Great Shoppers = Terrible Parents

This is the first post of this blog. Therefore, before this installment begins, here is what this blog will primarily entail. This blog is my observations (mostly complaining with a comedic spin) in the retail workplace, and how the I view events in the workplace. There are going to be times when the reader identifies with me, and times when the reader identifies with "the customer." The customer is the primary enemy of the writer while the writer is at work, however I have been forced to get along with the enemy because they provide my paycheck ;). This blog, by no means, is intended to attack the customers I am blogging about. Instead, this bog's simple function and purpose is to allow its creator (me) to blow off steam from the day and give the reader laughs along the way. That having been said, please continue!

GREAT SHOPPERS SOMETIMES EQUAL TERRIBLE PARENTS

There are times when poor parenting reaches baffling levels. A lot of times, this occurs when parents are shopping and neglect their children. The simplest way to exhibit poor parenting skills is by becoming "entranced" with an interesting product while turning the back to the kid. To become a poor parent, the following criteria must be met:

- No regard for personal space or common courtesy
- More interest invested to the product than YOUR OWN KID
- Complete disregard for the whereabouts of family members that popped out of your womb or were created by your seed.

It is amazing how easily some achieve every point of this criteria with the greatest of ease.

Exhibit A, B, C, D, E, and F: In a retail store specializing in sporting goods up to and including heavy work-out machinery, it is imperative that the customer does not turn into the child; like a child spotting the shiniest toy from across the room and is hauled in like a mosquito to a zapper, so the customer is drawn in to the bright and shiny new exercise bike or football cleat.
Side note: Those leashes parents attach to their wrist and their kid's backpack are hilarious. At least their laziness provides laughs for the employees in the back, and the kid doesn't destroy all the displays while the parents aren't looking. If parents are going to be lazy, at least they can provide a laugh. Somethin' to think about parents ;))



Now that the customer is "entranced," what happened to the kid(s)? Oh yeah, he or she is now on the exercise equipment, jumping around on it like a trampoline at Chucky Cheese. Hmm, decisions, decisions. What is more infuriating here? The fact that our tax dollars are hard at work maintaining our public parks while the customers' kids are taken to the store to play or the idea that if the peoples' kids get hurt on that machinery, the employees will get blamed for not watching the kids? That's a tie. I hate them both equally. I am on the brink of detaching all emotion from this situation. Maybe an employee void of all emotion will not have the compassion to stop that bastard kid from falling on his huge bastard dome. Maybe if the kid falls on his dome and cries out to his mommy and daddy for help, the parents will get a clue and the kid will become too scared to play where he or she is not supposed to. Sounds heartless right? Well this writer is only fighting fire with fire. How quickly is the reader goffing in disgust? About as quickly as they turned their back on their kid and the kid fell on his face.

I leave this week's readers with this:
Watch your kids! The employees of the store you are in are not certified day care employees, it is not their job to watch your kids. By the looks of Orange County, all of your kids have fallen on their faces in this scenario. Be a part of something great: The revival of intellect in your area!