brought him over.
Then he stayed with her for a little bit, but then when she moved onto the sheets he took to wondering different isles. She just called to him and nothing. No noise from him at all. She finally found him again and then they moved out of my department.

I do not live in an area with a lot of crime and I know it is not a kids store so their might not be prowlers lurking around, but anything can happen! If a sicko happens to be in the store at the time, he could take advantage of that situation easily. I mean, first off if my child was that young – he or she would not be out of my sight. But then to call him and wait for 10 minutes without any response?! I would be freaking out. I know he was young, but he knew his name and he knew how to say certain words, like his mothers name.

I was trying to keep an eye on the kid while they were in my section, but not every employee is going to be that nice or caring. It just sucks when parents seem so apathetic to their children. Gah! It pisses me off so much!
/rant