Boots employee smacking customer's toddler

owen_money

bitemebankers wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

But we were happy

suki1001

gingin wrote: »

Yes, but to be fair that was in response to Suki's similar example which I quoted and I made no reference to it being similar to the Boots example - granted it went slightly off subject.

Did you mean Valk_Scott?

I think what the whole thing boils down to is the correct intervention. Potential death, that's a whole different matter - I'd rather get shouted at by a parent than think of the other consequence. I remember a friend telling me years ago that a child had been allowed to climb down to the railway tracks at a train station and her disbelief as the mother did nothing. She helped pull the child back up. I'd gladly risk a punch for that - because if you did nothing you'd never forgive yourself.

A situation that could have been handled a different way, which is where the boots story lays, wasn't handled with the correct intervention.

gingin_2

suki1001 wrote: »

Did you mean Valk_Scott?

Yes, sorry, long day

iwb100

Perhaps though, we should be looking at the parents failings in controlling their child adequately in public. I'm happy to let Boots deal with their employee.

As a society we should be dealing with the problems of poor parenting and children being left to run amok.

**professor~yaffle**

suki1001 wrote: »

The worst thing that happened was when I wasn't in. A child had a can of coke and the mother was asked to take the drink away from the child because of the risk of spilling, which she did. But the child moaned so much, she gave it back to him. He then spilt it all over a whole rail of clothing. I saw the damage, coats (expensive), trousers, it ruined a fair few hundred pounds worth of clothes that couldn't be sold and had to be classed as waste. It went everywhere. She just calmly walked out of the store - as far as I know they didn't do anything

I would have thought they'd have been within their rights to bill her for the soiled and unsaleable clothing. Pity they didn't, it might teach her to use her common sense when bringing kids into a clothing store.

The worst case I saw of kids misbehaving was when I was waiting in a doctors surgery, a few years ago now. One woman had two or three young kids with her and her friend had another two or three, and they were all running about the place, up and down the stairs, going absolutely bananas. Several times the receptionist had to come out and tell the mothers to please keep the children sitting down or one of them's going to get hurt.

suki1001

**professor~yaffle** wrote: »

I would have thought they'd have been within their rights to bill her for the soiled and unsaleable clothing. Pity they didn't, it might teach her to use her common sense when bringing kids into a clothing store.

I have no idea why they didn't. It was infuriating - I had to wash the coke off the railings - it must have gone everywhere. The fact is there were so many parents who just did the worst things to shut their children up. The most upsetting was a mother whose baby was crying (must have only been a month or 2 old) in the queue, shouting at him in his face to shut up (as if he'd know what that meant). I'd just finished my shift and my 11 year old dd was there too and she was quite upset. She might have been suffering from PND, but still.

The worst case I saw of kids misbehaving was when I was waiting in a doctors surgery, a few years ago now. One woman had two or three young kids with her and her friend had another two or three, and they were all running about the place, up and down the stairs, going absolutely bananas. Several times the receptionist had to come out and tell the mothers to please keep the children sitting down or one of them's going to get hurt.

I think some parents can become oblivious to things.

bitemebankers

owen_money wrote: »

But we were happy

Indeed. With an unparalleled welfare state, free healthcare and free education to degree level and beyond, well-stocked libraries and so on, why wouldn't you be? Life for ordinary folk was much better a generation or two ago. But don't try to pretend it's all gone wrong just because shop staff aren't allowed to abuse other people's kids.

iwb100

bitemebankers wrote: »

Indeed. With an unparalleled welfare state, free healthcare and free education to degree level and beyond, well-stocked libraries and so on, why wouldn't you be? Life for ordinary folk was much better a generation or two ago. But don't try to pretend it's all gone wrong just because shop staff aren't allowed to abuse other people's kids.

The general lack of discipline that many children now have though, has made things considerably worse.

bitemebankers

iwb100 wrote: »

The general lack of discipline that many children now have though, has made things considerably worse.

Worse how, exactly? I'd say the behaviour (or lack) of other people's kids has had close-to-zero impact on my life. A lot of things have changed in the last 50 years that have made life much harder for ordinary people though.

iwb100

bitemebankers wrote: »

Worse how, exactly? I'd say the behaviour (or lack) of other people's kids has had close-to-zero impact on my life. A lot of things have changed in the last 50 years that have made life much harder for ordinary people though.

Directly it is an irritant. Public transport, shops, restaurants, holidays, all sorts of everyday life can be disrupted through children who are poorly behaved.

Indirectly the behaviour, if unchecked can esacalate as they become older and result in crime, or general anti-social behaviour.

A lot of things have changed over the last 50 years for the positive. However, the poor behaviour of children and societal acceptance of it is not one of them. I agree that it's not the biggest issue of the decade but it is at best an irritant at worst quite dangerous.