to think that checkout staff shouldn't lie to me because my kids were annoying them....

[ChirpyGirl]

At least I am pretty sure he was lying.
I was packing shopping into the trolley as had left bags in teh car, DD's were busy poking the buttons on the pin pad thingy, which they do a lot
Grumpy checkout man says 'you need to stop them doing that, they just pressed a button and it meant you have 2 of these bottles on your shopping now, I've got to delete one'
I said that it didn't affect teh shopping, but if he wanted them to stop then they would but he was insistent that every time they pressed it it added that multiple of the shopping onto my bill and he woudl have to fix it.

He was wrong wasn't he? and if they were pissing him off then fine, say 'stop them, that is annoying me' and I would have moved them, but to make up sucha random lie?

On reflection (and some wine) you are probably all right, he just wanted them to stop...so that begs the question, did he beep through my shopping twice on purpose to back himself up or had he already done it and thought it was a good get out clause....cos he did it with 3 things!

yes he was lying. The chip and pin terminals have no control over the till.

The chip and pin doesn't ainterfere with your shopiing in any way, bt as others have said your children should not have been touching it in teh first place.
and you shouldn't have needed telling.

I imagine he was trying to be polite and used thsi lie to encourage you to stop them in future.

My children do this all the time we must have had extremely lovely checkout staff as they always think it's really funny.

blimey, give her a break, it was an eleven month old, and she was trying to pack shopping with two kids in tow!! It's completely feasable that an eleven month old might touch the chip and pin machine, and that the op might not immediately notice. It would have been less weird if the man had just said, "Oh, don't touch that please!"

God, Mn annoys the crap out of me sometimes (especially when I am in a bad mood ).

Goodness me, "No" , admittedly your child should not have touched the keypad (although, frankly, does it cause any harm?), doubtless your dc is only little, but she should be impeccably behaved at all times because pre-schooler or not this is old enough to not show any spontaneous impulsive behaviour. She should sit ramrod straight in the little seat in the supermarket trolley, only speak when spoken to, and address you respectfully as mama ...(Is it me or do other posters feel sorry for legions of Mn children who seem to have Victorian parents?)

Children will be children. That's not to say that they shouldn't be guided but there are ways and means. Perhaps if you weren't busy packing goods into your carrier bags you should have observed her doing this and asked her to stop, but all the miserable git on the checkout needed to do was smile benovently at you and say something to the effect of "Ah bless her, she's interested in that isn't she - but would you mind asking her to stop?". No offence taken, behaviour stopped, everyone happy.

Not hard is it?

Just re-read 11 months old. Does anybody who wanted the child better behaved feel a complete arse now?

2 - Blimey, that's mature and grown up!! (ignore me, am in foul mood)

Ahem I do try to stop her. She's a little Houdini and can escape the trolley straps so I have to pin her her down to the counter. No pun intended.

Get dd to try it with a cash machine, got me a free £50 lol.

Why would he tell this lie anyway, not likely that an 11month old would understand, should have just asked you to move the trolley along so it was out of reach.

I think it probably is unreasonable to expect an 11mo to behave at the till. But in those days, I always felt it was my responsibility to park the buggy/shopping trolley etc that dc's were in at such an angle that they couldn't reach anything. Usually only a matter of inches, little arms are short. Can understand it if you miss, but if I had I would have apologised profusely.

He is a complete liar and making you look a fool for thinking you would believe him. Of course the chip and pin does not make a difference to your shopping, if that was the case we would all be craftily deleting stuff before we put our number in . Wouldnt we?

Maybe what he really meant was "every time they touch the keypad, it distracts/annoys me and I end up scanning your groceries twice". And, well, it's not impossible that it could've displayed some kind of error message on his til which impeded his scanning.

If you had of stepped in he would'nt need to lie.YABU.

yabu stop your kids from interfering with his job and there would have been no need for the conversation in the first place

Ooo he is lying to you its not connected to your shopping at all. Im not sure why it would annoy anyone if a baby was pressing the buttons I didnt think the buttons on chip and pin make a noise he was just being an Arse

thanks to those defending me, I didn't realise what a bad mother I was for 'allowing' my 11 month old free will to reach out and grab things...

I do know I should have stopped her, but can you all say that your children are perfect and never touch things they aren't supposed to?!

But he still lied to me, which was completely unneccesary IMO...

I would say that an eleven month old is right at the beginning of the process of being taught what they can and cant touch. Also think that being at a checkout with kids of these ages is hard work, you are trying to pack shopping as well as keep an eye on two kids, its hard. Thats why you see so many kids kicking off at the check out, i think all the "you should have controlled your children" comments were abit patronising, surely weve all been in these situations at one time or another where our kids have been less than perfect ( a round of applause for those that haven't!)? I didnt think you were asking about advice for controlling your kids, you were asking about the comments of the man, and I do agree that regardless of whether your kids were getting on his wick or not, what he said was a bit bizarre. Harumph.

Next time they might break the pin pad and then you will have to pay for it - they should not be touching it - ooohhh can't wait till I work on check out at Waitrose - is my goal in life - I will make up lots of random lies to stop kids doing things and then if their mothers complain will say 'well control your brats then' - ooohhh let me out on the public PLEASE!!!