I'm in Staples, minding my own business, when I round a
corner and see one of their giant rolling ladder vehicles parked in an
aisle. There is a little kid, maybe five
years old, playing on it, though there is a chain across it that clearly states
to stay OFF of it.
Okay, so maybe he can't read. But surely his parents can. I mean, they're in an office supply store,
right? Or … are they?
I hang around for about three minutes, watching this kid
inching higher, swing off the sides, climb up the underside of the metal
risers. There is nobody else in
sight. I go over a few aisles and
search. No parent. No adult.
As a matter of fact, there are no other shoppers anywhere in sight in
this secluded quarter of the store.
I debate for a second.
Hmmmm, if the kid falls and gets hurt, maybe I can laugh at him and say
something snarky like, "Serves ya right, ya little bastard." But I decide that I like Staples, and I
really, really like having a Staples so close to my house. If they were to be sued, as they surely would
because Lord knows it will be their fault if this lone, unaccompanied child
should snap his little neck in a fall inside the store, then this Staples might
close. And that would suck. That would suck about a million more times
than having this kid snap his neck.
So I go looking for someone to help. I come across two young male employees,
probably local college kids, stocking a nearby display. I tell them there is an unsupervised child climbing
the ladder in the back aisle and there doesn't appear to be a parent anywhere
in sight.
God bless these two employees because they immediately come
over, talk the child off the equipment, and, as far as I know, find the child's
parent(s).
I call the store later when I get home, ask to speak with
the manager, and pass along the story and my compliments to the employees'
quick and responsible actions. I figure
they hear enough complaints, it would be nice to say something positive, pay it
forward a little bit.
But, honestly, what stupid-ass parent leaves their kid
unsupervised and all alone in a store like that? I could've snagged this kid, smacked him, or
worse if I were that kind of a degenerate.
It would've been seconds and I could've had him out through the back,
into the stock room, or even out the front door without anyone so much as
blinking an eye. The fact that he was in
a secluded section in the back of the store means that a snapped neck might
have been the best outcome of this scenario had these young men not come to his
rescue.
People are idiots.
Idiots shouldn't breed. But since
they did, maybe they should attempt to be less idiotic by actually trying to be
responsible for their own spawn. It
seems to make sense to me. But what do I
know? I'm just a parent.
