Aibu with shop assistants comment 'wrecking the place'

[Harmonyrays]

Browsing in a large charity shop wuth a toddler pottering about. In the childs section, i was looking at books while she was looking at toys getting things out admittedlt leaving 3 or 4 on the floor. I was just turning aeound to pick them hp when an assistant came over and said 'could you please not let your child wreck the place'.

Thoughts please as im annoyed at the comment as shes a very yound child who was doing what kids do, i was close by ready to put things away and was going to help the charity by buying several items.

do you believe the child was wrecking the place? Genuinely? By playing with a few toys?

They weren't playing with a few toys they had them out on the floor. It's a shop not a nursery. I'm disabled and have brittle bones, should I not go into shops anymore because toddlers are being allowed to treat them like playgroups. If I end up in hospital with a broken back because I've slipped on the tray that's been left on the floor who is going to pay DH's wages while he's home looking after me? If an old person breaks their hip, what then? The world doesn't revolve round kids and it's about time so parents realise that.

*She could of
*
Stopped reading.

tinkerbell did you just tell someone to lighten up about their disability?

Sjofn

oh lighten up man. Don't take life so seriously. What if you crossed the road tomorrow and got hit by a bus? What if, what if, what if. It's so pointless.

I's highly likely I'd see a bus coming as they're pretty bloody big, but a toddler and toys are an extra trip hazard that most people don't

Bloody hell tinkerbell, what a disgusting comment,

Lighten up about your disability? Seriously?

@TheFairyCaravan You can't expect that toddlers won't take toys out a toy box in a charity shop - there's usually one huge chest of toys you have to take them out to rummage around and see the ones at the bottom. If you're disabled and can't get past you simply ask the mum to move them. Obviously you wouldn't expect no one to look through the toys in case you need to get past. If it wasn't a toy or two it might be any other object on the ground (a bag someone had put on the floor while they reached for a book, a buggy, a bottle dropped by a baby accidentally).

I think 1 is quite young not to heavily supervise in a charity shop as they won’t understand the difference between banging a plastic dog up and down to make it walk and banging a china one.

And I think there’s a difference between looking things over with mum putting each one back while deciding what to buy and sitting down to play with multiple toys while mum isn’t available to make sure sets aren’t being messed up, toys from the 50p tub aren’t getting mixed with the ones from the £1 tub, things aren’t going in the kid’s mouth etc.

If you're disabled and can't get past you simply ask the mum to move them.

How do I get past to ask the mum as she wasn't there, she was looking at the books?

I honestly don't need telling how to cope with my disability, thanks, I've been living with it for 22 years. People need to try to understand how their everyday behaviour can impact, and cause hazards to, disabled people.

I once tripped over a toy that a toddler had left on the floor of a charity shop. I'm a healthy, fit trained physio and yet I broke my wrist.
It happens.
There is a time and a place for children to run around and play. A shop, any shop, is not one of them.

But Tinker her disability would absolutely affect her in a shop where her movements could be constrained by toys etc being pulled out by an unsupervised child. Lots of able bodied people don't have to factor this into their daily shopping experience.

I'd be complaining about that nasty nasty rude piece of work shop assistant and get her fired.

tinkerbellbabygirlpoop Ha ha I don’t think you realise how hard it is to actually fire someone (and that includes if she had genuinely spoken to a customer nastily, which she hadn’t here).

You can complain at many places about various things until you’re blue in the face, but you aren’t ever getting anyone fired 😂

Oh sorry I was absolutely not telling her to lighten up about her disability. I just meant in general. Nothing to do with her disability.

Don’t you think her disability is the reason she can’t just “lighten up”?

The child wasn't running around or playing. She was looking at a few toys. Totally normal.

She was looking at a few toys

No 1 year old looks at toys, they play with them.

I know the focus is on toys in charity shops but I am forever picking items off the floor in shops and returning them to the shelves. Most likely just fallen off but a trip hazard all the same.

Well tinker given the care and consideration you've demonstrated for others with your awful posts I'm not at all surprised you think OP's behaviour was fine.

Disabled people should lighten up but just "in general"

SileneOliveira

Exactly. Kids pick up and touch things. Fine. Normal. No problem.

But using the toy section as a makeshift creche whilst you browse is just not on. I've volunteered in a charity shop for many years. I've noticed the deterioration of children's behaviour, not just because of my volunteering, but just in general day to day life.

There are some customers who leave their children to look at the toys and childrens books while they browse, and the children are fine,
and well behaved and their parents are secure in the knowledge that their children will not 'wreck the place'. One little 3 year old comes up to the counter and kneels on the customer chair, and chats to me while her mum looks round the shop. She is adorable. That's evidence that I don't hate children.

But there are others who don't discipline their children and see no need to. I find that really sad, because nobody is ever going to want them around.

And I have a SEN non verbal dd who is most contrary and troublesome, and worrying. .She makes social life and interaction difficult. It's difficult to have her around in in any setting.

If you have an NT child, give them the benefit of having an education on how to behave in public. From toddlerhood.

In a general shop it’s annoying, but in a charity shop it’s wirse most people work for free

No 1 year old looks at toys, they play with them.

Which would be fine in my local charity shops. That's what the kids do. They play with the toys, choose one and their parent buys it. There's usually a little corner with the kid's stuff. There'll almost always be a kid going through a book or playing in my local one. Happened too when I volunteered. We deliberately designed it that way so people would buy the toys. Same thing happens in actual toy shops too. I wouldn't have been happy if they'd left the toy area or were being man handled but playing with them is fine.