WIBU to ask child to stop playing at the top of an escalator?

[Cakedoesntjudge]

Just interested to get some opinions on this really!

Bit of background:
I work in retail in a shop with two floors. There are lifts at the back but the front has a set of stairs with an 'up' escalator next to them. We are forever finding small children messing around at the top with parents nowhere in sight which has led to some pretty horrific accidents so we do now (politely!) ask any children at the top to please not play there as it's dangerous and ask if they need help finding their parents.

Today, a colleague did exactly that with a child (approx age 4/5) he said he was sorry but no he didn't need help, pointed to his mum who was standing about 5 foot away and said he wasn't lost. In fairness to his mum, she wouldn't have seen he was messing around at the top of the escalator as she was facing the shelf away from him. I was working nearby and the colleague came over to talk to me and another colleague I was working with. Within seconds the child was back there again. The other colleague we were with went over and did the same again - I was within earshot and at no time was my colleague rude. She didn't raise her voice, she wasn't stern, she literally said "please don't play at the top of the escalator it's really dangerous and you could get hurt." She then came straight back. A minute later the mum marches up to us and starts yelling that she is his mum and she is perfectly capable of telling him off herself.

Me and one of the other colleagues are both mums to 6yo boys and both hold the opinion that if our children were misbehaving without our knowledge we'd be perfectly ok for any adult who noticed to ask them to stop (obviously wouldn't be amused if they went OTT) but I know some people are sensitive to this and see it differently. So I replied saying "I'm sorry you were offended, we apply this to all children we find at the top of the escalators as we've seen a number of pretty horrible accidents and we would hate for that to happen when one of us could have prevented it"

She spoke over me just continually aggressively shouting "I'm his mother" and eventually stormed off. We all just went back to work and didn't think anything of it. She put in a complaint to one of our supervisors who tried to bollock us all separately for being rude. We all just explained to him what happened and said we stuck by what we'd said. He then pulled our store manager into the situation who said he completely backed us on it. Just interested to see what the general consensus is for future reference! I'm torn - I can see her point about it being her job to tell him off but I also think we're right for stopping children from playing there from what we've seen happen before.

I do, have and will continue to do so. I also march repeat offenders back to their parents and tell them if I find them unsupervised again, they'll be asked to leave. Our managers all back us up.

You were not even slightly unreasonable.

YNBU. My DS has AS and isn't aware of danger etc. As a consequence, I have my eye on him constantly.

Personally? If I was you I'd stop asking the kids, its their parents job to parent them not yours. I can see why you do though. Your heart must be in your mouth at least ten times a day. When little johnny is next pratting about at the top of the escalators and has an awful tumble maybe then johnnys mum would see your point.

I saw an old lady fall down the escalated in john lewis once. Poor lass didn't half go with a bump.

*Disclaimer. I didn't just stand there and watch the lady fall. I saw it as I was coming around the corner from the other end of the store.

Of course you were not being unreasonable but you already knew that

It goes ' as you are too dumb to keep an eye on your kid and train it not to muck about at the top of escalators, I am telling it politely not to as I don't want it breaking its neck. And as an alleged adult, admit when you have ballsed up rather than throwing a strop'

You can't tell her that as an employee, but if I had been there as a passerby I would!

pluck We probably could have got her banned, we can ban anyone if we have a good enough reason and I'm pretty sure "threatening to sue the store and it's staff" falls into that ... but she banned herself so we saved ourselves a job

Fortunately we also (mostly) have really good supervisors/managers who will get a customers side of the story, our side of the story and then make a judgement - any manager/supervisor who tried to yell at a colleague for a situation when they'd only heard the customer's side wouldn't last long in our store as we'd all be putting in formal complaints, pretty damn quickly.

You were so right to go this, when I was 2 I slipped my mum's hand and ran to the escalator, by the time she had sorted my baby sister to come and get me I had fallen over and caught my hand in the mechanism, nearly lost my finger. Still have scar which may be why I never learnt right from left as I have a scar to check

Ugh. Why do so many parents not take care of their children and then get annoyed when other people have to. Ywnbu stupid woman.

Yanbu. Unfortunately you're managers response doesn't surprise me! Hurray for the store manager!

I've heard of accidents, I just think whilst they must look like a fun thing to play on, it's just daft leaving a DC to it. As fun as others make it look, the height alone they could fall is frightening.

The mother sounds like sort who would sue if their child was hurt anyway.

Yanbu

Thank you everybody 😊 - half a mind to show this to my supervisor if he says anything further about it on my next shift!

Crazycatgal yeah I have developed a pretty thick skin after 9 years in retail, my supervisor is fully aware of how well perfected my calm and neutral face/tone of voice is after that as he's always worked in the same stores as me which is why I laughed at him when he was having a go about the customer saying I was arguing back and being rude! He knows full well I wouldn't have done that. As hard as I find biting my tongue with customers that act like that I do actually need my job!!

I like it on the London Underground when you get toutists who suddenly stop at the bottom of an escalator and wonder why they suddenly get two dozen people pile into them!

Of course you were doing the right thing.
Here's an idea, though - if there's a sign up nearby saying - Please don't allow children to play near the escalator, it's dangerous. Our staff are instructed to stop them. - you could point to it, and I imagine most parents would have (or feel they had) less of a leg to stand on.
It just might help as they've officially been told that as far as the elevator is concerned, you're in charge. Your supervisor should know better, frankly, than to take her side in the face of your united front. Seems a bit cowardly to me.

*tourists, not toutists!