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.

YABU (but not completely as you've had the insight to ask others what they thought).

@sheepofwallstreet how eloquent

Thank you everyone for your replies. To be honest your a tough crowd but its helped me to think a little more about my actions

Its a charity shop selling used items to people who are looking for a bargain while helping out a charity. She was rude and if I were there at the time it would put me off returning. If they do not want to be reasonable and polite they are doing the charity a disservice

Don’t let your little darling ‘wreck the place’ then, and there no need for other adults to tell you how to behave.

Yabvvvu in expecting others to tolerate your poor parenting skills with not so much as a word, teach your child how to behave and don’t let him run free range in shops if your liable to be upset at hearing that the rest of humanity doesn’t think you are the worlds best mom.

Hahaha -I just managed to read through most of the claptrap on here, all the people being precious about kids getting op shop toys dirty on the floor, ridiculous, the lot of you.

At least 3/4 of them were probably dragged across the floor at the home where they came from for two years before the parents had finally had enough of looking at them, chucked them in a plastic bag then threw them in one of those dirty charity bins..... where they were promptly unpacked from their bags by volunteers, given a quick glance over, priced and stuck on the shelf.

I would be more worried about the grime my children would get on them from the toys than any dirt the toys will pick up off the floor by being played with by kids in the shop.

Yeah, it’s only a charity shop

@TheSheepofWallSt

YANBU OP. A toddler taking out a couple of toys isn’t the end of the world. You were right there, and as others have said, the shop assistant jumped the gun (rather rudely).

Except she wasn't. She was looking at the books, not supervising her child who was throwing multiple toys on the floor.

To all the Perfect Pollies With Perfect Robotic Children on this thread:
Part of parenting/ socialising toddlers is that you have to take them out, and they will,- as a normal part of child development, undertake the behaviours that you need to correct. When toddlers do these things, parents can correct them and they can be taught social norms, manners, appropriate behaviour etc.

And that involves supervising their child, not using the toy section as a free creche.

Yanbu.

I’m a frequent user of charity shops. If I have my children with me, I send them straight to the books/toy area for them to play so I can browse.

We tidy before leaving. I see nothing wrong with this and have never had any issues with staff members.

Wandering you would send a 1 yr old straight to the toys/books, a 1 year old? While you browse?

Is this a joke ?
Supervise your child properly !
Good Lord.

YABU, I often take my toddler to a couple of charity shops which have a lot of toys that a toddler would love to play with, but always make sure that once he's looked at a toy he puts it back.

Used to work in retail and know what it's like when people come in and make a mess.

I would dearly love to hear the shop assistant's version of this.

Just wanted to pitch in here, I work in retail, clothes department of a supermarket and even though you were going to pick them up, the sales assistant didn't know that, tbh I hate parents that let their children run free, I could write a book about customers from what I've seen/heard. Most shops are understaffed and it's heart breaking when you have spent four/five hours doing a tidy, walking aisle to aisle, cleaning up after customers just to go round a corner and see it a mess again, retail has really changed my view on people. I put every customer in the same boat lazy/rude/entitled and unfortunately this means that the nice customers will be assumed to be this way too.
I think that the sales assistant was rude but I've been there, you don't know what's happened during the day for her, remember we are dealing with hundreds of customers a day and after the 200th time picking up after children at the shoe (toys for her) aisle gets annoying. She should not have spoke to you that way but just try to be a bit more mindful and teaching children starts from a really young age, my two kids know that they have to stay by my side, don't touch anything that's not for them and if they do want to show me something, tell me, or only pick up one item and put it back where it comes from, I would unleash hell if they ever messed up a shop.

Besides it's her job to get off her ass and straighten up the store anyway. No employee should ever speak to a paying customer in such a manner.

Thank God I don't work in retail anymore.
So many places are short staffed that one employee is already doing about 3 peoples jobs.
But apparently we also need to get off our asses and clean up after entitled customers who can't do it themselves.
Also can't believe how many people suggested the volunteer takes time out of her schedule and other jobs to play, chat and tidy away with a one year old because the mother wasn't doing it.
Madness.

Some of the responses on this thread are awful. "Only a charity shop". "Just a volunteer". Some weird comments a few pages back about toys being filthy, full of Ebola and unsafe.

I am assuming the sorts of numpties making those comments are also the sorts of people who turn their noses up at second hand and wouldn't set foot in a charity shop in the first place.

@Awwlookatmybabyspider I could not agree more! Letting your child play with a few things while you are looking at something hardly makes you entitled and a bad person! It's really hard going shopping with a small child!

Provided you were actually going to put them back and the area de was in was quiet YANBU. It was a few teddies and a tray ffs. Hardly crime of the century. Of course a toddler will play with toys. As long as they’re not breaking things/getting in the way of others/not tidying mess I don’t see the problem. And well done for not having dc constrained in a buggy for your own convenience. And for letting them play with things on a dirty floor. I bet your dc isn’t part of the antibacterial always sick brigade.

It's really hard going shopping with a small child!

It really isn't. Once you accept that it is not the same as going shopping alone and you can't do the same as you would without a child in tow.

Everything TheSheepofWallSt said.

Its a charity shop selling used items to people who are looking for a bargain while helping out a charity. She was rude and if I were there at the time it would put me off returning. If they do not want to be reasonable and polite they are doing the charity a disservice

So they just have to put up with rude customers do they? Also, they are volunteers, so they're not even being paid the ridiculously low levels of pay to put up with entitled parents with spoilt children.

It is not unreasonable or impolite to expect parents to watch their kids and make sure they don't make a mess (or tidy it up afterwards).

It's really hard going shopping with a small child

No it isn't. But if it is, online shopping is your friend.

Besides it's her job to get off her ass and straighten up the store anyway

This post illustrates why everyone should have to spend six months working in a customer service role. What arrogance.

Besides it's her job to get off her ass and straighten up the store anyway

No, it demonstrates that the poster is too intellectually challenged to understand what "volunteer" means.

Besides it's her job to get off her ass and straighten up the store anyway

This post illustrates why everyone should have to spend six months working in a customer service role. What arrogance.

I took the comment as being deliberately provocative and scrolled by it.