Value Village and Bad Parenting 101

So those of you that know me might know that I've been working at Value Village for the past 5 months or so. Now this job isn't terrible but it definitely has its problems. I'm sure that throughout the existence of this blog I will talk about the problems enough times that you too will dislike the job, that's my goal anyway. So today I am going to talk about the some of the kids that come into the store.

First of all I just need to say that a lot of kids I see in there are behaving perfectly fine but there are enough of the bad ones to make up for that. Here's an example from the other night. I was on the cashier just tidying up because it wasn't very busy when suddenly I heard a bone-chilling shriek coming from a couple tills over. I turn my head slowly, half expecting to see some deranged man shoving kids into a potato sack, but what did I see? A couple of parents paying for all their stuff and trying really hard to just ignore their screaming child. There were two kids with them, there was a girl probably about 7 and a boy about 5. The girl was the one screaming. I didn't make out exactly what was going on but by the sounds of the child's scream, she wanted a doll. The craziest thing happened after a couple minutes of her screaming, the boy just starting screaming as well, for no conceivable reason! This kid didn't want anything he just felt like screaming I guess... Now first I have to commend the parents for not giving in, good work, but I'm not sure the best way to deal with kids is to just ignore them. I don't claim to be an expert on kids and if this is appropriate then feel free to let me know, but somehow this seems wrong. So now there were two screaming kids at the front of the store being dragged out by their parents. The parents didn't say anything, they just grabbed the kids and left the store. That example doesn't happen very often. There are a lot of screaming kids but the parents usually step in a get them to shut up.

Another  way too common occurrence in Value Village has to do with the toy section. This place is like Lord of the Flies, total anarchy. I don't know how many times I've gone back there and seen a lot of kids, a huge mess, and no parents for miles. Usually I don't care. I wash my hands of the situation and go somewhere else in the store, but sometimes I get sent back there specifically to clean up and this is the worst. I go back there and begin just grabbing any loose toys and throwing them back on the shelves, I consciously put the coolest toys on the top shelves to hopefully avoid this situation but it never works. Now after I've put away about half the toys, the kids are starting to notice me. This is where I get nervous, thoughts go through my head. I become convinced that these kids are going to rise up, attack me, and reclaim this area as theirs. And I'm not really afraid of kids attacking me but I'm afraid of what I'd do in that situation, like when is it okay to hit a child? But I digress, these kids stare at me and I just continue to put the toys away because that's my job. After I've cleaned up most of the mess I begin to wonder where the parents are? I'm assuming not every kid wandered in from the local orphanage. The parents just leave their kids with the toys cause they know they won't leave, what kid would. If this was any other store the parents would be holding there kids hand but because we sell second-hand stuff they figure who cares if they break it. Parents, I beg of you, keep track of your kids cause I'm sick of risking my personal security to clean up after your little terrors.

So there you go. Kids have become the bane of my Value Village existence and you parents aren't helping.