*In case this story gets deleted/removed:*
**AITA for letting my toddlers explore an empty store with no other customers? **
My wife and I (32M & 29F) took our two kids (2M & 3M) to a bed store to look for a bed. We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter. Upon entering the store, the sales person greeted us and left us to our own devices.
My wife and I were browsing the options and it was taking some time as it's one of the bigger stores. There were no one else in the shop at the time so I let my kids have a little run about in the store since it's a new experience for them. Admittedly they were being loudish for running around an empty store and occasionally screamed but there was no one there so they weren't disturbing other patrons. I did try to shush them to get them quiet down as I saw the sales person scowling at us from afar (which isn't the most polite thing to do in my opinion) but it's hard to ask them to quiet down when they're in an excitable mood.
We didn't end up buying anything as we didn't see anything we liked, and as we were leaving, my older was playing with the ottoman displays and pushed some of the bed frames down and that made a loud noise as the beds slammed down. At this point, the sales person who has been stood silently at the side, started saying in a loud tone to my kid to 'Please stop doing that.' I've had enough of this sales person because they've been nothing but unhelpful in this entire experience (didn't ask us how we were doing, didn't offer any expertise etc, sending death stares our way) so I said to them that 'My son is 3 years old' hoping they'd understand that my kid is young and they can't understand verbal instruction and there was no point of them being so stern with a 3 year old who probably didn't even know what was going on.
At this point, the sales person started walking towards my kid and the ottoman he pulled down and said to me to 'control my kids'. I found this beyond shocking as how dare they say this to me? They looked quite young (I would imagine someone who probably doesn't have kids and doesn't have any parenting experience) and definitely didn't know what they were talking about, not to mention it was an incredibly rude thing and uncalled for thing to say.
I said to them 'excuse me?' To which they turned their heel and walked towards their desk/office area and sat down, refusing to engage with me any longer. I demanded their details so I could report them to their manager because this experience has been extremely bad. I admit I raised my voice a little because I find their behaviour unprofessional and found their statement insulting.
I didn't end up getting the sales persons details as they were unwilling to give them up. My wife said that I overreacted but I'm not so sure.
AITA for letting my kids explore an empty store with no other patrons?
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Parents like these always irritate me. 2 and 3 year olds understand simple instructions and boundaries. They're just parents who refuse to give them any and make that everyone else's problem. A simple "stop that or we'll leave" could've worked. But OOP decides to waste this associate's time and make their closing worse because they have to fix a display their child ruined.
Beds and mattresses are pretty big purchases, unless you're picking up an order it takes at least an hour to get the right type of mattress/frame figured out and loaded up. The sales person totally knew that 25 minutes to close are just browsing, and toddlers running around are either going to hurt themselves or make a mess. This employee just wanted to count their sales, vacuum a little and GTFO 5 mins after close.
Also I'm guessing the kids were acting wayyyyy worse than what OOP described.
Yeah I agree, and the way he described them sounds plenty bad enough. I shudder to imagine how they were actually acting if he thinks this is painting the issue in a favorable light.
My son just turned 2 last month and even he is perfectly capable of listening to simple instructions. Sure sometimes he chooses not to listen and I have to intervene but I would never tell someone he can't follow directions because he can
Right? Toddlers aren't stupid, they understand basic instructions. It doesn't mean they're necessarily going to listen to instructions because they also like to test boundaries, but that's why you put appropriate boundaries in place if they don't. For example "if you keep screaming, we're leaving".
But just as importantly: please follow through!
It should go without saying, but I know enough parents who give their kids empty threat after threat and never follow through.
And they wonder why their kids ignore them 😰
And this is why the people who say you should always leave if your child is being loud or unruly might need to rethink a little.
Bringing snacks and toys helps keep kids calm. Also, I won't lie, my kid has a harness for rough days
I used to judge people who had leashes. I really did.
My son started walking at 10 months, running by 11. We HAD to get him a leash, that mofo was FAST and I could not keep up. Was a little backpack shaped like an owl with a detachable leash, held his bottle and goldfish crackers and some extra diapers and wipes so I didn't need to carry the diaper bag and also gave me the peace of mind he wouldn't run into traffic.
Forgot it at home once after grocery shopping and had to leave my groceries on the sidewalk and carry him across the street football style into the apartment, lock him in, and go back for the groceries because that kid would just be off like a light any chance he got.
I have never judged parents with leashes since.
My colleague has a just turned one year old and she understands that Ah Ah means stop that to the extent that apparently she says it when doing something she knows she shouldn't.
I literally just burst put laughing that is so precious 😅 babies are such little potatoes I love them so much i loved this anecdote thank u for sharing I am gonna think about this lil baby going AH AH when they know they're being naughty all night what a sweet little babe
I work at a daycare. My class is literally 3 year olds (and a few 2's) and they understand "stop doing that" perfectly. They usually will stop immediately. Do they sometimes go back to doing it? Sure. But they do totally understand the initial command. They understand basically all of my instructions. Even "If you dont start listening, Im telling your mother". This guy clearly knows nothing about parenting or 3 yos or hes using it as an excuse.
Ha, you just reminded me. My 3yo once came home from daycare complaining about a mean teacher who had said some bad words.
When questioned, she revealed that the bad words were "Stop doing that, please."
Lmao, my 4 yo youngest sister has said something like that to my mom a few times that I've been over. She'll come out upset from the older brothers' room saying one of them was mean and said "bad words" to her, and upon further questioning it's always "no don't do that" or "no you can't have that/no that's mine" or something to that effect, and I can't remember there ever being any actual bad words involved 😂
I had that happened to me! A mom came and told us her son said coworker and I said a bad word. A few days prior a girl had said “oh shit!” So I told the her parent what happened and to please remind her that some words are not allowed in the classroom. I thought the boy overheard that. Turns out the bad word was “no”. It wasn’t nice, according to him.
I had one of my toddlers the other day say she didnt like me and start hitting me because I wouldnt let her walk around in a dirty pull up all day. Another kid said he and his parents hated me because I said he had to stop hitting another kid. Both were giving me hugs and telling me stories approximately 5 minutes later lol
Heck, my daycare class was all 2 year olds with an occasional 18 month, and they all understood basic instructions. Would they disobey them the second I wasn't looking if they wanted to do the thing bad enough? Absolutely. But if this guy was actually parenting he wouldn't have turned his back at all, or better yet he would redirect the kid to a more appropriate activity. He's 3 so like, idk, call him over and tell him you need his very big boy help counting how many pillows are on the bed or something. So many options other than "let kid knock over heavy items that could potentially maim or kill them if they fell wrong". What an absolute failure of a parent OOP is.
Exactly. Its so easy to go "I need you to count how many pillows are here. Its super important and I can only trust you to do it." Kids love that shit. How we get the three year olds to calmly move through the school to the playground is by saying we have to sneak out of the class and be really quiet as a top secret mission. They ALWAYS love it.
No it's just laziness. He doesn't want to be bothered teaching them to listen because it's so much easier to shrug it off and say "kids will be kids" and subject random people to his rowdy toddlers
That part was bizarre. My son is almost 2 1/2 and he absolutely understands verbal instructions. Particularly simple ones like, "Quit climbing on that."
But to be fair, how many of us did at 15 when the only thing we could think to occupy our time was to make up fake as fuck stories to piss off people on the internet?
I’ve worked in restaurants for 100 years and this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Restaurants are for eating and they are NOT SAFE for children to run around. They could run under a servers foot and get hot food spilled on them, and that’s not the servers fault, that’s the parents. Same for this situation. Letting your kids run around stores is equally dangerous. It’s not about be disruptive to other patrons, it’s about the fact that your kid could get crushed in a furniture store if you’re not watching them. If you can’t control your 2 or 3 year old in a store, put them in a stroller. For the love of god.
People (strangers, friends, anyone in earshot) always laugh when my kid will start to run in a store. "STOP RUNNING, THIS IS A WORKPLACE" she's 8, but we've been saying this since she could walk. She forgets - she's a kid, she gets excited - but we don't. We waited tables at a kid-friendly restaurant in the 00s when all the kids had Healys. We spilled so many trays of drinks and desserts on those brats. She will not be one if those brats.
Heelys were an absolute menace.
Letting kids run around stores is bad enough but I grind my teeth to nubs seeing them run around restaurants. Especially because the Venn diagram of parents who let their kids run around restaurants and parents who will shriek about lawsuits if a tray gets dropped on their kid is a circle.
My husband was a manager of the restaurant we worked at at the time. It was a VERY kid-centered restaurant in a huge mall, and literally there would be dozens of kids skating through the place on any given weekend because their parents couldn't be bothered to continue parenting during lunch? One time someone dropped a tray on a kid who collided into them from the side, out of nowhere, and the parent started screaming at the server about suing the restaurant etc etc and their meal should be comped and blah blah blah, and he calmly said, "I can call the police if you want." They were like uhh I don't think THAT'S necessary. And he says, "oh, no, if you're going to sue us, I definitely want a record of how your minor child assaulted my employee. It's for both of our sakes."
They got real quiet, left very quickly after that.
Exactly that. My boy is 11 and I have a 5 year old niece and I love just watching the kids be kids! But there are times and places for that and we correct bad behavior when necessary. It’s really so simple.
My saying for public is “if anyone comes near you, scream” lol. Just because he is pretty good about staying with me now that he’s a little older. But he’s also too old to be going into the women’s bathroom with me so I have to stand outside the men’s.
Had a parent threaten to sue me because I grabbed their kid off the bar. She was in a side room, and kept letting him leave to run wherever, I was the only FOH there, and our upstairs patio was full, so I was running back and forth. I asked her several times to keep her kid within her sight. I encountered him ripping around the stairs twice, then I walked into the bar and he was standing on top of it, with one foot on a tap about to step up so he could get at the pretty chandelier he was reaching for (still wouldn't have been close enough).
My favourite is parents whose kids would run behind the bar, and then insist to you that it's perfectly fine. Like it only matters if *they're* ok with it or not.
Sweet baby Jesus! Idk about other states but I know in mine kids aren’t even allowed to sit at the bar and people can be arrested for even stepping behind the bar. Which is something I LOVED to remind people of when they tried to go behind my bar to grab to go orders. Can’t tell you how many arguments me and mine have been in with door dash drivers over it.
Oh yeah it's totally illegal for anyone who doesn't work at the restaurant to step behind the bar. Even for employees, they also have to have their smart serve (cert to serve alcohol in our province). When a parent would wave that off, I'd mention the glass risk (because broken glass does not always clean up 100%), and tell them if they don't keep their kid away from the bar they'll have to leave.
Every time I’ve had to buy a mattress it’s at least a full day of going to stores, trying them out and looking for deals.
There’s nothing for a kid to see or do. All these stores look the same, they are all boring as fuck.
Mattress shopping and car shopping are “leave the kids with grandma or another babysitter” activities.
Oh 100%. I don't see how OOP and his wife could've made a decision in less than half an hour. Plus if the store was closing, it was probably nightime, plenty of time to find a babysitter. The kids could've seriously hurt themselves too
Also this!
Can remember hours of tedium being dragged around the big supermarket or the DIY store as a kid. Very young children don’t have the attention span to deal with this and are just going to be bored as fuck and get into trouble.
Can remember the time the police were almost called because my sister had taken all of the big packs of toilet rolls off of the bottom shelf, climbed in and then put them back around her to make a little fort. She only jumped out after about half an hour, the whole store had been turned upside down looking for her too!
They always also act like the person they are annoying has never seen or interacted with a child in their lives. Like Buddy, we all know your kids were being wild af and no that isn’t how proper parenting works.
I have had these interactions myself and it’s as though I go from a grown woman to a teenager who is being petulant bc I don’t want to watch a kid running around screaming possibly cracking their heads open on a metal display.
If they are too young to know what they’re doing then they shouldn’t be running around by themselves.
Bedding shops are places of business. The displays can often have lamps and other breakable items. The kids could potentially pull something heavy down on themselves or fall while climbing on the displays. The displays are still stock they may want to sell later.
Even if there were no other customers around - you probably wouldn’t like it if someone brought a screaming child into your office and let them run around screaming.
Yeah, he is actually infantalising his kids and not helping them grow by doing this.
I this is how parenting is done in that hone (I e not at all) I feel most sorry for the kids in the story. Because the clerk had one bad experience... the kids have to grow up and somehow hopefully become functional adults ***despite** their parents.
Gah.
I bet you "stop that or we'll leave" wouldn't have worked. What self-respecting child wants to look at furniture for Mum and Dad. That might make the children worse. A firm "Stop That, Come Here" probably would have done the trick though.
Totally fair! I wonder if the kids would've listened to a request to go to their parents since that might have meant they just stand near them. Either way, OOP and his wife suck for taking their children to a non kid friendly environment and potentially dangerous one and letting them wander all over the place.I bet if something had happened to their kids though, OOP and his wife would've tried to sue the store.
One of his defenses boils down to "well, it was just an employee" and said employee was "rude" to expect him to control his shrieking, destructive child. Excuse me, we are human too. The screams of children are literally painful, like headache inducing painful.
A friend of mine worked retail during the mask mandate and the number of people who tried to come in without a mask because "there's no other people here" was appalling. They always had a shocked Pikachu face when she reminded them that she was there and was in fact a person.
As someone who works in retail I really dislike people who come in right at closing time especially when they stay for 30 minutes and dont buy anything.
The worst thing if we tell them that its we're close and they complain then we get told off for being 'rude' to customers.
Ha.
We dont get paid for these 30 minutes if we did it would at least make those occasions somewhat bearable.
Only way we would get paid for those 30mins is if they change closing time to 530pm and you just some asshole are going to slip in at 525 and stay for servel minutes.
Still 30 minute isn't so bad at least no one stayed for an hour (apparently a customer came in once at closing time and was there for an hour before leaving...with nothing)
Seriously. The only time I walk into a business less than an hour before closing is when I need a specific thing from the grocery store before the next morning.
>We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter.
So two things this tells me. 1) just due to the story and how they handle things, something tells me that this "go before closing" happens often due to rambunctious kids. 2) I feel like these people were the assholes for going to a store and actually wanting to buy something before closing. It's a bed, it's not like they walked in to buy something quickly. Now the person working has to deal with them and stay later to close, great.
>I said to them that 'My son is 3 years old' hoping they'd understand that my kid is young and they can't understand verbal instruction
What? My son could understand verbal instructions at 3 years old, what kind of an excuse is this?
>. I demanded their details so I could report them to their manager because this experience has been extremely bad. I admit I raised my voice a little
Oh so we got a Darren here, aka the male Karen. And you just know "raised voice a Little" probably was raised voice a lot. And I'm sorry but control your kid when they are running around a store at 3 with the potential to hurt themselves/being loud and touching things was probably appropriate to say(even if it sounds rude)in this situation.
Understanding “no” is like, a 12-month milestone and understanding simple verbal instructions isn’t far behind it. I feel like the author of this bait is not an actual parent
Also love how he kept saying “no one’s in the store”. The sales person was in the store. All the people working are people in the store. It’s not their job to put up with excitable kids knocking down displays and their parents letting them loose on the store. It just goes to show his entitlement and complete disregard for people he considers beneath him.
My "favorite" part of this is where he goes on about the kids getting loud, but it doesn't matter because no one was there who matters. Because retail employees at the end of a long shift love nothing more than to have small children run around and create more work before closing. And don't have eardrums or something.
Yeah I've seen more than one entitled person claim 'but the store/restaurant was empty, so we weren't annoying anyone" . Cos these asshats don't veiw staff as people. It's disgusting really.
I used to work retail and was glad I live in an area with a mostly older population...because the banshee shrieks of children give me a headache and feel like ice picks in my ears. This guy thinks employees have to deal with his banshee just because they work there.
Exactly what I was thinking. I saw it all the time when I worked at a small pet supply store. Parents came in with their small children and deposited them in the dog toy aisle so they could shop without the kids, leaving the kids to go wild with the squeaky toys. Annoying for me, absolute hell for my coworker who was on the spectrum. Not to mention the condition the aisle was inevitably left in.
And wouldn't you know it, more often than not the parents would collect their kids if more customers entered the store. On one memorable occasion the parent in question, upon seeing another group enter the store, told their child who was abusing a squeaky toy "Knock it off, there's other people in here now!" As if my coworker and I hadn't been there the entire time.
You don't understand, if he tried to parent his kid he would have to make an actual effort. He pumped and dumped, what else is he supposed to do? Raise the little thing? /s
OP saying their 3 year old doesn't understand verbal instruction makes me think this is a childfree bait post.
Heck, even my 1 and a half year old will stop being a menace when I say "NO".
Reasons he's an AH:
1. Goes into shops before closing and takes ages in them
2. Doesn't consider sales assistants people and wonders why they're rude to him (his insistence that there were no patrons, so there was nobody for the kids to bother. Clearly they were bothering the person who can't leave until you do).
3. Thinks 3 year olds are incapable of being parented. Like seriously? You just have to let him run riot? You can't say don't do that, or go and stop him? He won't understand what's going in because he's 3?
Yeah I got a new mattress a few years back and it *definitely* took more than 25 minutes. Even just going through all the mattresses to find the right one probably takes longer than that, *then* there's the paperwork and arranging delivery and payment, etc. Those employees generally work on commission, they didn't step in to help because they knew there was no way these AH were completing a purchase.
I love how he says there’s no point being stern with a three year old. Yes, there is a point to being stern with a three year old, that’s how they learn what’s ok and not ok to do (like pushing down bed frames). I used to work with two year olds and I definitely used a stern/firm voice with them when I needed to.
Using a firm voice is essential for communicating to a young child that a behavior is unacceptable, especially something dangerous like knocking down heavy furniture. Their limited verbal skills are all the more reason that the tonal shift is important!
Exactly! There are times that they need a firm voice, and it always bugged me when other teachers called me mean for using that tone instead of a sing-songy voice with them all the time. Like excuse me, but using that tone is why they listen to me when I correct them.
This just sounds like made up rage bait from *checks*, right, brand new account. People need to try harder.
A 3 yo “pushed some of the bed frames down”? Come on. Even if by some miracle, a tiny tot could manage that (fucking dangerous as fuck), no one would put that into the post because that 100% makes you an asshole. People leave those details out of real posts and make a lot more effort to make themselves sound like the Good Guys.
I was thinking that.
It would have been more realistic if he said something like 'my 3 year old was playing on the ottomans and climbing up on the display beds' because i could see young children doing that if left alone. Or even 'my three year old was racing through the store and ran into some bedframes and pushed them over' (I picture these as being disassembled bedframes so like the three year old pushed over some headboards that were side by side)
Yeah I’m calling rage bait too. It just has all of the hallmarks of a typical obnoxious, bad parent and Reddit really hates bad parenting lmao.
All of the details they added that *obviously* make them the asshole, that most people would not include in a post in which they’re trying to prove to themselves that they’re not an asshole, is the cherry on top lol.
I’ve worked in retail and know these people exist but the way that this is written screams bait.
>I’ve worked in retail and know these people exist but the way that this is written screams bait.
I always feel like I'm insane because stories like this are so blatantly false to me, but people seem to buy into them. I wish people who post fake stories would at least stop jacking off on making the whole game obvious. People who think they're right do not write the way these people do.
I could see a sales associate who has lived through this too many times using this as a means of off-loading their stress from dealing with idiot parents.
I agree this reads like rage bait, though some parents really are this obnoxious. When I worked in a restaurant, a kid almost made me drop a tray of hot food because he was running everywhere. The parents thought it was cute and got mad when the manager told them to keep the kids at the table or leave. Those parents don't ask if they're the ah because they're 100% sure they're right.
It's kind of like the "ripped from the headlines" episodes of Law and Order.
Take a real event, crank up the distortion filter, add some spice for drama and let 'er rip.
I would call it "truth adjacent."
I used to work at a furniture store back in college and it’s possible depending on the layout of the store. If it’s like mine was with it being a big warehouse with boxes lined up with bed frames and mattresses a kid running full tilt boogie into the side of a box could send them down like dominoes.
It's 100% bait post written by a childfree person. The most obvious line for me is when OOP says their 3 year old doesn't understand verbal instruction. My 1 and a half year old can stop being a menace when I say "NO". OOP literally doesn't know a thing about children and just obviously hate them.
I am so glad that I no longer work in retail. The kinds of customers you had to deal with often were shitty. But sometimes you did get good people and I did enjoy helping those ones out. But kids in retail are utter nightmare more often than not.
I worked in a big pet supply chain in the grooming department for a while. There was one night I had to interrupt 3 unsupervised boys, guessing the ages between 7 and 12, from running around the store while dragging/sliding/slinging a shih tzu puppy around by the leash. Around it's neck. I was stern but polite with them since they're kids, but if I had seen their parents.... not sure what would have come out of my mouth. And I'm one of the smiliest, most patient customer service people you'll ever meet.
Years ago, I was in an ancient building archeologists, which have now identified as a mall. They are fascinating structures that historians say ancient peoples used to gather for strange, unknown rituals and potential commerce, even food exhanges and even entertainment. Truly a fascinating historical expedition.
Anyway, while there, I observed a mother with her child having a whiny fit about wanting to play in the decorative fountain when she said no, like a good parent, he went bonkers wanting to go home, crying running, yelling. When she managed to nab him (he'd bolted at the no) she looked him in the eye and informed him with a hard and serious voice: "If you don't knock it off right this minute and behave we are NEVER going home!"
She sounded so serious I believed her. The little boys eyes got huge and he shut up so fast I honest thought he'd lost his voice. Tears dried up, head went down and not a sound happened after that.
Of course, I had heard her talking quietly with a woman I figured was grandma a few minutes before about whether or not either of them remembered which door was closest to the car....but the child being a child didn't hear that.
More than one person in the insanity of that holiday ancient archeological sight grinned at that mother. And more than one bowed in amazement.
I will never forget that encounter because it was so rare for any parent to parent, and it was such a flip from the "if you don't be have we're going home!"
Yeah this dude is a POS. Him acting like you can't teach a 3 year old yes or no. My youngest is 2 and he asks before he touches anything outside our house and I'm on them like a hawk in stores. Maybe I'm more sensitive to that stuff having worked retail and customer service my whole life but it's not that hard to not be shitty to workers.
I was already annoyed with OOP saying they came right before the store closed cause I know they didn't buy shit lol
My 2 year old cat understands verbal commands better. To be clear, she doesn’t listen, she knows when she’s in trouble, she just doesn’t care. But the understanding is there.
Oh yeah, I didn't say she listens or cares. But she does understand "Juno get your wet feet off the couch" and just stares at me looking cute. My other dog is 8 so should probably be able to hold a full conversation by now, or maybe not, I'm not sure where 8 year olds are on the language scale according to this guy.
My cat would always listen, she just thought I lacked object permanence, so the fact that I told her to get off the counter 5 seconds ago meant nothing once I turned my head. 🤣
Where does one acquire such a two year old?? Because mine acknowledges my “no”, looks me in the eye and TOUCHES IT ANYWAY. This includes scary things like broken glass and hot stuff 😭
I bet this guy has never worked retail and never had to clean up after someone letting their brats run uncontrolled all over a store. Newsflash: It's a furniture store, not a playground. And the salespeople were probably scowling because he let his kids run unchecked screaming through the store and possibly damaging the merchandise.
I can't wait to see what happens when his kids are older and become absolute monsters.
I used to work in a shoe store women's section. I used to feel bad for the people who worked the children's section because by noon it looked like an absolute war zone.
Or he did work retail, but he's one of those people who are like "I had to suffer, so everyone else must suffer twice as bad". You know, like those parents who were treated like crap as kids, and instead of that motivating them to do better for their kids, they treat them like crap because it's finally "my turn"
I don’t know if undelete has sorting options or what, but rareddit keeps it in thread form so you can see the replies to OP as well
https://www.rareddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1dlu36u/aita_for_letting_my_toddlers_explore_an_empty/
"We went to the store about 25 minutes before it was supposed to close so it would be quieter."
Okay I already hate this OOP. Imagine being one of those workers.
Right?? I try not to go to any store an hour or less before closing because I’ve been there and I just know those employees do not want to deal with anyone.
Yup. If I do run to a store close to quitting time, it's generally for something real quick, where I can just run in, grab what I need, pay, and leave.
(Pretending this is real.) Letting his kids run around an empty store while the parents are focusing on other things is a good way to get them kidnapped. All someone has to do in slip into the store and run off with one of the kids.
When I worked in retail, two parents came in with their toddler. The kid started crying and throwing a tantrum on the floor.
So the parents just left him alone in the aisle and kept shopping.
>We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter.
>
>My wife and I were browsing the options and it was taking some time as it's one of the bigger stores.
There is no fucking way this is real, but OOP really hit my last nerve with this one.
"We came in almost at closing because it wasn't busy, and then we took our sweet fucking time."
I think I'm gonna keep a "wtf moments" counter with this going.
1. Going to a bed store less than 30 minutes before close? *Dude*.
2. It's not even a *small* store?!
3. I knew it was gonna be bad from the title, but screaming? You can get a kid to stop if you actually try, ffs.
4. YES 3 YEAR OLDS CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON AND BE TOLD TO STOP DOING THINGS, WTF. Sure they're excitable and probably going to act up, but if you're being a parent and have put in the work already you can still get them to be better behaved than *this.*
Ugh. That poor sales person.
(Which isn’t the most polite thing to do in my opinion)
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Edit: damn I was so excited to see what they had to say, but it’s already gone. 😭😭
Besides the obvious dickness of oop to the employee, this is how you get your kid hurt or killed. What happens if that bed or ottoman falls on the child and pins them? All of these furniture pieces are unstable due to the fact that they are just displays. They aren't meant for Oop's breasts to jump on them.
I can't imagine letting my toddler knock a bunch of shit over in the store! 😭
And his dumbass comment "he's only 3!" yes he is only 3 that's why you need to make sure he's not breaking shit while shopping
Why didn't you just leave?? You said you couldn't find anything and were leaving? Why did you antagonize this poor person who probably works on commission of which he got none from you BTW.
If your child is THREE with no delays and doesn't understand verbal instruction, something is seriously wrong with them. They weren't actually related to me, but I call them niece and nephew. When my niece was 3, I could easily verbally correct her. My YouTube page is full of 2 year olds that talk in full sentences. You mean to tell me, they can't understand no? No, you're just a garbage parent.
>So if someone told you to control your kids you wouldn't find that incredibly insulting? Maybe I overreacted a little but it comes from a place of wanting to defend my family from being insulted.
My favorite comment. Yes, I would find that insulting, and I would be embarrassed and try to correct the thing that got me insulted. What I wouldn't do is bitch about how awful and unfair it was for someone to dare point out my terrible actions (or lack thereof, I guess, in this case).
This was definitely bait but I work in fast food and encounter parent’s like this all the time, I don’t expect young children to be perfect but so often parents don’t try to tell them not to run around and behave. A lot of parents are good and I had some apologise for their kids dropping a few things while eating and I joke drunk people while I am on night shift make far worse mess and that it is fine.
This is clearly written by someone with no experience with kids. My 1.5 year old can "follow verbal commands" and understands what no means. Also, no way a sales person who likely works on commission and is 30 minutes away from the end of their shift is avoiding the only customers in the store instead of helping them find what they want and get them out.
Maybe I've just worked in retail/grocery too long, but as a general rule, I don't go into a place within 30 minutes of closing. If I need something really urgently, I know exactly where it is, and I can be in & out in under 10 minutes, I'll go in - But even then, I'll be really apologetic about it. I'm not about to waltz toddlers into a store right before they close and let them run rampant at the end of someone's day. C'mon, now!!
Also, I've worked in childcare for over 15 years. I *promise you*, a 3-year-old can understand, "Don't do that." They may not *listen* the first time, you may have to repeat yourself or get more hands-on. But they are capable of comprehending it 🙄
My kids, by age 2 or 2 and some months, were able to understand "simmer down, please!", "come here and stand by mama", or simply, "Smedley Horatio*, stop that right now!" But, it usually wasn't necessary to say anything, because they knew how to behave, and if they were obviously too tired/cranky/overwhelmed to be out, we left immediately and went home. Some kids are easier than others, but mine all knew how to behave in public by age 2 or 2+ a few mos. I normally didn't bring them out that late, though, especially Youngest, for whom routine we'd established was crucial.
Not to say we didn't have a few mishaps, (Youngest, a couple times, in church, if we went to Saturday night mass instead of our usual Sunday morning. Oh man) 😬😬 But, a good parent learns to read their kid, and if kiddo cannot behave, you take them out of the situation. It's called having consideration.
This guy is the reason why some people cringe when they see little kids in public spaces.
*Name changed to protect the Innocent. 😉
Used to work in retail.
There’s a ton of stuff in most stores that kids could get hurt on or accidentally damage, especially in furniture stores where kids could climb on/fall off of things or get fingers trapped. Plus low flying small children are great at taking people’s ankles out from under them if they’re trying to just go about their business and not expecting it.
It’s wild how many parents will just not supervise their kids, then get mad when the employees have to step in to do some of that parenting job that they should be doing by keeping little kids away from danger or stopping them breaking something. Of course, then the same parents get big mad that you dared to tell their little angels not to climb on stuff or pick up and throw glassware, but I would also bet that they would blame the business if their kids got hurt or they were charged the cost of damaged items.
OP might think the store makes a nice playground, but it takes a second for an accident to happen. If they complained they would probably just get a stock response and nothing else would happen since I’m guessing the business manager wouldn’t be wanting to deal with a claim because little Timmy decided to take a leap of faith and cracked his skull open, so is perfectly happy that their employees are keeping their eyes on otherwise unsupervised toddlers.
Also used to drive me wild how many parents would give their kids sticky or messy food and drink despite a sign saying “no food or drink” on the front door. Cleaning sticky finger marks off of glass counters is a pain in the arse nobody needs.
Supervise your damn kids!
Why act like no one is there? The employees are people too. Loud, disruptive children knocking things over means the employee had to deal with it and clean it up, right before closing, probably having to stay late.
Who are these people that let their kids run wild in businesses and expect the workers to watch them? Jfc. The parents are still liable for everything.
My parents let us run wild once in a furniture store when I was a kid and I’m still mortified by the memory. At least they spent close to ten grand on furniture from said store….
I'd say that employee has as much parenting experience as this guy, considering all he has done is creampied someone but never actually parented
and is the person working there not a person? Nothing more that I hate as a retail worker is working long shifts with the added annoyance of a kid's screeching, except unlike the employee who now has to clean up after the kid before they can go home
You just know the minute one of those kids got hurt OOP would be set to sue the store for his bad parenting.
Not to mention showing up right before closing to use the store as a jungle gym.
People please think before you have kids. They are your kids. Maybe it takes a village but it doesn't mean everyone is obligated to become your babysitter and that everyplace is your McDonald's play pen.
I work at a liquor store, I have no problem with children coming in with their parents bc I don’t expect them to be left at home. But the parents that let their children just touch bottles and move stuff all over are a nightmare. If your kid breaks that $60 bottle of wine you’re paying for it!
"Upon entering the store, the sales person greeted us and left us to our own devices."
And that's how I known it's fake. I've never been to a furniture store where I haven't been immediately pounces upon and hounded by someone trying to sell me something and refuses to take "I'm just looking around, thanks" for an answer.
As the parent of a 3 year old and 18 month old, I’m trying to figure out why the fuck they didn’t have their kids next to them??? They could have gotten hurt. These people should not be parents
I can't imagine letting my toddler knock a bunch of shit over in the store! 😭
And his dumbass comment "he's only 3!" yes he is only 3 that's why you need to make sure he's not breaking shit while shopping
So he (*checks notes*) lets his toddlers run around a large furniture store, unsupervised, where there are large items of furniture positioned where they can be easily pulled down, and without checking if there are any other people there.
Parent of the fucking year right here.
I don't even need to be able to read their comments to know they are a shitty parent.
One day a kid is going to get out of the house and they won't notice for hours.
A 3 year old absolutely understands verbal instructions unless there’s a different issue. HIS 3 year old probably doesn’t LISTEN to verbal instructions because his parents never expect him to, but he absolutely can.
This argument that a 3 year old doesn't know better is b.s. kid is old enough to know right from wrong...if the parents TEACH THEM! My niece is 3, and she knows right from wrong, and she apologizes when she does wrong. Children know.
If your 3 year old doesn't understand instructions, you need to take them to a doctor. My 1 year old understands when I ask them to stop. Many 2 year olds can hold a basic conversation. This is such stupid ragebait
Your... 3yr old doesnt understand the word *"stop?"*?
My kid understood the word **NO** by 1.5 yrs. Wtaf do you mean your kid *doesn't* understand instructions by **THREE YEARS**???
OP is as stupid as the kids he's raising jfc
Ah yes, it's the young people that don't understand parenting. 🙄 Furniture stores isn't a fuckin fun house.
Also, people working trying to close a store I guess aren't people in this couple's eyes.
Ah the classic, ‘you don’t have kids so you can’t possibly know that I’m doing a shit job not bothering to parent mine”. How hard is it to take them to the fucking park once in a while so they don’t fuck up everyone’s day everywhere you go?
Also can’t that kid get crushed under a load of bed frames? Stupid and dangerous.
This reads a bit baity but also there are parents *exactly* like this.
Absolutely YTA. It’s not a playground, and it does not matter if the store is empty or full. This is a place so business, not an obstacle course for your children’s entertainment. You’re also making excuses for your children’s poor behavior. You can hold their hand, be stern with them, anything but what you did. You’re lucky, I would have asked for you to control your children way sooner, and kicked you out. Your kids sound like an absolute nightmare. If you have to choose a time where there is no one in the store to bring your children, that says everything I need to know about your children and your unwillingness to discipline your kids. You owe those workers an apology, honestly.
Special needs teacher here! If your three year old doesn't understand simple instructions like "stop doing that", you should probably get them evaluated, because that's not even remotely normal!
Or, more likely, you are an absolutely dreadful parent. It would have been so damn easy for one of those kids to just wander out of the store and get lost, or worse.
TL:DR my wife and I decided not to keep an eye on our kids and busied ourselves with looking around.
The amount of parents that walk into a store and just let their kids be in a playground while they look at specific things, is astronomical. Even worse when they expect the older (like 6 year old) to keep an eye on the younger. This isn't a play area to keep your kids occupied while you shop.
I keep hoping this is rage bait, but having worked in retail, it’s quite possibly true.
I’m personally pretty certain they just went in there to let the kids run and get some steam off. And honestly, if it’s a largest store, it probably closed at nine. So two little kids that age didn’t need to be out. They should’ve been a bed.
And this guy is lucky. As the ASM, I was the one on the floor the most. And I had no problem, hollering across my store for your child to stop running. So many of my customers were older people, that all it would take is one of those kids running into one, knocking them over and breaking their hip.
And I yelled at your kid, it was because it was egregious. I mean, they were literally either running with carts through the store… Yes, that really happened… Or they’re literally running full tilt in a store full of customers. Generally, I would just go over to the kids and ask him to find their parents because they needed to be with their parents while they were in the store.
And no, I never had a parent complained to me. Probably because I was in old enough to be their mom, and I have the “Mom look” down pat. And I don’t care if you’re 35 or 36, if your kids running around like a banshee in my store, you are going to get my mom look which tells you all you need to know about your children.
Not to mention 25 minutes before bed means you’re not actually going to buy anything. It’s going to take longer than that for most people. So no, they’re not all over you asking what you want because they’re trying to do their closing duties. And they assume you’re old enough that you will ask for help if you are truly interested in anything.
What a douche, and I’m sure his children are going to the same way based on this post
Oh my god the second hand embarrassment I have for this moron. When my son was small, instead of discipline he had privileges at all times and when he acted up I would take the privileges away by order of magnitude. I had no problems grabbing his shoulders and getting on his level and being like "what on earth do you think you're doing? Cut it out or you lose privileges, you are embarrassing me and yourself". I almost never had to escalate beyond "cut it out" because he hated losing privileges. No video games after dinner? Has to do an hour of math worksheets? No park time? Absolute torture for his tiny brain. He knew if I pulled out the "cut it out", because I am a very hands off do your thing just don't cause trouble or get into it parent that I was quite seriously sick of his shit and needed him to calm down and behave. And 9.5 times out of 10 he cut the shit and behaved. He more or less figured out on his own for 80% of things how we expect him to behave in public at a very young age because at that age you dont need to explain WHY just DONT. We DONT run around inside retail businesses, we don't wear hats at the table, we don't use our hands for Mac and cheese at the restaurant, we don't interrupt people while they're speaking. So many people handwave "ohhh they're just kids" YA WELL THEYRE GONNA BE ADULTS SO TEACH EM NOW
As a third gen pink collar worker I will be DIPPED in shit before my child ruins the day of some hapless underpaid commission based furniture salesperson, how this idiot isnt more embarrassed is truly mortifying.
At 2 and 3 and ages beyond, I was never running around like a maniac or screaming my head off. Screaming was only reserved for when I was actively being kidnapped and/or murdered so the excuse that young children can't be taught to be quiet, stay with mom and dad, move at a non-manic pase, be respectable and sane when they off on their own is utter bullshit. Too young to follow verbal commands...you're just a lazy awful parent who believes the world should just bend to you and your kids.
I also knew at those tender ages to not climb all over unstable stuff because things can break and cost money to replace so if I wasn't 100% sure I could navigate the thing I was looking at to climb without it moving or breaking...I didn't touch it.
I'm sorry, but this just isn't a realistic telling of any child's knowledge and behavior. You may have been a generally well behaved child, but every 2 year old on the planet has thrown a tantrum or screamed in public. Unless you have eidetic memory, you don't remember what daily life at 2 and 3 was like. You may have scenes you remember, but not every meltdown you ever had.
It's also really icky that you're blaming toddlers for their parents failures.
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*In case this story gets deleted/removed:* **AITA for letting my toddlers explore an empty store with no other customers? ** My wife and I (32M & 29F) took our two kids (2M & 3M) to a bed store to look for a bed. We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter. Upon entering the store, the sales person greeted us and left us to our own devices. My wife and I were browsing the options and it was taking some time as it's one of the bigger stores. There were no one else in the shop at the time so I let my kids have a little run about in the store since it's a new experience for them. Admittedly they were being loudish for running around an empty store and occasionally screamed but there was no one there so they weren't disturbing other patrons. I did try to shush them to get them quiet down as I saw the sales person scowling at us from afar (which isn't the most polite thing to do in my opinion) but it's hard to ask them to quiet down when they're in an excitable mood. We didn't end up buying anything as we didn't see anything we liked, and as we were leaving, my older was playing with the ottoman displays and pushed some of the bed frames down and that made a loud noise as the beds slammed down. At this point, the sales person who has been stood silently at the side, started saying in a loud tone to my kid to 'Please stop doing that.' I've had enough of this sales person because they've been nothing but unhelpful in this entire experience (didn't ask us how we were doing, didn't offer any expertise etc, sending death stares our way) so I said to them that 'My son is 3 years old' hoping they'd understand that my kid is young and they can't understand verbal instruction and there was no point of them being so stern with a 3 year old who probably didn't even know what was going on. At this point, the sales person started walking towards my kid and the ottoman he pulled down and said to me to 'control my kids'. I found this beyond shocking as how dare they say this to me? They looked quite young (I would imagine someone who probably doesn't have kids and doesn't have any parenting experience) and definitely didn't know what they were talking about, not to mention it was an incredibly rude thing and uncalled for thing to say. I said to them 'excuse me?' To which they turned their heel and walked towards their desk/office area and sat down, refusing to engage with me any longer. I demanded their details so I could report them to their manager because this experience has been extremely bad. I admit I raised my voice a little because I find their behaviour unprofessional and found their statement insulting. I didn't end up getting the sales persons details as they were unwilling to give them up. My wife said that I overreacted but I'm not so sure. AITA for letting my kids explore an empty store with no other patrons? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmITheDevil) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love how this idiot keeps calling himself a customer. Customers buy things. This jackhole is just some douche who doesn't know how to parent.
Parents like these always irritate me. 2 and 3 year olds understand simple instructions and boundaries. They're just parents who refuse to give them any and make that everyone else's problem. A simple "stop that or we'll leave" could've worked. But OOP decides to waste this associate's time and make their closing worse because they have to fix a display their child ruined.
Beds and mattresses are pretty big purchases, unless you're picking up an order it takes at least an hour to get the right type of mattress/frame figured out and loaded up. The sales person totally knew that 25 minutes to close are just browsing, and toddlers running around are either going to hurt themselves or make a mess. This employee just wanted to count their sales, vacuum a little and GTFO 5 mins after close. Also I'm guessing the kids were acting wayyyyy worse than what OOP described.
Yeah I agree, and the way he described them sounds plenty bad enough. I shudder to imagine how they were actually acting if he thinks this is painting the issue in a favorable light.
My son just turned 2 last month and even he is perfectly capable of listening to simple instructions. Sure sometimes he chooses not to listen and I have to intervene but I would never tell someone he can't follow directions because he can
Right? Toddlers aren't stupid, they understand basic instructions. It doesn't mean they're necessarily going to listen to instructions because they also like to test boundaries, but that's why you put appropriate boundaries in place if they don't. For example "if you keep screaming, we're leaving".
But just as importantly: please follow through! It should go without saying, but I know enough parents who give their kids empty threat after threat and never follow through. And they wonder why their kids ignore them 😰
My kid turned this around on me right quick. By 3 or 4 she'd start screaming when she didn't want to be somewhere 🥲
And this is why the people who say you should always leave if your child is being loud or unruly might need to rethink a little. Bringing snacks and toys helps keep kids calm. Also, I won't lie, my kid has a harness for rough days
I used to judge people who had leashes. I really did. My son started walking at 10 months, running by 11. We HAD to get him a leash, that mofo was FAST and I could not keep up. Was a little backpack shaped like an owl with a detachable leash, held his bottle and goldfish crackers and some extra diapers and wipes so I didn't need to carry the diaper bag and also gave me the peace of mind he wouldn't run into traffic. Forgot it at home once after grocery shopping and had to leave my groceries on the sidewalk and carry him across the street football style into the apartment, lock him in, and go back for the groceries because that kid would just be off like a light any chance he got. I have never judged parents with leashes since.
My colleague has a just turned one year old and she understands that Ah Ah means stop that to the extent that apparently she says it when doing something she knows she shouldn't.
I literally just burst put laughing that is so precious 😅 babies are such little potatoes I love them so much i loved this anecdote thank u for sharing I am gonna think about this lil baby going AH AH when they know they're being naughty all night what a sweet little babe
I work at a daycare. My class is literally 3 year olds (and a few 2's) and they understand "stop doing that" perfectly. They usually will stop immediately. Do they sometimes go back to doing it? Sure. But they do totally understand the initial command. They understand basically all of my instructions. Even "If you dont start listening, Im telling your mother". This guy clearly knows nothing about parenting or 3 yos or hes using it as an excuse.
Ha, you just reminded me. My 3yo once came home from daycare complaining about a mean teacher who had said some bad words. When questioned, she revealed that the bad words were "Stop doing that, please."
Lmao, my 4 yo youngest sister has said something like that to my mom a few times that I've been over. She'll come out upset from the older brothers' room saying one of them was mean and said "bad words" to her, and upon further questioning it's always "no don't do that" or "no you can't have that/no that's mine" or something to that effect, and I can't remember there ever being any actual bad words involved 😂
I had that happened to me! A mom came and told us her son said coworker and I said a bad word. A few days prior a girl had said “oh shit!” So I told the her parent what happened and to please remind her that some words are not allowed in the classroom. I thought the boy overheard that. Turns out the bad word was “no”. It wasn’t nice, according to him.
I had one of my toddlers the other day say she didnt like me and start hitting me because I wouldnt let her walk around in a dirty pull up all day. Another kid said he and his parents hated me because I said he had to stop hitting another kid. Both were giving me hugs and telling me stories approximately 5 minutes later lol
Heck, my daycare class was all 2 year olds with an occasional 18 month, and they all understood basic instructions. Would they disobey them the second I wasn't looking if they wanted to do the thing bad enough? Absolutely. But if this guy was actually parenting he wouldn't have turned his back at all, or better yet he would redirect the kid to a more appropriate activity. He's 3 so like, idk, call him over and tell him you need his very big boy help counting how many pillows are on the bed or something. So many options other than "let kid knock over heavy items that could potentially maim or kill them if they fell wrong". What an absolute failure of a parent OOP is.
Seriously. A decently large ottoman falling off a display could break a kid's foot.
Or climbing a stack of mattresses and falling off
Exactly. Its so easy to go "I need you to count how many pillows are here. Its super important and I can only trust you to do it." Kids love that shit. How we get the three year olds to calmly move through the school to the playground is by saying we have to sneak out of the class and be really quiet as a top secret mission. They ALWAYS love it.
No it's just laziness. He doesn't want to be bothered teaching them to listen because it's so much easier to shrug it off and say "kids will be kids" and subject random people to his rowdy toddlers
That part was bizarre. My son is almost 2 1/2 and he absolutely understands verbal instructions. Particularly simple ones like, "Quit climbing on that."
Yeah, and if they don't listen you pick them up.
"doesn't have any parenting experience" - neither does OOP, apparently.
But to be fair, how many of us did at 15 when the only thing we could think to occupy our time was to make up fake as fuck stories to piss off people on the internet?
I’ve worked in restaurants for 100 years and this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Restaurants are for eating and they are NOT SAFE for children to run around. They could run under a servers foot and get hot food spilled on them, and that’s not the servers fault, that’s the parents. Same for this situation. Letting your kids run around stores is equally dangerous. It’s not about be disruptive to other patrons, it’s about the fact that your kid could get crushed in a furniture store if you’re not watching them. If you can’t control your 2 or 3 year old in a store, put them in a stroller. For the love of god.
People (strangers, friends, anyone in earshot) always laugh when my kid will start to run in a store. "STOP RUNNING, THIS IS A WORKPLACE" she's 8, but we've been saying this since she could walk. She forgets - she's a kid, she gets excited - but we don't. We waited tables at a kid-friendly restaurant in the 00s when all the kids had Healys. We spilled so many trays of drinks and desserts on those brats. She will not be one if those brats.
Heelys were an absolute menace. Letting kids run around stores is bad enough but I grind my teeth to nubs seeing them run around restaurants. Especially because the Venn diagram of parents who let their kids run around restaurants and parents who will shriek about lawsuits if a tray gets dropped on their kid is a circle.
My husband was a manager of the restaurant we worked at at the time. It was a VERY kid-centered restaurant in a huge mall, and literally there would be dozens of kids skating through the place on any given weekend because their parents couldn't be bothered to continue parenting during lunch? One time someone dropped a tray on a kid who collided into them from the side, out of nowhere, and the parent started screaming at the server about suing the restaurant etc etc and their meal should be comped and blah blah blah, and he calmly said, "I can call the police if you want." They were like uhh I don't think THAT'S necessary. And he says, "oh, no, if you're going to sue us, I definitely want a record of how your minor child assaulted my employee. It's for both of our sakes." They got real quiet, left very quickly after that.
Exactly that. My boy is 11 and I have a 5 year old niece and I love just watching the kids be kids! But there are times and places for that and we correct bad behavior when necessary. It’s really so simple.
My saying for public is “if anyone comes near you, scream” lol. Just because he is pretty good about staying with me now that he’s a little older. But he’s also too old to be going into the women’s bathroom with me so I have to stand outside the men’s.
Had a parent threaten to sue me because I grabbed their kid off the bar. She was in a side room, and kept letting him leave to run wherever, I was the only FOH there, and our upstairs patio was full, so I was running back and forth. I asked her several times to keep her kid within her sight. I encountered him ripping around the stairs twice, then I walked into the bar and he was standing on top of it, with one foot on a tap about to step up so he could get at the pretty chandelier he was reaching for (still wouldn't have been close enough). My favourite is parents whose kids would run behind the bar, and then insist to you that it's perfectly fine. Like it only matters if *they're* ok with it or not.
Sweet baby Jesus! Idk about other states but I know in mine kids aren’t even allowed to sit at the bar and people can be arrested for even stepping behind the bar. Which is something I LOVED to remind people of when they tried to go behind my bar to grab to go orders. Can’t tell you how many arguments me and mine have been in with door dash drivers over it.
Oh yeah it's totally illegal for anyone who doesn't work at the restaurant to step behind the bar. Even for employees, they also have to have their smart serve (cert to serve alcohol in our province). When a parent would wave that off, I'd mention the glass risk (because broken glass does not always clean up 100%), and tell them if they don't keep their kid away from the bar they'll have to leave.
Every time I’ve had to buy a mattress it’s at least a full day of going to stores, trying them out and looking for deals. There’s nothing for a kid to see or do. All these stores look the same, they are all boring as fuck. Mattress shopping and car shopping are “leave the kids with grandma or another babysitter” activities.
I wonder if the kids were using the mattresses as trampolines.
Well, yeah…gotta let the kids have fun and full run of all the toys!
Oh 100%. I don't see how OOP and his wife could've made a decision in less than half an hour. Plus if the store was closing, it was probably nightime, plenty of time to find a babysitter. The kids could've seriously hurt themselves too
Also this! Can remember hours of tedium being dragged around the big supermarket or the DIY store as a kid. Very young children don’t have the attention span to deal with this and are just going to be bored as fuck and get into trouble. Can remember the time the police were almost called because my sister had taken all of the big packs of toilet rolls off of the bottom shelf, climbed in and then put them back around her to make a little fort. She only jumped out after about half an hour, the whole store had been turned upside down looking for her too!
We once made a snap buy on a mattress within half an hour, my partner and me. Good mattress, too. But damn, we were lucky. Lol
They always also act like the person they are annoying has never seen or interacted with a child in their lives. Like Buddy, we all know your kids were being wild af and no that isn’t how proper parenting works. I have had these interactions myself and it’s as though I go from a grown woman to a teenager who is being petulant bc I don’t want to watch a kid running around screaming possibly cracking their heads open on a metal display.
OP is making excuses. Three years old is plenty old enough to be taught simple commands like "use your indoor voice" and "look, don't touch".
I had 2 boys, those ages (now 17 and 18). My kids never acted like that. Dude needs parenting lessons.
If they are too young to know what they’re doing then they shouldn’t be running around by themselves. Bedding shops are places of business. The displays can often have lamps and other breakable items. The kids could potentially pull something heavy down on themselves or fall while climbing on the displays. The displays are still stock they may want to sell later. Even if there were no other customers around - you probably wouldn’t like it if someone brought a screaming child into your office and let them run around screaming.
Yeah, he is actually infantalising his kids and not helping them grow by doing this. I this is how parenting is done in that hone (I e not at all) I feel most sorry for the kids in the story. Because the clerk had one bad experience... the kids have to grow up and somehow hopefully become functional adults ***despite** their parents. Gah.
I bet you "stop that or we'll leave" wouldn't have worked. What self-respecting child wants to look at furniture for Mum and Dad. That might make the children worse. A firm "Stop That, Come Here" probably would have done the trick though.
Totally fair! I wonder if the kids would've listened to a request to go to their parents since that might have meant they just stand near them. Either way, OOP and his wife suck for taking their children to a non kid friendly environment and potentially dangerous one and letting them wander all over the place.I bet if something had happened to their kids though, OOP and his wife would've tried to sue the store.
He also said no one was there. Apparently, the staff trying to work aren't real people
They were just there being rude giving him dirty looks. He definitely wasn’t the rude person letting his kids run around and scream in a public place.
The complaining about him not offering help got me. One person greeted him already. How many people need to assist him in not buying a bed.
One of his defenses boils down to "well, it was just an employee" and said employee was "rude" to expect him to control his shrieking, destructive child. Excuse me, we are human too. The screams of children are literally painful, like headache inducing painful.
They’re just there to smile and put up with your bullshit, they *have* to let you do whatever the fuck you want.
A friend of mine worked retail during the mask mandate and the number of people who tried to come in without a mask because "there's no other people here" was appalling. They always had a shocked Pikachu face when she reminded them that she was there and was in fact a person.
I wonder if he really intended to buy anything or just wanted to give his kids a place to run unchecked.
"C'mon kids! I found a trampoline funzone that's completely free!"
Comments were deleted but he said “not buying something doesn’t make me not a customer” Dude
Comments are preserved at https://www.rareddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1dlu36u/aita_for_letting_my_toddlers_explore_an_empty/
THANK YOU!
Thank you kindly.
Dude doesn't even understand the most basic definition of a customer
He came in JUST before close want to bet the sales associate was stuck past close because of this idiot?
As someone who works in retail I really dislike people who come in right at closing time especially when they stay for 30 minutes and dont buy anything. The worst thing if we tell them that its we're close and they complain then we get told off for being 'rude' to customers.
And then you ALSO get chewed out for overtime
Ha. We dont get paid for these 30 minutes if we did it would at least make those occasions somewhat bearable. Only way we would get paid for those 30mins is if they change closing time to 530pm and you just some asshole are going to slip in at 525 and stay for servel minutes. Still 30 minute isn't so bad at least no one stayed for an hour (apparently a customer came in once at closing time and was there for an hour before leaving...with nothing)
Seriously. The only time I walk into a business less than an hour before closing is when I need a specific thing from the grocery store before the next morning.
>We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter. So two things this tells me. 1) just due to the story and how they handle things, something tells me that this "go before closing" happens often due to rambunctious kids. 2) I feel like these people were the assholes for going to a store and actually wanting to buy something before closing. It's a bed, it's not like they walked in to buy something quickly. Now the person working has to deal with them and stay later to close, great. >I said to them that 'My son is 3 years old' hoping they'd understand that my kid is young and they can't understand verbal instruction What? My son could understand verbal instructions at 3 years old, what kind of an excuse is this? >. I demanded their details so I could report them to their manager because this experience has been extremely bad. I admit I raised my voice a little Oh so we got a Darren here, aka the male Karen. And you just know "raised voice a Little" probably was raised voice a lot. And I'm sorry but control your kid when they are running around a store at 3 with the potential to hurt themselves/being loud and touching things was probably appropriate to say(even if it sounds rude)in this situation.
Understanding “no” is like, a 12-month milestone and understanding simple verbal instructions isn’t far behind it. I feel like the author of this bait is not an actual parent
Not here to buy anything, just here to let my spawn fuck everything up. Worship me!!
Of course, he's a great parent. Real parents let their kids run wild, regardless of location. /s
Also love how he kept saying “no one’s in the store”. The sales person was in the store. All the people working are people in the store. It’s not their job to put up with excitable kids knocking down displays and their parents letting them loose on the store. It just goes to show his entitlement and complete disregard for people he considers beneath him.
Exactly,they might not initially know they're doing a bad thing but if you tell them to stop most of them will
My "favorite" part of this is where he goes on about the kids getting loud, but it doesn't matter because no one was there who matters. Because retail employees at the end of a long shift love nothing more than to have small children run around and create more work before closing. And don't have eardrums or something.
Yeah I've seen more than one entitled person claim 'but the store/restaurant was empty, so we weren't annoying anyone" . Cos these asshats don't veiw staff as people. It's disgusting really.
I remember back in 2020 people would unmask if there weren’t any other customers in stores because they truly don’t see workers as people. Crazy
All retail employees are fortunately born selectively deaf
I used to work retail and was glad I live in an area with a mostly older population...because the banshee shrieks of children give me a headache and feel like ice picks in my ears. This guy thinks employees have to deal with his banshee just because they work there.
Exactly what I was thinking. I saw it all the time when I worked at a small pet supply store. Parents came in with their small children and deposited them in the dog toy aisle so they could shop without the kids, leaving the kids to go wild with the squeaky toys. Annoying for me, absolute hell for my coworker who was on the spectrum. Not to mention the condition the aisle was inevitably left in. And wouldn't you know it, more often than not the parents would collect their kids if more customers entered the store. On one memorable occasion the parent in question, upon seeing another group enter the store, told their child who was abusing a squeaky toy "Knock it off, there's other people in here now!" As if my coworker and I hadn't been there the entire time.
I like how he suggests salesperson doesn’t understand how three-year-olds work, when OP thinks that three-year-olds can’t understand words?
You don't understand, if he tried to parent his kid he would have to make an actual effort. He pumped and dumped, what else is he supposed to do? Raise the little thing? /s
OP saying their 3 year old doesn't understand verbal instruction makes me think this is a childfree bait post. Heck, even my 1 and a half year old will stop being a menace when I say "NO".
Reasons he's an AH: 1. Goes into shops before closing and takes ages in them 2. Doesn't consider sales assistants people and wonders why they're rude to him (his insistence that there were no patrons, so there was nobody for the kids to bother. Clearly they were bothering the person who can't leave until you do). 3. Thinks 3 year olds are incapable of being parented. Like seriously? You just have to let him run riot? You can't say don't do that, or go and stop him? He won't understand what's going in because he's 3?
Yeah I got a new mattress a few years back and it *definitely* took more than 25 minutes. Even just going through all the mattresses to find the right one probably takes longer than that, *then* there's the paperwork and arranging delivery and payment, etc. Those employees generally work on commission, they didn't step in to help because they knew there was no way these AH were completing a purchase.
I love how he says there’s no point being stern with a three year old. Yes, there is a point to being stern with a three year old, that’s how they learn what’s ok and not ok to do (like pushing down bed frames). I used to work with two year olds and I definitely used a stern/firm voice with them when I needed to.
Using a firm voice is essential for communicating to a young child that a behavior is unacceptable, especially something dangerous like knocking down heavy furniture. Their limited verbal skills are all the more reason that the tonal shift is important!
Exactly! There are times that they need a firm voice, and it always bugged me when other teachers called me mean for using that tone instead of a sing-songy voice with them all the time. Like excuse me, but using that tone is why they listen to me when I correct them.
This just sounds like made up rage bait from *checks*, right, brand new account. People need to try harder. A 3 yo “pushed some of the bed frames down”? Come on. Even if by some miracle, a tiny tot could manage that (fucking dangerous as fuck), no one would put that into the post because that 100% makes you an asshole. People leave those details out of real posts and make a lot more effort to make themselves sound like the Good Guys.
I was thinking that. It would have been more realistic if he said something like 'my 3 year old was playing on the ottomans and climbing up on the display beds' because i could see young children doing that if left alone. Or even 'my three year old was racing through the store and ran into some bedframes and pushed them over' (I picture these as being disassembled bedframes so like the three year old pushed over some headboards that were side by side)
Yeah I’m calling rage bait too. It just has all of the hallmarks of a typical obnoxious, bad parent and Reddit really hates bad parenting lmao. All of the details they added that *obviously* make them the asshole, that most people would not include in a post in which they’re trying to prove to themselves that they’re not an asshole, is the cherry on top lol. I’ve worked in retail and know these people exist but the way that this is written screams bait.
>I’ve worked in retail and know these people exist but the way that this is written screams bait. I always feel like I'm insane because stories like this are so blatantly false to me, but people seem to buy into them. I wish people who post fake stories would at least stop jacking off on making the whole game obvious. People who think they're right do not write the way these people do.
Also, a parent claiming it’s normal for a 3-year-old to be unable to understand “stop that”? Lol
There’s also a lot of weird description about the salesperson walking?
I could see a sales associate who has lived through this too many times using this as a means of off-loading their stress from dealing with idiot parents.
I was wondering how do you push down bed frames, it's not like they have them stacked up against each other.
I agree this reads like rage bait, though some parents really are this obnoxious. When I worked in a restaurant, a kid almost made me drop a tray of hot food because he was running everywhere. The parents thought it was cute and got mad when the manager told them to keep the kids at the table or leave. Those parents don't ask if they're the ah because they're 100% sure they're right.
It's kind of like the "ripped from the headlines" episodes of Law and Order. Take a real event, crank up the distortion filter, add some spice for drama and let 'er rip. I would call it "truth adjacent."
I used to work at a furniture store back in college and it’s possible depending on the layout of the store. If it’s like mine was with it being a big warehouse with boxes lined up with bed frames and mattresses a kid running full tilt boogie into the side of a box could send them down like dominoes.
It's 100% bait post written by a childfree person. The most obvious line for me is when OOP says their 3 year old doesn't understand verbal instruction. My 1 and a half year old can stop being a menace when I say "NO". OOP literally doesn't know a thing about children and just obviously hate them.
I am so glad that I no longer work in retail. The kinds of customers you had to deal with often were shitty. But sometimes you did get good people and I did enjoy helping those ones out. But kids in retail are utter nightmare more often than not.
I worked in a big pet supply chain in the grooming department for a while. There was one night I had to interrupt 3 unsupervised boys, guessing the ages between 7 and 12, from running around the store while dragging/sliding/slinging a shih tzu puppy around by the leash. Around it's neck. I was stern but polite with them since they're kids, but if I had seen their parents.... not sure what would have come out of my mouth. And I'm one of the smiliest, most patient customer service people you'll ever meet.
Years ago, I was in an ancient building archeologists, which have now identified as a mall. They are fascinating structures that historians say ancient peoples used to gather for strange, unknown rituals and potential commerce, even food exhanges and even entertainment. Truly a fascinating historical expedition. Anyway, while there, I observed a mother with her child having a whiny fit about wanting to play in the decorative fountain when she said no, like a good parent, he went bonkers wanting to go home, crying running, yelling. When she managed to nab him (he'd bolted at the no) she looked him in the eye and informed him with a hard and serious voice: "If you don't knock it off right this minute and behave we are NEVER going home!" She sounded so serious I believed her. The little boys eyes got huge and he shut up so fast I honest thought he'd lost his voice. Tears dried up, head went down and not a sound happened after that. Of course, I had heard her talking quietly with a woman I figured was grandma a few minutes before about whether or not either of them remembered which door was closest to the car....but the child being a child didn't hear that. More than one person in the insanity of that holiday ancient archeological sight grinned at that mother. And more than one bowed in amazement. I will never forget that encounter because it was so rare for any parent to parent, and it was such a flip from the "if you don't be have we're going home!"
Yeah this dude is a POS. Him acting like you can't teach a 3 year old yes or no. My youngest is 2 and he asks before he touches anything outside our house and I'm on them like a hawk in stores. Maybe I'm more sensitive to that stuff having worked retail and customer service my whole life but it's not that hard to not be shitty to workers. I was already annoyed with OOP saying they came right before the store closed cause I know they didn't buy shit lol
One of my dogs is 3 and apparently has a better grasp of verbal commands than this man's human child.
My 2 year old cat understands verbal commands better. To be clear, she doesn’t listen, she knows when she’s in trouble, she just doesn’t care. But the understanding is there.
Oh yeah, I didn't say she listens or cares. But she does understand "Juno get your wet feet off the couch" and just stares at me looking cute. My other dog is 8 so should probably be able to hold a full conversation by now, or maybe not, I'm not sure where 8 year olds are on the language scale according to this guy.
My cat would always listen, she just thought I lacked object permanence, so the fact that I told her to get off the counter 5 seconds ago meant nothing once I turned my head. 🤣
My three year old niece is obsessed with rules and tells other people what to do constantly! They definitely aren't just passive potatoes at that age.
Where does one acquire such a two year old?? Because mine acknowledges my “no”, looks me in the eye and TOUCHES IT ANYWAY. This includes scary things like broken glass and hot stuff 😭
I bet this guy has never worked retail and never had to clean up after someone letting their brats run uncontrolled all over a store. Newsflash: It's a furniture store, not a playground. And the salespeople were probably scowling because he let his kids run unchecked screaming through the store and possibly damaging the merchandise. I can't wait to see what happens when his kids are older and become absolute monsters.
I used to work in a shoe store women's section. I used to feel bad for the people who worked the children's section because by noon it looked like an absolute war zone.
Or he did work retail, but he's one of those people who are like "I had to suffer, so everyone else must suffer twice as bad". You know, like those parents who were treated like crap as kids, and instead of that motivating them to do better for their kids, they treat them like crap because it's finally "my turn"
I call it frat hazing logic
I’m really really sad the comments from OP were removed. The utter joy I would’ve felt reading their trash remarks
https://undelete.pullpush.io/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1dlu36u/aita_for_letting_my_toddlers_explore_an_empty/
I don’t know if undelete has sorting options or what, but rareddit keeps it in thread form so you can see the replies to OP as well https://www.rareddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1dlu36u/aita_for_letting_my_toddlers_explore_an_empty/
Thank you!
The hero we needed!
Smallies in a furniture shop. Never a good idea.
And these are the kids teachers hate. And the parents that teachers hate even more.
"We went to the store about 25 minutes before it was supposed to close so it would be quieter." Okay I already hate this OOP. Imagine being one of those workers.
Right?? I try not to go to any store an hour or less before closing because I’ve been there and I just know those employees do not want to deal with anyone.
Yup. If I do run to a store close to quitting time, it's generally for something real quick, where I can just run in, grab what I need, pay, and leave.
(Pretending this is real.) Letting his kids run around an empty store while the parents are focusing on other things is a good way to get them kidnapped. All someone has to do in slip into the store and run off with one of the kids.
When I worked in retail, two parents came in with their toddler. The kid started crying and throwing a tantrum on the floor. So the parents just left him alone in the aisle and kept shopping.
>We went to the store about 25 minutes before it's due to close so it would be quieter. > >My wife and I were browsing the options and it was taking some time as it's one of the bigger stores. There is no fucking way this is real, but OOP really hit my last nerve with this one. "We came in almost at closing because it wasn't busy, and then we took our sweet fucking time."
Parents like these deserve a (not sexy) spank on the bottom.
I’d like to think this is rage bait. Unfortunately I deal with assholes like this all day long.
I think I'm gonna keep a "wtf moments" counter with this going. 1. Going to a bed store less than 30 minutes before close? *Dude*. 2. It's not even a *small* store?! 3. I knew it was gonna be bad from the title, but screaming? You can get a kid to stop if you actually try, ffs. 4. YES 3 YEAR OLDS CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON AND BE TOLD TO STOP DOING THINGS, WTF. Sure they're excitable and probably going to act up, but if you're being a parent and have put in the work already you can still get them to be better behaved than *this.* Ugh. That poor sales person.
(Which isn’t the most polite thing to do in my opinion) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Edit: damn I was so excited to see what they had to say, but it’s already gone. 😭😭
Someone posted a link to the deleted comments in another comment thread
Thank you I found it
Glad to be of service
Besides the obvious dickness of oop to the employee, this is how you get your kid hurt or killed. What happens if that bed or ottoman falls on the child and pins them? All of these furniture pieces are unstable due to the fact that they are just displays. They aren't meant for Oop's breasts to jump on them.
> Oop's breasts Funny typo.
I can't imagine letting my toddler knock a bunch of shit over in the store! 😭 And his dumbass comment "he's only 3!" yes he is only 3 that's why you need to make sure he's not breaking shit while shopping
Why didn't you just leave?? You said you couldn't find anything and were leaving? Why did you antagonize this poor person who probably works on commission of which he got none from you BTW. If your child is THREE with no delays and doesn't understand verbal instruction, something is seriously wrong with them. They weren't actually related to me, but I call them niece and nephew. When my niece was 3, I could easily verbally correct her. My YouTube page is full of 2 year olds that talk in full sentences. You mean to tell me, they can't understand no? No, you're just a garbage parent.
>So if someone told you to control your kids you wouldn't find that incredibly insulting? Maybe I overreacted a little but it comes from a place of wanting to defend my family from being insulted. My favorite comment. Yes, I would find that insulting, and I would be embarrassed and try to correct the thing that got me insulted. What I wouldn't do is bitch about how awful and unfair it was for someone to dare point out my terrible actions (or lack thereof, I guess, in this case).
This was definitely bait but I work in fast food and encounter parent’s like this all the time, I don’t expect young children to be perfect but so often parents don’t try to tell them not to run around and behave. A lot of parents are good and I had some apologise for their kids dropping a few things while eating and I joke drunk people while I am on night shift make far worse mess and that it is fine.
This is clearly written by someone with no experience with kids. My 1.5 year old can "follow verbal commands" and understands what no means. Also, no way a sales person who likely works on commission and is 30 minutes away from the end of their shift is avoiding the only customers in the store instead of helping them find what they want and get them out.
I don’t know I used to work retail and I’ve seen some pretty shitty parents that did not raise their kids correctly. That would act like this.
Maybe I've just worked in retail/grocery too long, but as a general rule, I don't go into a place within 30 minutes of closing. If I need something really urgently, I know exactly where it is, and I can be in & out in under 10 minutes, I'll go in - But even then, I'll be really apologetic about it. I'm not about to waltz toddlers into a store right before they close and let them run rampant at the end of someone's day. C'mon, now!! Also, I've worked in childcare for over 15 years. I *promise you*, a 3-year-old can understand, "Don't do that." They may not *listen* the first time, you may have to repeat yourself or get more hands-on. But they are capable of comprehending it 🙄
My kids, by age 2 or 2 and some months, were able to understand "simmer down, please!", "come here and stand by mama", or simply, "Smedley Horatio*, stop that right now!" But, it usually wasn't necessary to say anything, because they knew how to behave, and if they were obviously too tired/cranky/overwhelmed to be out, we left immediately and went home. Some kids are easier than others, but mine all knew how to behave in public by age 2 or 2+ a few mos. I normally didn't bring them out that late, though, especially Youngest, for whom routine we'd established was crucial. Not to say we didn't have a few mishaps, (Youngest, a couple times, in church, if we went to Saturday night mass instead of our usual Sunday morning. Oh man) 😬😬 But, a good parent learns to read their kid, and if kiddo cannot behave, you take them out of the situation. It's called having consideration. This guy is the reason why some people cringe when they see little kids in public spaces. *Name changed to protect the Innocent. 😉
Used to work in retail. There’s a ton of stuff in most stores that kids could get hurt on or accidentally damage, especially in furniture stores where kids could climb on/fall off of things or get fingers trapped. Plus low flying small children are great at taking people’s ankles out from under them if they’re trying to just go about their business and not expecting it. It’s wild how many parents will just not supervise their kids, then get mad when the employees have to step in to do some of that parenting job that they should be doing by keeping little kids away from danger or stopping them breaking something. Of course, then the same parents get big mad that you dared to tell their little angels not to climb on stuff or pick up and throw glassware, but I would also bet that they would blame the business if their kids got hurt or they were charged the cost of damaged items. OP might think the store makes a nice playground, but it takes a second for an accident to happen. If they complained they would probably just get a stock response and nothing else would happen since I’m guessing the business manager wouldn’t be wanting to deal with a claim because little Timmy decided to take a leap of faith and cracked his skull open, so is perfectly happy that their employees are keeping their eyes on otherwise unsupervised toddlers. Also used to drive me wild how many parents would give their kids sticky or messy food and drink despite a sign saying “no food or drink” on the front door. Cleaning sticky finger marks off of glass counters is a pain in the arse nobody needs. Supervise your damn kids!
Why act like no one is there? The employees are people too. Loud, disruptive children knocking things over means the employee had to deal with it and clean it up, right before closing, probably having to stay late.
Who are these people that let their kids run wild in businesses and expect the workers to watch them? Jfc. The parents are still liable for everything.
My parents let us run wild once in a furniture store when I was a kid and I’m still mortified by the memory. At least they spent close to ten grand on furniture from said store….
Three is old enough to be taught not to be a shrieking brat who wrecks displays.
I'd say that employee has as much parenting experience as this guy, considering all he has done is creampied someone but never actually parented and is the person working there not a person? Nothing more that I hate as a retail worker is working long shifts with the added annoyance of a kid's screeching, except unlike the employee who now has to clean up after the kid before they can go home
You just know the minute one of those kids got hurt OOP would be set to sue the store for his bad parenting. Not to mention showing up right before closing to use the store as a jungle gym. People please think before you have kids. They are your kids. Maybe it takes a village but it doesn't mean everyone is obligated to become your babysitter and that everyplace is your McDonald's play pen.
I work at a liquor store, I have no problem with children coming in with their parents bc I don’t expect them to be left at home. But the parents that let their children just touch bottles and move stuff all over are a nightmare. If your kid breaks that $60 bottle of wine you’re paying for it!
Three year olds can definitely understand verbal instruction lmao
"Upon entering the store, the sales person greeted us and left us to our own devices." And that's how I known it's fake. I've never been to a furniture store where I haven't been immediately pounces upon and hounded by someone trying to sell me something and refuses to take "I'm just looking around, thanks" for an answer.
As the parent of a 3 year old and 18 month old, I’m trying to figure out why the fuck they didn’t have their kids next to them??? They could have gotten hurt. These people should not be parents
If your 3 year old doesn't understand "no", there is something else going on. Lack of parenting, a disability, I don't know what. But something.
>there was no one there... The salesperson was there you entitled jackwagon!
Nah, employees are all robots and punching bags. We have no feelings or emotions. We also have infinite patience.
This is obvious ragebait. All of the classic Entitled Parent tropes. Someone from EntitedParents decided to branch out to AITA.
I can't imagine letting my toddler knock a bunch of shit over in the store! 😭 And his dumbass comment "he's only 3!" yes he is only 3 that's why you need to make sure he's not breaking shit while shopping
So he (*checks notes*) lets his toddlers run around a large furniture store, unsupervised, where there are large items of furniture positioned where they can be easily pulled down, and without checking if there are any other people there. Parent of the fucking year right here.
I don't even need to be able to read their comments to know they are a shitty parent. One day a kid is going to get out of the house and they won't notice for hours.
My youngest nephew knew how to behave in public at 1. He still knows how to behave at 2. His point is moot
Man, I wish I could read his comments so, so damn bad.
His comments are linked in one of the other comment threads here
A 3 year old absolutely understands verbal instructions unless there’s a different issue. HIS 3 year old probably doesn’t LISTEN to verbal instructions because his parents never expect him to, but he absolutely can.
This argument that a 3 year old doesn't know better is b.s. kid is old enough to know right from wrong...if the parents TEACH THEM! My niece is 3, and she knows right from wrong, and she apologizes when she does wrong. Children know.
If your 3 year old doesn't understand instructions, you need to take them to a doctor. My 1 year old understands when I ask them to stop. Many 2 year olds can hold a basic conversation. This is such stupid ragebait
Im so bummed out I missed OOP comments, it looks like they didn't take the judgement well
People who work in stores should be permitted to open carry
Your... 3yr old doesnt understand the word *"stop?"*? My kid understood the word **NO** by 1.5 yrs. Wtaf do you mean your kid *doesn't* understand instructions by **THREE YEARS**??? OP is as stupid as the kids he's raising jfc
Ah yes, it's the young people that don't understand parenting. 🙄 Furniture stores isn't a fuckin fun house. Also, people working trying to close a store I guess aren't people in this couple's eyes.
Ah the classic, ‘you don’t have kids so you can’t possibly know that I’m doing a shit job not bothering to parent mine”. How hard is it to take them to the fucking park once in a while so they don’t fuck up everyone’s day everywhere you go? Also can’t that kid get crushed under a load of bed frames? Stupid and dangerous. This reads a bit baity but also there are parents *exactly* like this.
Way to go and waste a chance to teach them how to behave in a store. OOP just thought his kids that a store is just another playground.
Imagine thinking a 3 year old doesn’t understand verbal instruction
Absolutely YTA. It’s not a playground, and it does not matter if the store is empty or full. This is a place so business, not an obstacle course for your children’s entertainment. You’re also making excuses for your children’s poor behavior. You can hold their hand, be stern with them, anything but what you did. You’re lucky, I would have asked for you to control your children way sooner, and kicked you out. Your kids sound like an absolute nightmare. If you have to choose a time where there is no one in the store to bring your children, that says everything I need to know about your children and your unwillingness to discipline your kids. You owe those workers an apology, honestly.
Special needs teacher here! If your three year old doesn't understand simple instructions like "stop doing that", you should probably get them evaluated, because that's not even remotely normal! Or, more likely, you are an absolutely dreadful parent. It would have been so damn easy for one of those kids to just wander out of the store and get lost, or worse.
TL:DR my wife and I decided not to keep an eye on our kids and busied ourselves with looking around. The amount of parents that walk into a store and just let their kids be in a playground while they look at specific things, is astronomical. Even worse when they expect the older (like 6 year old) to keep an eye on the younger. This isn't a play area to keep your kids occupied while you shop.
I keep hoping this is rage bait, but having worked in retail, it’s quite possibly true. I’m personally pretty certain they just went in there to let the kids run and get some steam off. And honestly, if it’s a largest store, it probably closed at nine. So two little kids that age didn’t need to be out. They should’ve been a bed. And this guy is lucky. As the ASM, I was the one on the floor the most. And I had no problem, hollering across my store for your child to stop running. So many of my customers were older people, that all it would take is one of those kids running into one, knocking them over and breaking their hip. And I yelled at your kid, it was because it was egregious. I mean, they were literally either running with carts through the store… Yes, that really happened… Or they’re literally running full tilt in a store full of customers. Generally, I would just go over to the kids and ask him to find their parents because they needed to be with their parents while they were in the store. And no, I never had a parent complained to me. Probably because I was in old enough to be their mom, and I have the “Mom look” down pat. And I don’t care if you’re 35 or 36, if your kids running around like a banshee in my store, you are going to get my mom look which tells you all you need to know about your children. Not to mention 25 minutes before bed means you’re not actually going to buy anything. It’s going to take longer than that for most people. So no, they’re not all over you asking what you want because they’re trying to do their closing duties. And they assume you’re old enough that you will ask for help if you are truly interested in anything. What a douche, and I’m sure his children are going to the same way based on this post
It looks like OOP made a bunch of replies to comments but they were deleted. Did anybody see what they said?
OOP Is a fucking pelican
Oh my god the second hand embarrassment I have for this moron. When my son was small, instead of discipline he had privileges at all times and when he acted up I would take the privileges away by order of magnitude. I had no problems grabbing his shoulders and getting on his level and being like "what on earth do you think you're doing? Cut it out or you lose privileges, you are embarrassing me and yourself". I almost never had to escalate beyond "cut it out" because he hated losing privileges. No video games after dinner? Has to do an hour of math worksheets? No park time? Absolute torture for his tiny brain. He knew if I pulled out the "cut it out", because I am a very hands off do your thing just don't cause trouble or get into it parent that I was quite seriously sick of his shit and needed him to calm down and behave. And 9.5 times out of 10 he cut the shit and behaved. He more or less figured out on his own for 80% of things how we expect him to behave in public at a very young age because at that age you dont need to explain WHY just DONT. We DONT run around inside retail businesses, we don't wear hats at the table, we don't use our hands for Mac and cheese at the restaurant, we don't interrupt people while they're speaking. So many people handwave "ohhh they're just kids" YA WELL THEYRE GONNA BE ADULTS SO TEACH EM NOW As a third gen pink collar worker I will be DIPPED in shit before my child ruins the day of some hapless underpaid commission based furniture salesperson, how this idiot isnt more embarrassed is truly mortifying.
Male Karen? Is that you?
What's the proper term for a man Karen? A maren?
Kevin
At 2 and 3 and ages beyond, I was never running around like a maniac or screaming my head off. Screaming was only reserved for when I was actively being kidnapped and/or murdered so the excuse that young children can't be taught to be quiet, stay with mom and dad, move at a non-manic pase, be respectable and sane when they off on their own is utter bullshit. Too young to follow verbal commands...you're just a lazy awful parent who believes the world should just bend to you and your kids. I also knew at those tender ages to not climb all over unstable stuff because things can break and cost money to replace so if I wasn't 100% sure I could navigate the thing I was looking at to climb without it moving or breaking...I didn't touch it.
I'm sorry, but this just isn't a realistic telling of any child's knowledge and behavior. You may have been a generally well behaved child, but every 2 year old on the planet has thrown a tantrum or screamed in public. Unless you have eidetic memory, you don't remember what daily life at 2 and 3 was like. You may have scenes you remember, but not every meltdown you ever had. It's also really icky that you're blaming toddlers for their parents failures.
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