Shitty Parents Are Among Us

There's this woman that comes in every day that I do not like. She buys lottery tickets every time she's in and usually spends about $30 each day on them.

Sometimes she brings her son in. He's a nice kid, about 12 years old.

One time they were in my store together, and she was buying her lottery tickets. He kept asking her if he could get some candy and she said no. He kept asking and asking, and you know what she did? She slapped him across the face in front of everybody to get him to shut up.

He didn't cry or anything, but was really embarrassed. Now, I understand not wanting to give your kids every single thing they ask for in the store, but that's no reason to hit them. She has no problem buying her lottery tickets every day, but couldn't spend $1 on her own son?

It makes me wonder how much more abuse she gives at home if she can slap him in front of everybody like nothing.

I didn't see her hit her kid, but I was there that day. It made me wonder what I would have done if I would have seen that happen. Would I have said something? Or not?

What would you do? If you saw a kid get slapped in the face for asking for candy, would you say something to the parent? Or would you stay out of it?

What Did You Just Say?

Worked night shift again last night. This time there was almost drama. Almost.

A guy came in with his daughter around midnight. I was ringing him up at the counter when his daughter (about 10 years old) wanted to pick out candy so she started looking at some.

This customer behind them then shouted out to the little girl 'You don't want candy, it's not good for you.'

This girl's father shot the guy a death look. So, the guy keeps talking, mostly to himself, about how candy isn't good for little kids.

I finish ringing up the father and his daughter and on the way out the father gives this customer the evil eye the whole time. I thought he was going to ask the guy to take it outside. I would have brought the popcorn.

But, alas, nothing happened. If it did though, I would have totally sided with the father. People open their big mouths way too often. Sometimes a punch in the throat is all it takes to make someone mind their own business.

Another Crappy Kid Story

Today we had another kid come in with his mother. This kid was about 5 years old and the mother must have decided that she didn't feel like watching him in the store.

This little brat decided that he would destroy everything in his path. He knocked things off shelves, opened up packages, and broke displays.

When one of the employees confronted the mother about this, she replied with "Oh, he's just a bad kid" and continued getting her coffee.

So the employee decided that he would charge her for the bags of peanuts and candy bars that this kid opened. What did the mother do? She decided to argue about it because she didn't think she should be charged, stating again, that he's "just a bad kid".

The funny thing about this was that there were 3 people sitting outside in this mother's car, so this crappy kid didn't need to come into the store at all.

This was one of those times that I wish I had been there, because I probably would have gone all Jerry Springer on this woman.

People, our job description is CASHIER, not BABYSITTER. Watch your kid when they are in a store with you. If they break shit, then YOU have to pay for it. And people wonder why prices are so high. It's because we have to make up for it when you get kids destroying products!

When Will Thieves Ever Learn?

Why do people think they can get away with stealing? We have signs EVERYWHERE that say you are on camera and you will be prosecuted if caught.

We had a teenager come in yesterday on his way to school. We proceed to see him on camera set his bookbag down on the ground and stuff it full of drinks. Unfortunately we didn't know this until after he had left.

So we called the cops, and they came to take a report. We had the kid on camera doing this, but the bad part was that he walked to school, so we didn't have any kind of a license plate or anything to catch him.

Except that he was wearing a distinguishable plaid hoodie.

So, since we didn't have anything else to do, we walked over to the school around the time he was getting out.

After awhile we seem him walking with his girlfriend, so we call the cops that we talked to and walked over to the kid.

After being confronted, he denied everything at first and his girlfriend's mom started sticking up for him saying he's not going to talk to anyone until the police arrive. Fine.

Once the police showed up, he admitted that he had been thirsty that morning and didn't have any money to buy anything.

Thirsty? Thirsty would be stealing ONE drink. Of water. Not shoving six or seven Gatorade's in your backpack so you can share them with all your friends.

Apparently he should stay in school if he couldn't read our hundreds of signs in the store about being watched on camera.

Watch Your Kids, Please.

I don't mind seeing little kids in the store, I think many of them are so adorable.

What I don't like is when a parent comes in with their kids, and then lets them run around the store touching/breaking stuff while the parent is talking on their cell phone.

We see tons of little children every day in the store with their parents. And about 95% of them stick next to their parents and are quiet, not saying a word. They are especially cute when I try to talk to them and they get all shy and hide behind their parent's leg.

It's that 5% that make me want to pull my hair out.

I don't mind if someone lets their kids roam the store. But make sure they aren't picking items up and trying to open them (candy bars, bags of chips). I can't stand it when I see parents on their cell phones while their kids run wild and we, the cashiers, are left to babysit them.

And on the rare occasion that one of us actually says something to these parents, we are then made to look like the bad ones, not them.

We are not babysitters. Don't abandon your children so you can have a good time talking on the phone to your BFF.

We get a lot of weirdos in the store. Heck, there's a lot of weirdos all over the world. If you aren't paying attention to your children, these weirdos might be. And when you are on your phone and not watching your children, these weirdos may take them. Pay attention to your kids at all times.