Watching these videos filled me with explosive anger.

[Paelos]

WoW I would have asked her where she lived and then pissed on her rug.

[Bunk]

Some parents just refuse to scold their children, especially in public. When I worked at a mall bookstore, years ago, they put us in a new store, all gussied-up. It was great... except they put the kid's section right by the register. So if you worked the register, you got to hear every single spoiled, loudmouth kid in the world totally go apeshit on their parents and anyone in range. From the "I WANT!" crowd to the ones who were left with one of those "sound" books to keep them busy, we got them all. Nothing like seeing some mentally deficient little crumbsnatcher repeatedly press the same sound button over and over and over while drooling and practically sweating boogers.

But my favorite was the lady whose child pissed the floor. She calmly told us what had happened, then just left. No offer to clean it up, no apologies, just "HERE'S THE PIDDLE KBYE!"

Yea, I'm afraid to even try to relate my retail sales experiences with kids. I worked at a discount department store when I was 17, started as the janitor and worked my way up to sales (its easier to promote from within when the company doesn't offer enough pay to even get homeless people interested). So what departments do I get? Shoes and toys. I probably threw out an average of a dozen toys a night that had been mangled right through the package by some little cockmuncher who's parents believed that toy department is synonymous with daycare.

A few years later, I got a 2nd job at Christmas time working a graveyard shift at Toys-R-Us. They actually would employ a crew of six people from midnight to 8:00 am just to clean up the mess made by the neanderthalls that had gone through the store that day. I'm not talking cleaning - just putting everything back on shelves in a sensible order.

[HaemishM]

Christmas time in retail is the trauma that birthed my unending hatred of humanity.

MMOG's just refined it to a white-hot point of stabby loathing.

[WayAbvPar]

WoW I would have asked her where she lived and then pissed on her rug.

That would be like, not cool, man. What if her rug really tied the room together?

[Astorax]

WoW I would have asked her where she lived and then pissed on her rug.

That would be like, not cool, man. What if her rug really tied the room together?

LOL, nice, 10 points for the Big Lebowski reference. :)

[voodoolily]

When I worked in a bookstore once the kid's section was next to the register also. If kids screamed, I told them, in front of their parents, that they needed to use their indoor voices, please. If they didn't, I would ask them to leave, parents included. I would simply explain that the noise is disturbing the other customers. My boss fully supported this, as she and her partner were DINKs who hated "screechy babies", as she would call them. I'd get some dirty looks from parents, but it's the parents who have to be responsible. If kids were really good and read quietly, I would ask their parents if it was okay to give them a cookie, of which I kept a stash under the register. When the happy lil' tyke came up for a cookie, I would just say, "this is for being so nice and quiet". If everyone in this god-forsaken country kept a stash of cookies to randomly give people (especially kids) when they're doing something good, the world would be a happy place full of rainbows and unicorns and I would be gladder for it.

[Polysorbate80]

True dat.  It ain't enough just to tell someone when they're doing wrong (although it has to be done), you need to also let them know when they're doing something right.  Grease the wheel once in a while and it might not get squeaky.

[Astorax]

If everyone in this god-forsaken country kept a stash of cookies to randomly give people (especially kids) when they're doing something good, the world would be a happy place full of rainbows and unicorns and I would be gladder for it.

*hands voodoolily a cookie*

[voodoolily]

Thank you for the cookie, Astorax. I needed that.

[Samwise]

(edit) because images are hard.

[Pococurante]

If kids were really good and read quietly, I would ask their parents if it was okay to give them a cookie, of which I kept a stash under the register. When the happy lil' tyke came up for a cookie, I would just say, "this is for being so nice and quiet". If everyone in this god-forsaken country kept a stash of cookies to randomly give people (especially kids) when they're doing something good, the world would be a happy place full of rainbows and unicorns and I would be gladder for it.

This kind of stuff makes for happy memories with kids.  I can still remember the old man who treated my four-year old self every time we went into the Red Goose Shoe Store.  My three brats remember such places and we often wind up shopping there so they can earn their forbidden fatgrams.

I don't take DINKs opinions on kids very seriously.  Kind of like listening to a virgin comment on sex positions - interesting less for what they say then how worked up they get speechifying. ;-)