to think this woman's attitude stinks

[froglegs]

I was in my local small supermarket earlier and there were a couple of young girls (estimate ages 6 & 8)standing at the front of the shop tearing up bits of paper and chucking them on the floor.

The security guard asked them who they were with at which point there (I assume) mother appeared. The security guard politely pointed out all the paper on the floor and suggested the girls should pick it up.

The mother's response? 'you've got cleaners to do that' and whisks the girls out of the shop muttering loudly to the children about how rude the guard was and how they didnt have to pick up the paper as thats what cleaners do blah blah.

It makes me sad. What sort of example is that to set to the kids?

It's not just litter... Quite often I will ask a child at school to pick up the coat they have just trodden on and hang it up, only to be informed, "But it's not mine miss".

Shockers, that happened earlier this week. I was waiting outside dd's class for her rather than in the playground. The class piled out and dd's cardigan got knocked off her peg. Child X was standing and twisting on it. I asked him not to and got the same reply, 'it's not mine though Kreecher'.

i was in the car about 5 months ago going to waymouth and my mum needed to strech her legs so we pulled ouer in to a rest bay the lorries use for 10 minutes and caught on the hedge was a dirty open pooy nappy. Along with the wipes they'd obviously used to clean the child hanging decoritivly, almost like it could have been a christmas tree except covered in poo! It was disgusting

eeeeuuugghhhhhh!!!!!
I live in Cyprus and the littering and fly-tipping here is horrendous!
I was in a traffic queue recently and the passenger in the back seat of the car in front opened the window and let their child (aged about 3, no more) lean out of the window and gleefully drop a plastic bottle out, watching it roll along the gutter.
(I'm going to gloss over, for now, the fact that the child had no car seat and was allowed to loosely sit on the passenger's lap- another Cyprus 'trend')
Incensed and totally out of character, I got out of the car, picked up the bottle and passed it backed through the still-open window with a comment of "I think you may have dropped this".
Their faces were a picture.
Just wish I'd had the guts to broach the much more important safety issue, but I'm British and a coward .

chewing gum and fag ends all over the place are my pet hate, though I despise all litter. we have a brand new (less than a yr)pedestrianised development, all herringbone brick paving, in our town centre and there is not a brick of it that does not have gum stuck on it. it looks such a mess. DH had his suit trousers ruined on a bus seat covered in gum

chew it if you must but wrap it and bin it afterwards!

I once lived in a very pretentious Georgian market town or as my mum would say 'all lace curtains and no knickers'. There was a family walking down the High Street who quite obviously did not 'fit in' all tracksuits and shaved heads, tattoos etc amongst the green wellies and Barbour jackets

The son aged about nine spat on the pavement right at my feet. I looked at the Mum, she looked at the child and she punched him in the head!!!

I was so shocked I just stood there while she dragged him off crying down the street.

The mother sounds like she feels entitled.

The kids will be in for a shock.

A man dropped a ticket in the shoe shop yesterday and it annoyed me so I picked it up and put it on the counter. He looked a bit [no emoticon to say what I mean.] I made my point. I hate people dropping litter. It annoys me when my kids leave stuff around the house but then they want to pick up goodness knows what on the way home from school.

pedro - I had to read your posts a couple of times as I thought your mum had punched the spitter.

We have children at school who say this. They don;t say it more than once in my hearing usually though

YANBU. Littering is vile, thoughtless and lazy. I've travelled a bit in the Far East and Japan was a revelation. There is, basically, no litter - because people realise that in a very crowded country, you have to work together to keep your environment as tidy as you can, otherwise it's just chaos. Everyone clears up after themselves in cafes. The idea of going into a coffee-shop there and having to sit at a scuzzy, horrible, food- and drink-smeared table would be unthinkable. Here, it's a common everyday occurrence. I think it's all to do with that appalling 'not my problem' mentality.

I'm not saying Japanese society is perfect, far from it, but that's one of the things about it I definitely approve of!

Fab - my Mother is a 78 year old silver haired granny with cataracts and a dodgy hip - if he had spat at her feet a punch would have been the least of his worries!

Seriously though I often wondered what that Mother thought a 'suitable' punishment was. If she did that quite happily in the street then what did she do at home?

I have digressed from the posting though - of course those little girls should have been made to pick up their mess - some Mums just cannot cope with anyone telling their little cherubs off not matter how deserved - it makes me angry!

pedrothellama - at least the mother did show him that it was not ok to spit - unlike the other parents. Admittedly not the way i personally would go about it