"Knock it off!"

Does a store cashier have the right to say this to a child when he is being unruly in the store?

Today at Michaels (craft store) two boys were being little devils. Throwing balls toward the other isles where other shoppers were walking. The cashier said, "Knock it off!" The mother went ape shit about it.

Here are the facts....the kids were being ass hats. The mom was beyond pretty but seemed snooty as all hell.

I walked away thinking something needed to be said, but the cashier took it too far.

i've been one of those cashiers--- with bratty kids and inattentive parents. I have told them to stop. maybe not "knock it off" but probably something close to it. many parents use the kids as distractions to steal things too... so always had to watch both the parents and the kids! :O

"Knock it off!" is what their mother should have said! Shame on her for making other people have to ride herd on her spawn. Maybe if the cashier had said, "Knock it off or I'll come over there and knock some sense into your heads," it would have been too much but if these are the facts of the case then their mother is an ass hat too. The cashier did nothing wrong. If another customer had said that, they would have said nothing wrong.

Shale wrote:Cashier was right to try to get order in the store and the manager should have come out of hiding and told the Asshats to leave.

Not only were they potentially damaging inventory but suppose another customer got injured with one of the balls the kids were throwing around. That is a liability that the store would be paying. Stores are not playgrounds and kids should know this.

Absolutely. Because their parents should have taught them that! I opted not to mention the potential for some one else to be injured because of the little dickens' hi-jinx but if I ever was a witness to that I'd be happy to be a witness for the defense in the personal injury lawsuit. I would also go out in the parking lot and get the woman's plate # if she made a run for it.

Sounds to me like the mother was mad because the cashier was able to be more of an authority than she was. If the parents can't control their disruptive kids inside stores, then the staff has the right to tell them to cut it out.

I wouldn't fault the cashier at all.

If something needed to be said then someone had to do it. There's nothing more annoying than being at a store or some kind of public venue and seeing parents ignore the outrageous behavior of their hyperactive kids. Sometimes it takes another adult and someone who isn't related to let them know that they're out of line and it won't be tolerated. I probably would've given kudos to the cashier for it.

If the kids are being unruly and the parents aren't doing anything about it, then the store owner has a right to yell at the kid. Sure.

I don't have an issue with it at all under those circumstances. If they're turning the store into their own personal playground the cashier, as an employee of the store had every right. Other people kids can make a shopping experience miserable & in this case dangerous too.

RedBedroom wrote:Does a store cashier have the right to say this to a child when he is being unruly in the store?

ABSOLUTELY!

RedBedroom wrote:Today at Michaels (craft store) two boys were being little devils. Throwing balls toward the other isles where other shoppers were walking. The cashier said, "Knock it off!" The mother went ape shit about it.

Here are the facts....the kids were being ass hats. The mom was beyond pretty but seemed snooty as all hell.

I walked away thinking something needed to be said, but the cashier took it too far.

What's "too far"?

I pissed off a woman in the Indian art store I worked in. Her kid proceeded her into the store on a dead run, as he touched and dropped things I started following him around the store. By that his mother was in the store and not happy, she told me about it in no uncertain terms, all I had to say was "well he dropped the first 3 things he touched". If she had half a brain she should have realized that some of the stuff within his reach cost hundreds of dollars. Fortunately she left the store in a huff! I took a real mean delight in one incident though a little girl ran into the store in front of her mother, on the floor under a table we had open boxes of barrel cactus, the kid ran in and for some reason she jammed her fist into one of the boxes. She jerked it out really fast and her mother comforted her, I enjoyed telling the mother, "Oh that is going to hurt worse tomorrow". Just the facts ma'am.

RedBedroom wrote:Does a store cashier have the right to say this to a child when he is being unruly in the store?

Today at Michaels (craft store) two boys were being little devils. Throwing balls toward the other isles where other shoppers were walking. The cashier said, "Knock it off!" The mother went ape shit about it.

Here are the facts....the kids were being ass hats. The mom was beyond pretty but seemed snooty as all hell.

I walked away thinking something needed to be said, but the cashier took it too far.

Honestly, if they were throwig balls at each other I would have told them the same thing or told the mother to get her kids under control. If she didn't like it too bad for her.

Forgiveness Man wrote:If the kids are being unruly and the parents aren't doing anything about it, then the store owner has a right to yell at the kid. Sure.

Jason B. wrote:If something needed to be said then someone had to do it. There's nothing more annoying than being at a store or some kind of public venue and seeing parents ignore the outrageous behavior of their hyperactive kids. Sometimes it takes another adult and someone who isn't related to let them know that they're out of line and it won't be tolerated. I probably would've given kudos to the cashier for it.

She probably should have first asked the mother to instruct them to stop, but I can't be mad at her for losing her temper and reacting like the mother should have.