The Vent and Rant Thread

[Rumpelteazer]

I know how you feel KK!

On Saturday we always have consulting hour and this time a father with two hyper-active kids arrived. With consulting hour people can come in with light fixtures that don't work and my father will try to diagnose the problem. Sometimes it's busy, sometimes it's not. People have to wait their turn.

The father had to wait and the kids were not very busy. I had to ask them several time not to keep the door open (heating is on), not to crawl into the shop window, not touch the suspended plateaus in the shop window and to look with their eyes not with their hands. The father didn't say anything, but he clearly didn't like it when I asked his kids to behave. But I'm not a baby sitter, I have shipments to process and regular customers to help.

And, of course, we suddenly heard a crash. The kids had dropped a €25 porcelain lamp socket. Not as bad as a phone, but still. And dad threw a temper tantrum when he was asked to pay for it.

Breaks can happen, but since those kids had been asked not to touch stuff and behave over half a dozen times already I didn't classify this as an accident.

I don't blame the kids, but the father (and mother). First of all for not teaching their kids to behave in public and also for taking them to the consulting hour, where it's normal for people to have to wait.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

How old was the kid? Does he have a new X-Box or other favorite something his parents could give you in trade?

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I know how you feel KK!

On Saturday we always have consulting hour and this time a father with two hyper-active kids arrived. With consulting hour people can come in with light fixtures that don't work and my father will try to diagnose the problem. Sometimes it's busy, sometimes it's not. People have to wait their turn.

The father had to wait and the kids were not very busy. I had to ask them several time not to keep the door open (heating is on), not to crawl into the shop window, not touch the suspended plateaus in the shop window and to look with their eyes not with their hands. The father didn't say anything, but he clearly didn't like it when I asked his kids to behave. But I'm not a baby sitter, I have shipments to process and regular customers to help.

And, of course, we suddenly heard a crash. The kids had dropped a €25 porcelain lamp socket. Not as bad as a phone, but still. And dad threw a temper tantrum when he was asked to pay for it.

Breaks can happen, but since those kids had been asked not to touch stuff and behave over half a dozen times already I didn't classify this as an accident.

I don't blame the kids, but the father (and mother). First of all for not teaching their kids to behave in public and also for taking them to the consulting hour, where it's normal for people to have to wait.

I can't even begin to say how angry I am. My instinct to throttle was combatted by me sitting there and doing one of those dying fish sucky face things. the kid, 6, was one of those that mummy and duddy were constantly making excuses for or completely deaf to. you just don't know what to do when faced with something like that

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I can't even begin to say how angry I am. My instinct to throttle was combatted by me sitting there and doing one of those dying fish sucky face things. the kid, 6, was one of those that mummy and duddy were constantly making excuses for or completely deaf to. you just don't know what to do when faced with something like that

I have met some horrid children.
One was told by her great-grandmother that she could do anything and didn't have to do what her parents said. (Update: said brat has now been in court for bullying. )

Another was a 3 year old whose parents said she is only 3. Kids don't understand anything until they are 4 was the parent's excuse.

The last one was just pretty much unsupervised.

[badgoodDeb]

KK: Were the parents really likely to buy something through you (or sell something)? If not, you can ignore any phone calls from them because, well, your phone is broken isn't it? But still, there really OUGHT to be some recourse for stuff like this!!!

Take the parent's phone, because you need a new one now, obviously! And they owe it to you, even though they don't seem to think so. Cheaper to give you their phone than the pound of flesh they actually owe you...... (mumble mumble Shakespeare or whoever wrote that ...)

[cromag]

The good news: Home Depot had the new storm door I needed.

The bad news: I really pulled something in my back getting it into the minivan.

The good news: I still have a couple of muscle relaxants left over from my last prescription.

The bad news: I probably won't be comfortable enough to get a good night's sleep. (I had a dental appointment scheduled for tomorrow. I left a short-notice cancellation on the dentist's voicemail -- I don't think driving tomorrow would be a good idea.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I can't even begin to say how angry I am. My instinct to throttle was combatted by me sitting there and doing one of those dying fish sucky face things. the kid, 6, was one of those that mummy and duddy were constantly making excuses for or completely deaf to. you just don't know what to do when faced with something like that

Oh, screw that, KK. Didn't the parents at least offer to pay for a replacement phone, at the very least?

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I have met some horrid children.
One was told by her great-grandmother that she could do anything and didn't have to do what her parents said. (Update: said brat has now been in court for bullying. )

Another was a 3 year old whose parents said she is only 3. Kids don't understand anything until they are 4 was the parent's excuse.

The last one was just pretty much unsupervised.

The unsupervised thing drives me nuts. And on top of it is the deaf-to-it parents. I was at a grocery store, a while back, and a mother with, I kid thee not, FOUR young children (and obviously preggers with another) managed to harass nearly everyone in the place. The end result was me, in the checkout line, in front of this parade, and after the eldest sat there and repeatedly SLAMMED their cart into my back and legs, turning to the mother and saying "Haven't you EVER heard of the pill?" It was horribly rude of me but really, what's one's limit? Could she seriously not see her kid slamming the damn cart into me, like the ubiquitous brat kicking the back of the seat in an airliner?

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

KK: Were the parents really likely to buy something through you (or sell something)? If not, you can ignore any phone calls from them because, well, your phone is broken isn't it? But still, there really OUGHT to be some recourse for stuff like this!!!

Take the parent's phone, because you need a new one now, obviously! And they owe it to you, even though they don't seem to think so. Cheaper to give you their phone than the pound of flesh they actually owe you...... (mumble mumble Shakespeare or whoever wrote that ...)

Seriously, KK, you're not rich. And even if you were, you oughtn't pay for the new one--they should. I think you should get a receipt from (wherever you get your phone from), and send it to them for payment. Why wouldn't you, unless they buy a (very) big house through you?

Bugger that stuff. They're lucky it wasn't me, I'd probably have promptly spanked him. (Oh, yes...I really would have. I'm a firm believer in proper spanking; I think this delirium about how spanking=child abuse is utter codswallop, and the resulting "nobody gets spanked or disciplined" isn't working out to well, from what I see.)

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I can't even begin to say how angry I am. My instinct to throttle was combatted by me sitting there and doing one of those dying fish sucky face things. the kid, 6, was one of those that mummy and duddy were constantly making excuses for or completely deaf to. you just don't know what to do when faced with something like that

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I have met some horrid children.
One was told by her great-grandmother that she could do anything and didn't have to do what her parents said. (Update: said brat has now been in court for bullying. )

Another was a 3 year old whose parents said she is only 3. Kids don't understand anything until they are 4 was the parent's excuse.

The last one was just pretty much unsupervised.

Parents don't think it's their job anymore to raise their kids. The first years the kids can (almost) get away with murder. When they start going to school the teacher gets blamed, they actually think it the job of the teachers to raise their kids. A while ago there was this big discussion about kids starting primary school and were still in nappies. The parents thought it was the teachers job to get their kiddies potty trained.

We see it more and more in the store that parents just let their kids get away with anything. When the kids break something blame us for putting it in a spot where their kiddies can reach it (99% of what we sell is breakable).

The last couple of months it has happened several times that a father or mother brought their hyper active kid(s) to consulting hour and tried to use their tantrums/impatient behaviour to get ahead in line. It usually works, because most people would rather wait a bit longer than have to deal with a screaming kid for a second longer than necessary (and after parent and kid leaves we all have a good bitch about the lack of parenting skills).

[ProfCrash]

KK, they should pay for your phone's replacement.

Rumpleteazer: Parents should pay for anything their kid breaks. That is why my mother told me to keep my hands in my pockets and not touch anything.

There are plenty of well behaved kids out there and plenty of parents who are doing a fine job of raising their kids. This is one of those topics that always seems to lead to a string of "this kid was awful" and even more bitching. Nine times out of ten you don't notice the kids who are well behaved because they are well behaved. We complain about the crying kid on the plane or the poorly behaved kid at the grocery store because we can see them or hear them. Do we seek out the parents whose kid is playing quietly on the plane or the parent whose kid is keeping his hands to himself and walking nicely at the grocery store? Nope because they are doing what they are suppose to do but it is not easy to get there.

And yeah, telling a woman whose kids are misbehaving that she should use the pill is offensive and wrong. Complaining to her that her kid is whacking you with the grocery cart is one thing but seriously?

We bring books and small toys when we are out with little man. When he was potty training I brought cleaning materials with me just in case he had an accident because I thought that was my responsibility. If he starts misbehaving, we take him out of the restaurant. We are not the only ones. Parenting is hard. Your parents worked their ass off so that you could be your stellar selves. I am guessing that you probably ended up being the subject of someones bitch session because you were not perfect as a kid. And I seem to recall watching movies in the 90's that included adults worried about kids today and then seeing movies from the 70's were adults worried about the kids today and the complaint goes back, probably a few thousand years or so.

[Katsunami]

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

-- Socrates, 469 BC

(According to Plato.)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

And yeah, telling a woman whose kids are misbehaving that she should use the pill is offensive and wrong. Complaining to her that her kid is whacking you with the grocery cart is one thing but seriously?

I think that may be oversimplifying things.

From the sound of it, Hitch didn't say anything until it became rather obvious that the woman in question was not being responsible about having children.

... which isn't to say that I necessarily agree with that kind of rudeness, but I certainly understand it.

[Rumpelteazer]

My Kindle was acting up a bit (a book I just transferred via Calibre wasn't showing up), so I thought I would reboot it. I accidentally tapped the reset option instead of the restart option.

I really wish there was the option to skip the How Your Kindle Works bit.

I do have to admit, though, that it's nice to have a nice clean Kindle again, without all the books I've put on ages ago that had little chance of being read any time soon.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

KK, they should pay for your phone's replacement.

Rumpleteazer: Parents should pay for anything their kid breaks. That is why my mother told me to keep my hands in my pockets and not touch anything.

There are plenty of well behaved kids out there and plenty of parents who are doing a fine job of raising their kids. This is one of those topics that always seems to lead to a string of "this kid was awful" and even more bitching. Nine times out of ten you don't notice the kids who are well behaved because they are well behaved. We complain about the crying kid on the plane or the poorly behaved kid at the grocery store because we can see them or hear them. Do we seek out the parents whose kid is playing quietly on the plane or the parent whose kid is keeping his hands to himself and walking nicely at the grocery store? Nope because they are doing what they are suppose to do but it is not easy to get there.

And yeah, telling a woman whose kids are misbehaving that she should use the pill is offensive and wrong. Complaining to her that her kid is whacking you with the grocery cart is one thing but seriously?

We bring books and small toys when we are out with little man. When he was potty training I brought cleaning materials with me just in case he had an accident because I thought that was my responsibility. If he starts misbehaving, we take him out of the restaurant. We are not the only ones. Parenting is hard. Your parents worked their ass off so that you could be your stellar selves. I am guessing that you probably ended up being the subject of someones bitch session because you were not perfect as a kid. And I seem to recall watching movies in the 90's that included adults worried about kids today and then seeing movies from the 70's were adults worried about the kids today and the complaint goes back, probably a few thousand years or so.

I have been known to compliment good kids.
I never could understand why some parents didn't bring their kids something to do when they knew there would be a wait. You know colors and a small notepad are cheap. I have yet to meet a child that would not sit still and draw me a picture.
It especially irks me if the parent is playing on their device but the child has nothing to do.

[wodin]

I have snatched more than one urchin from a chair, and in one case snatched a chair from an urchin.

I'm amazed that in each case I wasn't arrested, and the resulting confrontation with parents can usually be mollified by pointing out that allowing a child to behave like that is doing them no favors and is indeed ultimately more damaging than anything that I have done.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

My Kindle was acting up a bit (a book I just transferred via Calibre wasn't showing up), so I thought I would reboot it. I accidentally tapped the reset option instead of the restart option.

I really wish there was the option to skip the How Your Kindle Works bit.

I do have to admit, though, that it's nice to have a nice clean Kindle again, without all the books I've put on ages ago that had little chance of being read any time soon.

FWIW, this seems to be a recurring problem with Kindles and Calibre. Slightly less with .AZW3 v. .mobi, but still a problem. One thing I've found that seems to help is to Update Cached Metadata On Device (from the dropdown list in the Device button on the main toolbar.)

OTOH, a periodic cleanout of one's Kindle isn't a bad idea either.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I think that may be oversimplifying things.

From the sound of it, Hitch didn't say anything until it became rather obvious that the woman in question was not being responsible about having children.

... which isn't to say that I necessarily agree with that kind of rudeness, but I certainly understand it.

It wasn't ONLY that the kid slammed me with the cart not less than 15x before I turned around. The 3 that could walk/run ran amok all over the store. The toddler with her--2 or so, I'd guess--screamed and cried constantly. Unfortunately, she apparently came into the store about the same time I did, and so they were +/- an aisle away from me at all times. The baby also cried non-stop. I'm sorry, but no matter HOW distracted she was, not noticing that her kid was mauling me with the cart? Yes, I was rude. But here's my theory on this: any mother so OBVIOUSLY and egregiously overwhelmed with trying to track FOUR kids, with a FIFTH on the way...IMHO, somebody needs to remind her that there are alternatives to endlessly reproducing.

We see a LOT of very young moms--many not even out of their teens--with a LOT of children here in AZ. It's disturbing.

FWIW: I normally go to great lengths not to be rude. But, yes...I was provoked, not once, but repeatedly. Does it excuse it? Possibly not. However, I strongly suspect that anyone else in that situation would have said something far worse than I did. At least I didn't spank the little bugger, which he royally deserved.

Hitch