to be annoyed by people who let their kids run round supermarkets 'playing'

[ProperLavs]

Actually screaming and running into people.
I had an interesting 'conversation' with a woman when i muttered for someone to stop them screaming and running around. This woman, who didn't actually have anything to do with the kids, who were roughly 4 and 2, told me they were only playing.

I told her it was a very busy supermarket and they shouldn't be playing here
She then muttered about some people having to take their children shopping. I told her I had had to take all of mine (6 under 8) and no they were't ever allowed to run round screaming whilst I ignored them.
Wtf is wrong with people?

themonkeymummy I'd love to know where you live!

@ProperLavs I live in Switzerland

I work in retail and at times some parents treat the shop as though as soon as they enter the shop with kids then responsibility for those kids falls onto us as staff.
A lot of parents will sit down and watch their kids tamper with products, go behind the till, climb over the seating and so on, but parent too engrossed in phone or sitting there giving us a look and shaking head as if to say 'well, what can you do'.
I don't dislike the school hols, far from it, but I do dislike some parents lack of 'parenting'.

TheMonkeyMummy, sorry to say it's not like that in the U.K. Here it is really crap.

That's a real shame.

www.facebook.com/MickFlanaganFans/videos/brilliant-sketch-about-childrenlike-micky-flanagan-fans-for-more-hilarious-clips/510989755934290/

spot on new

I was once nearly knocked off my feet by a child whizzing down a supermarket aisle on a scooter! I couldn't believe it! I don't get me started on those shoes with wheels in!! So annoying. Imo children should be made to behave in shops etc

When I worked at the Co-op a child who was messing around ran smack into the corner of a basket a lady was holding on her elbow as she was looking at the shelves. She never saw him coming. The child had a very nasty gash on his forehead, if he'd have been a couple of inches taller he could have lost an eye.

There are often slippery floors, heavy displays, shelves with heavy cans and glass bottles stacked on them, people wheeling unwieldy, heavy trolleys around that can't stop quickly, people on stepladders stacking shelves...

Do not let your kids run round supermarkets - it's dangerous!

@runningkeenster
Who'd want to go shopping in this heat (30 degrees where I am) anyway?

My supermarkets are lovely and cold! On my way home from work I go into Tesco Express and wander round, pretending I’m interested in certain products, conveniently always under the massive air conditioning vents that blast out nice icy cold air every 30 seconds or so.

What is up with this latest trend of kid bashing threads? Pools/streets now shops? Do people just hate kids during the holidays?

Well.

Yes, pretty much.

I agree OP and experienced this in a hospital yesterday - 3 children running, screaming and shouting up the corridors of a hospital ( getting in many people's way inc wheelchairs, beds etc) and then unfortunately they were in the same waiting room as I was and continued to do the same around the small waiting room..... ignoring the toys!

This drives me mad. I still contain mine in the trolley at 4!

I suspect that those grumbling are probably those too lazy to teach their children how to behave appropriately for their surroundings.

There's a huge Asda near where l used to live, and it was like the Kids from Fame in there. Every time l went, without fail, there'd be kids pirouetting and dancing about in the aisles without any sight or sound of any kind of parental supervision. l even saw one cartwheeling the length of one aisle. Yet l suspect if anything happened to any of these tiny dancers, the parents would be up in arms. lt's dangerous and irresponsible.

I totally agree with you OP. There is a time and a place for mucking about and children need to learn from a young age that places like supermarkets, hospitals etc are not playgrounds. I am not a child hater, I love children but the way some kids behave is really not on, and sadly their parents are usually plain ignorant. Don't get me started on people mindlessly chatting on their mobile whilst wandering around a busy supermarket not looking where they are going!!!

YANBU. I remember one shopping trip, a Mother was letting her children run around eating sweets and fruit, which she had no intention of paying for, as she was putting half eaten fruit and sweet wrappers on the shelves as she shopped. I informed one of the girls on customer care, and showed her all the fruit and wrappers, she followed her round, and when the woman went to pay for her shopping she was asked to pay for those, the children had eaten. I heard one or two shoppers saying, about bloody time she's always doing it.

I know a older lady who had her leg broken recently by a child on a scooter in a shop. She's now out of action for 6 weeks.

I was on a bus one day and a kid was zooming about on a bloody scooter while the bus was moving! The driver stopped and refused for safety reasons to drive further until the kid sat down. It was dangerous for the child, for other people on the bus, and also for other people on the road as the driver would have been distracted. Bloody drippy ineffectual parent complied eventually after everyone on the bus growled at her.

I am a former employee of a, er, well known pet shop. Once I was on the till and looked up just in time to catch some little shit taking a flying kick at the rabbit enclosure. No exaggeration, I watched in slow motion as both feet came off the ground as he soared like Bruce fucking Lee. I couldn't stop myself from screeching at him, and his father who wasn't paying the blindest bit of attention could only muster a half hearted "come here" when I less than politely asked him to control his hell spawn.

Oh and I was almost taken out in tesco the other day by some girl in a scooter. Why do people let their children use these indoors...?

I suspect some of these children from Hell are the ones whose parents wheel them around in buggies, and push them straight into other shoppers so that they have to move or get injured. They grow up with no manners because the parents have none.

@TheMonkeyMummy - I suspect that, if you live in a culture where consideration and respect for others are expected, the weight of that expectation will ensure that these high standards continue through the generations - which is great, in my opinion!

Restrictive, authoritarian societies are not good, but unfortunately, in the UK, we do seem to have gone too far in the other direction - with some parents not parenting their children at all, and apparently having no u derstanding of the dangers posed to their children and other people by their bad behaviour. I suspect that it is not the majority of children who are allowed to behave this way, but such behaviour is disproportionately noticeable - it forces itself on people’s attention, if that makes sense.

If these lazy, irresponsible parents were made to pay for damages maybe they'd actually teach their little darlings how to behave in public.

I don't understand why supermarkets don't start doing something about it. I was a Saturday girl in a mini-mart near a playing field while at school and was told to tell youngsters off if they were running riot. If a parent had a go at me I was told to show them the "customers pay for damages caused by their children" sign and had to call the manager to sort anyone who queried it.

If they all did it they wouldn't need to fear customers taking their business elsewhere. We didn't have much competition at the time, but even when a Tesco opened not far away, the customers with the wild kids were too lazy to go there anyway.

AnExcellentUsername Had to smile at your rendition of the 'little shit' and 'Bruce fucking Lee. I worked in a public building full of the little darlings during school hol's, many, many times I wished I had the use of a cattle prod.

@HopeClearwater ha I wish he would let me do the parenting, sadly he seems immune to my death stare and genuinely thinks other people are as enthralled with the little darlings as he is.

Fortunately we only go out as a family once in a blue moon so it's rarely a problem. It also backfired on him recently at a family event where he lost control of one of the little darlings in a rather amusing (for the rest of us) way, he was mortified and I'm hoping it may be a turning point where he realises that it's not actually that funny to have a child that is 'spirited'.