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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have been annoyed at bloke in sports shop for telling off my son?

238 replies

NoJokeBoak · 25/09/2022 22:23

Our sports shop has a gaming section now (makes no sense to me either!) separate to Sports shop apparently but no real separation physically.

I was stood looking at games and a worker approached and said to DS (who is 10) "Don't do that, you can't just leave things here, this is a separate part of the shop. You can't dump things here. That's not nice!"

It was a really condescending tone, really 'super nannyish'

I asked what was happening and he said DS had put a Nike bag on a hook with gaming items on and it didn't belong there.

I asked him to direct any issues to me and I will be the one to tell my son off, not him, he had no right to.

He huffed and walked off. I asked DS what happened and why did he have a Nike bag and why did he hang it up in the games section.

He said he didn't bring the bag over, it was hung up there already and it got knocked off by a lady going passed with a buggy, so he was just putting it back rather than leaving it on the floor.

On hearing that he was just trying to be helpful I went back to the worker who was laughing with his mate and calling me a Karen!! I explained to him that DS hadn't brought the bag into his section, he was simply picking it up off the floor after it had gotten knocked off from there.

He just kept saying its a different section and the bag didn't belong there.

I just left as he wasn't listening to me at all and I was annoyed at being called a Karen for standing up for my son.

WIBU to email HO, I got his name but does that actually make me a Karen if I complain 😐

OP posts:
heresamarshmallow · 25/09/2022 22:50

I mean yeah he could have handled it better but a ten year old isn’t a baby. I don’t think he was wrong in speaking directly to your son.

Tamuchly · 25/09/2022 22:52

Banana2079 · 25/09/2022 22:37

Please do complain and take it all the way … who the fuck does he think he is ?
what an arse .. and to speak nastily about you too ? No your not a ‘Karen’ to complain
I would have swore at him

Do you know what hard work retail can be?
It sounds like the worker made a mistake but didn’t deserve being snapped at by OP initially (10 year olds aren’t always honest and she was not watching him) and definitely didn’t deserve her marching back to him to tell a story! He absolutely shouldn’t be calling anyone names on the shop floor but that’s a quiet word with a supervisor, it’s not worth ruining his life by losing him his job which is what will happen if she complains and ‘takes it all the way’!

Retail staff are human too and shouldn’t be treated with disdain. Customer service values are in decline because people are sick of being spoken down to which is why retail and hospitality jobs are now so hard to fill.

ludocris · 25/09/2022 22:53

Ignoring the fact that the child didn't do it in the first place, I wouldn't expect to be told off as an adult for leaving something in the wrong part of the shop. I know it's not a considerate thing to do because it's creates another job for the shop workers to do, but I think telling a customer off for it is OTT.

TheHoover · 25/09/2022 22:54

Personally I’d not have said anything initially except perhaps calling him a tosser under my breath but him calling you any name is bang out of order and I would complain on the basis of that alone.

Mouthfulofquiz · 25/09/2022 22:55

I would say it’s the shop worker that was treating others with disdain. They should get feedback on poor behaviour just the same as anyone else. Retail is hard, I’ve been there. The feedback will be a gift if it stops him acting like a twat going forwards. He’ll have even less of a chance in life.

00100001 · 25/09/2022 22:55

NoJokeBoak · 25/09/2022 22:34

If a police office pulled you over for speeding when you didn't do it would you say he was right because he 'felt' you did something wrong rather than knowing?

Show quote history

If the police officer pulled you over, because you were in a white ford fiesta on a 71 plate and you were going at 75mph and they were following up a call of a "speeding white ford fiesta, 71 plate on M25" it would be reasonable for them to assume you are the car...

Just because it was actually a different car that was reported that happened to be ahead of you, doesn't make it wrong for them to pull you over...

Rosebel · 25/09/2022 22:56

The Karen insult was uncalled for but other than that I think YABU. He didn't shout at your son, just told him the rules. He didn't know your son hadn't done it. I also think you were unreasonable to go over to the assistant and tell him he was wrong
I'd let it go. At ten your son is old enough to know sometimes you get told off and sometimes the telling off is unjustified. Unfortunately that's life.

Cailith · 25/09/2022 22:56

Maybe the shop assistant did not see the initial moving of the bag and only saw the bag being replaced back in the I correct place by the DS.

FrangipaniBlue · 25/09/2022 22:58

They’re both Karen, it’s not about the persons sex it’s the entitled behaviour and childish meltdown that’s follows when they don’t get their way. Clearly mumsnet has no idea what a Karen actually is

Neither do you. You are so very very wrong.

RootinandTootin · 25/09/2022 23:00

FrangipaniBlue · 25/09/2022 22:58

They’re both Karen, it’s not about the persons sex it’s the entitled behaviour and childish meltdown that’s follows when they don’t get their way. Clearly mumsnet has no idea what a Karen actually is

Neither do you. You are so very very wrong.

Explain how I’m wrong? Define a Karen for me.

SoupDragon · 25/09/2022 23:00

NoJokeBoak · 25/09/2022 22:33

But he didn't do it.

The worker was wrong in the first place. How can he be right for telling him off for something he didn't do 🤔

Show quote history

Except he did do it as far as the staff member was concerned. He put the bag on the peg which is what the staff member saw.

Irrespective of that, he absolutely has the right to tell your son off if he saw him doing something wrong. The correct response was not to get arsey with him because he'd told your son off but to point out that your son was just putting something back where it had been knocked from.

Clymene · 25/09/2022 23:00

RootinandTootin · 25/09/2022 22:34

A Karen can be and man or woman so it’s not sexist, it’s a type of person who has an unreasonable meltdown at people (normally people working). It’s an entitled behaviour.

I wouldn’t say you were a Karen, the guy had clearly made a mistake but didn’t know that. He was in the wrong but he probably thought you were one of those people that thinks your kid is an angel. Id be annoyed but just forget about it.

And yet I've never ever heard a man referred to as a Karen.

It's a sexist ageist jibe and it belongs in the bin

SoupDragon · 25/09/2022 23:01

RootinandTootin · 25/09/2022 23:00

Explain how I’m wrong? Define a Karen for me.

Show quote history

Well, it's a woman for a start.

RootinandTootin · 25/09/2022 23:03

This reply has been deleted

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Iamnotthe1 · 25/09/2022 23:04

The shop worker was right to address the situation at hand and speak to your son if he believed him to be acting incorrectly in his place of work.

However, when your son's account was shared, which it may well have been by your son directly had you not intervened, then he should also have apologised for misreading the situation.

Gossiping and laughing with other workers is unprofessional.

SoupDragon · 25/09/2022 23:04

This reply has been deleted

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Stop making stuff up.

FrangipaniBlue · 25/09/2022 23:10

@RootinandTootin Google is your friend

FrangipaniBlue · 25/09/2022 23:10

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Are you 12 by any chance?

Coyoacan · 25/09/2022 23:12

Hate the perfectly nice name of Karen being used as an insult, but where did you get the rule that noone is allowed to tell your son off. If the shop assistant was mistaken your son could have told him

Crumpleton · 25/09/2022 23:13

YANDU for being miffed at being called a Karen, I'm one that hates that saying.
But...
As you didn't actually see for yourself what went on with the bag you really can't complain..
Unfortunately as we hear on MN it's your word against the shop workers.

Isaidnoalready · 25/09/2022 23:13

Calling a customer a Karen while they are still in the shop is a dick move save it for your break time/adtervwork bitch fest show a tiny smidge of professionalism I have zero sympathy for shop workers who act like this

The "game" shops in sports direct seem to attract a type of staff that just live to drive away customers ours moved the staff didn't appear to follow so when I went in I was looking at the lego with my adult dd he said that's not normal lego that's minecraft lego 👀👀 OK? Ummm yes we read the boxes he then stood staring at us until we walked away followed us to the other section with pokemon cards stared some more dd was getting really uncomfortable about how close he was so we left

Probably called us names too in the old store they stayed behind the counter said yell if you need help that was it

catsonahottinroof · 25/09/2022 23:18

Oh I did wonder if this was Sports Direct - didn't know they had a games section. Doesn't surprise me at all in regards to some of their staff (most are fine but some I really don't understand how they get or keep their job).

Blinky21 · 25/09/2022 23:19

If you didn't see what happened then you don't know whose account is correct, so how can you judge. I'd just forget about it

RootinandTootin · 25/09/2022 23:20

FrangipaniBlue · 25/09/2022 23:10

Are you 12 by any chance?

Show quote history

No I just find people like you insufferable.

IdisagreeMrHochhauser · 25/09/2022 23:25

SarahSissions · 25/09/2022 22:43

If your kid is moving stuff around the shop and as a parent you are just ignoring it of course the shop assistant can ask the child to behave.
you are being a bit precious. I don’t like the term Karen, but you should control you child.

Did you get bored half way through the OP and stop reading?

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