I know it’s hard being an independent shop, that’s why I went into one trying to buy something. I support independent businesses as much as I can You support small businesses but you refuse to engage with the concept that they have zero margin for writing off grubby or damaged stock?
Some kids have sticky hands, sure. Mine didn’t (we’d just come from lunch and she’d washed them) so before shouting to a customer across the room to put an item down, perhaps take a look at said child and assess whether they are actually likely to damage the item That’s hysterical! Should they be standing at the door demanding to examine hands and faces as children walk in? Or maybe a more hands off approach, like ‘that kid looks respectable, so she can touch the toys, but that kid looks like a right little toe rag and might tear the packaging, so she can’t’? I thought you supported small businesses? How long do you think they’d last if they had a policy like that? I don’t think you’ve thought this through.
A lot of you seem to be really perfect parents. Constantly saying ‘no’, look don’t touch, keeping kids on a tight leash. Fortunately we don't live in the 1920s anymore and I’m going to let my kids have a bit more freedom and actually let them be kids. That means allowing my 4yo to walk a metre ahead of me in a toy shop rather than by.my.side.at.all.times. Why do you think that teaching your children how to behave properly means that you have to be a perfect parent? It’s a fairly basic part of parenting. It goes along with teaching them to say please and thank you, taking turns, not snatching or grabbing etc. All very basic stuff. And if you’re in a busy area, I’d have thought that keeping a four year old (who, let’s face it, are not an age group known for their impulse control) next to you at all times would have more to do with basic safety rather than 1920s style parenting.
Seems to me that there is a very clear solution: toy shops that don’t want their toys touched should have a sign up saying so You want a sign up for everything that should be blatantly obvious? Where should we draw the line with that? ‘Children, please don’t set up a swing ball tournament in the middle of aisle 2’?
To the person that said Jellycats aren’t toys and shouldn’t be treated as such, what are you on about I’m not a collector so I’m with you on that one. But, they’re 60 quid. If you hadn’t been looking to buy one anyway, and she’d got it grubby, would you have been willing to hand over £60 for something that is essentially an overpriced cushion you can cuddle, that won’t even go with your decor?
I posted an AIBU because I genuinely was interested if this no touching rule was commonplace as my local independent toy shop is certainly not like that and happy for kids to enjoy themselves in store Really? You’re sticking with that, are you? Because if you were being honest, and that was really the reason you posted, you’d have seen the responses and said ‘Wow, I’m really surprised. I thought it was commonplace to allow your children to pick up whatever they liked in shops’. Instead, you doubled down. I think you posted because you were feeling like she’d criticised your parenting skills and you wanted validation that you and your DH weren’t at fault and what a terrible and unreasonable person the shop owner was. But she wasn’t. She’s just a small business owner trying to protect her stock from grubby children. She might do it differently from your local shop, but that doesn’t make her wrong. She wasn’t telling you that you and your DH were clearly terrible parents and that SS should be involved. She was just asking you both to help her make sure her stock wasn’t damaged. And nobody on here is accusing either of you of being the world’s worst parents. The way to make sure you don’t have to experience this again is to make sure your DD has it ingrained in her that you look but don’t touch until it’s paid for, unless the shop is specifically inviting her to do so, like Hamleys do with their ‘tester’ toys. You’re doing her a disservice if you don’t do that, because she went in that shop full of excitement and happiness and I expect she left feeling very differently, and not understanding what happened or why.