Bad Granny Puts Granddaughter in Danger with Electric Riding Cart

Hi, Perky here,

It's been a while since I have submitted anything--my personal life has been a bit on the crazy side. But I have had many crazy crusty encounters and the Code Adam story brought back to mind something that happened a few weeks ago.

We serve a rather large elderly population and we have quite a few electric riding carts that we provide for our patrons who need them. Of course we all know that unsupervised children love these carts and we have a sign stating that children can not use the carts without adult supervision (we had to add the last part because we have had a few times were older children 14+ have had some injuries were they have needed to use the riding carts because of temporary mobility issues.

But of course we often have kids as young as 9 or 10 think they are freaking go-carts to be raced in the aisles.

So one of the duties the front door person has to do is to keep an eye on the carts, make sure they are plugged in and keep the kids from playing on them. So a few weeks ago I'm at the front door, checking receipts and keeping an eye on things when this little girl, she looked maybe 10-12 years old, comes in without a parent and heads straight to electric carts.

She unplugs one jumps on it and starts it up. Thankfully it wasn't busy so I stop her and inform her that we can not allow children to ride the carts without an adult.

She tells me that her grandmother sent her in to get her an electric cart and bring it out to her car. Now I'm also in a bit of a sticky situation since we're also not suppose to allow a young child to leave the store without an adult either. So I can not tell the young girl to go back out to her grandmother's car alone. If something happens to that girl we're essentially responsible because we would have sent her out alone. And I can not walk her out there because I can not leave the front door unattended.

So I radio for a manager, and when the manager gets up there I explain the situation.

So we ask the little girl what car was her grandmother's and while the manager watches the front door (and the little girl) I take the cart out to the grandmother.

I get there and was ready to explain to the grandmother that for safety reasons we can not allow children to use the carts unsupervised, never mind having a little girl drive one through a busy parking lot but OH MY GOSH, you'd think I had kidnapped her grandchild rather than try to keep her safe.

I got chewed out from one end to another. How dare we tell her what she can and not do with her grandchild, they do this all the time...I try to tell her that if she wants to call us when she is pulling into the parking lot that one of us will be more than happy to bring a cart out to her--but no nothing I could say was going to have the least bit of impression on her.

And of course when the woman was done shopping she took the cart out and never brought it back. Left it in the freaking middle of the parking lot lane where it was a hazard to other cars. I know that bitch did that on purpose.

We haven't seen her in the store since then, and I'm really hoping we never see her again. I just feel sorry for the little girl and hopes she doesn't live full time with her grandmother.

If that grandmother thinks it is ok for a child operate a cart in a busy parking lot, then I hate to see what else she lets her do.

--Perky

Comments

[Skittles]

For some silly reason a fairly large number of people seem to think parneting is instinctive. While in reality it is a learned skill the majority of which is learned from ones own parents. God help anyone who questions one of these idiots.

[The Last Archimedean]

Either Grandma is senile or incredibly stupid to think that's the least bit OK.

[March]

If she ever does it again at your store, are you technically allowed to call CPS?

[MamaZoe]

Gramma undoubtedly wasn't thinking about the safty of the CHILD... Gramma needed/wanted a cart and that is the only thing that mattered.

Granted, in most practical situations, 10-12 years old is old enough to reliably fetch items, but Gramma was appearently thinking more about her own wants& needs, and not the situation she was putting Grandaughter in.

[perky]

@March, We can call CPS for just about any reason, but unless the child was hurt or injured or abandon I doubt they would come out to investigate.

[L]

You and your manager were really awesome for bringing the cart to Grandma and offering to have one ready for her on her arrival. Too bad she couldn't see how out of the way you were going for her. She was more childish than her own granddaughter! But I know how people are when they even think that you are implying that they don't know what's best for their children!

[Hiedi]

And to think if the child brought the motorized cart out to her and got hit she would have sued the store for not protecting the kid.

[MahiMahi713]

Ughhhh it's old people like this that make me want to say "Why don't you just go die already?" to them.

[The Vacationing NC Tony]

Heidi took the words right out of my mouth. If ANYTHING had happened to that kid, either getting hit on the way into the store, on the way out or Arkvoodle forbid someone snatched the poor girl, it would be the store's fault, not her's for putting her own wants and needs over the safety of her granddaughter. I'd hate to think of what she did when she was raising her own kids, never mind what she's doing now with her granddaughter, and like Perky said, I hope she doesn't live with grandma full time.

[Jami]

Makes me wonder if she's related to that guy who lets his 9 year old drive his van when he's been drinking.

http://youtu.be/tTN9fmVT97E

[MahiMahi713]

@Jami It's surprising how many people are all I DON'T GET WHATS WRONG? comments there are.

[perky]

@Jami--I don't know what is worse the Dad letting his daughter drive, or like what Mahimahi713 said, the comments of people who didn't see the problem there. Esp. the comments that are like he is some sort of hero for letting her drive--as if he didn't have any other choice. How about just calling a cab if you are too drunk to drive. Or how about this, if you are out with your child don't get drunk.

[MahiMahi713]

@Perky it's like when I was reading the comments on this article about this woman who was at a pizza place. Her 2-year old toddler was reaching for the pitcher of beer and her solution? Fills his sippy cup with it and hands it to him. All the comments were SO WHAT? There is nothing wrong with that. Now, I'm all for lowering the drinking age but that doesn't mean you should give a toddler alcohol.

[The Last Archimedean]

Either the drinking age should be 18, or you shouldn't be allowed to enlist in the military until you're 21. If I'm old enough to fight in a war, I'm old enough to drink alcohol.

[BookishGirl]

Which is the way it is here, TLA. The legal ages for voting, enlisting and drinking are all 18 for exactly that reason. And the legal age of consent is 16.