To have been rude to shop assistant

[Mumoftwo52]

Family doing some shopping today. Go into an independent toy shop. I’m holding DD1 (18m) so she doesn’t pull everything off shelves, 4yo DD runs ahead and picks up a unicorn Jellycat and cuddles it saying ‘can I get this please mummy?’. Shop assistant shouts across the room ‘can she put that back if you’re not going to buy it as it’s expensive’. Me and DH exchange glances but I tell DD to put it back.

We keep browsing but I say to DH that I don’t really fancy buying anything now, and say quite loudly in front of the second shop assistant (who turns out to be the owner): ‘let’s go and find another toy shop where we’re allowed to touch the toys’. Yes I was being snarky but was annoyed.

She says these toys are expensive, she owns all the stock so if my DD damages it, it costs her money. I say I’d understand that if she had dirty hands, she doesn’t. I wouldn’t let her touch anything if she did. DH says it’s a shame kids aren’t allowed to touch toys in a toy shop, and that she’s lost a potential sale, she says that they've had bad experiences in the past and anyway it was clear we weren’t going to buy anything. I said ‘why do you think that?’ She replied: ‘it just is’. We quickly left.

AIBU for letting my kids touch toys in a toy shop? To be clear, this was a soft toy, not something delicate. My DD was holding it in her arms, nothing more.

I have kids and you do sound pretty entitled OP.
the owner wasn’t to know your child wasn’t covered in snot / ice cream / anything else

But given how rude you’ve been to the previous poster I’m getting an impression of the sort of person you are and I doubt you are the sort of person if you had 100% of replies saying you were in the wrong would you accept you were

Personally I think owning a toy shop and not expecting children to pick things up is silly. I'd have done the same thing.

Well aren’t you a peach

You were the rude one

You can tell who the parents of bratty kids are on this thread, clearly.

What’s your experience with 18 month old babies? OP has a point.

You came into this thread to be bitchy and didn’t like it back 🤷‍♀️

OP, you’re normal, don’t bite with these people 💖

How does she know your child's hands are clean? But she was pretty abrupt, borderline rude.
It seems odd to try and enforce a rule like that without clear signage instruction not to touch. Presumably instinct in any shop is to pick things up before you buy them.

So you could have said that she would be better off putting up a sign. Rather than ending up in confrontation with customers.

Overall it's her who lost out so she's more reason to avoid coming off rudely. Though it probably wasn't either of your finest hours.

I would have been annoyed too. I definitely wouldn’t have purchased anything from there either.

The comment about you clearly not intending to buy anything would have been like a red rag to a bull to me 🙈

Just because it's a toy shop doesn't mean that stock is there for children to play with - it's for people to buy, take away and play with. They may have an area with toys that can be touched, but this will be clearly marked and will have the sort of toys that can be cleaned - not white soft toys that are easily damaged.

Just like the plates at John Lewis - you can't sit down and eat your packed lunch on it to see if you like them.

I don't like your attitude that shops should expect their stock to be damaged - they can't run a business like that and I imagine you would not pay for the damaged Jellycat that your child had 'cuddled'

Buy first, play later.

That is really nasty of you!
Most 4 year old know not to touch things in shops.

She was rude and you were rude and entitled

Only those adults whose parents didn’t teach them proper manners/hygiene as children, barring other extenuating circumstances…

At the end of the day you have to be a bit of knobhead to get into a back and forth argument like this with someone in a shop.

Did you get a toy from the other toy shop then call back in to tell her she’d made a big mistake? Huge?

I have nieces, nephews and godchildren. I wasn’t bitchy, I made the point that I thought her behaviour wasn’t good - which was the point of the thread - she asked people’s opinions. I responded. She didn’t have to like my response, but it wasn’t rude… and then she got really rude.

I've got 3 and I agree. You sound very entitled.

Ofcourse children are going to touch the toys in a toy shop. I would have left too OP.

should the owner perhaps be a little more understanding given they own a toy shop? Possibly yes.

does this give you carte Blanche to be rude. No no it doesn’t

does someone not having children mean they can’t comment on this - no of course it doesn’t. Because being a parent doesn’t again give you carte blanche to be rude

this isn’t about judging your parenting it is about your attitude

Goodness it's hard enough being a retail
Independent owner without entitled parents like you seem to be. And you're bragging about it.

The baby is 18 months old, of course she doesn’t understand not to touch.

She’s 18 months old….no concept of ‘how to behave’

Your child CUDDLED a toy

She didn't pick it up and look at it

She cuddled it

Until that toy was hers she should not be cuddling it imo

“Don’t handle the merchandise” is a fairly basic premise, op.
Weren’t you ever taught that yourself?

The older one isn’t, and op still expects no more from her 🤷🏻‍♀️