Badly Behaved children

[weesewcute]

Sometimes I get really tired of having to tell people to make their children behave. I had two of the worst children I have ever had in my booth over the weekend.

The first child came into my booth. I have this back table were I do work sometimes to repair things or when the show is slow to make product. I had a small glue gun sitting at the back (turned off) that I am standing in front of and this id tries to make a grab for it and I grab his hand and say "NO"! His mother just looks at him. Then he does it again for God's sake and grabs it and I say "Give me that". I go to grab it and he is going to try and wrestle it from me. I snatched it from his hand and say "GO!!!" and point out of my booth. The mother just takes his hand and moves on. If your kid is that out of control you should have his hand in yours. I looked at my mom who was helping that day and said "to bad it was not turned on".

The second one comes into my booth and bends down and picks up the gravel on the ground and throws it all over the booth. Are you kidding me? These were children that were old enough to know better. I would have never have acted this way nor my children act that way.

It is a double edged sword because I have children's things but I don't think it should be a license to destroy everything I have. It is hard because you want the sale but at the same time when some little kid is trying to pull the clothing off the racks and taking your headbands and trying to break them in two you want to slap their little hands. Obviously the parents suck at teaching their children any class. It just blows my mind sometimes.

[abaworld]

I would want to slap more than their little hands! But, alas, I'm not fond of jail...

[abaworld]

Kids make sales for me, so I am pretty forgiving.

If the parent(s) are slow to react to their child's misbehavior, I certainly will have something to say. Judging their immediate reaction will determine if I continue with them or hand them my business card and suggest they visit my website where they can look at my products at their leisure.

[susien]

I always have the back of my booth blocked off and when I am working, I am behind the table, where no children can get to. It is really a shame though when some adults act worse than the kids do.

[weesewcute]

It is a cold glue gun so I does not heat up on the outside and the glue is not hot enough to burn ya. I anticipated that one in advanced.

I don't know I guess I am pretty mean. If I tell you once not to do something and you do it again because you are a brat I don't feel to bad for you. It wouldn't have killed him, it just would have been a nice blister I secretly would have laughed about! ;D

I used to have a store and you would not believe some of the crap I have seen.

[mark]

I sell Jewelry and i still sometimes have a problem with kids they will grab my rings and bracelets and play with them and i will say no no this is not for children and sometimes there parents give me a dirty look like wtf don't talk to my kid like that?and leave......

[bmermaid]

This makes me nuts. My booth does look a little like a jungle gym... I use grid panels and have things hanging in the middle. They want to play under and in the clothes, or climb on something.

I wait about 30 seconds for the parent to do something, then I'm on it. I don't have kids, but I have taught them... I just stand over them, use my teacher voice 'please don't play in the clothes', and smile. I'm not mean, but usually my tone and tallness are enough for them to snap to. Since I'm polite, the mom can't really say anything to me... anyway it's her brat. I don't have lots of patience for potential ruin to all my hard work. too bad.

Food really freaks me out, esp some kid with a blue face and something sticky in their hands. As soon as I see one come in I jump up and say, 'oh! this make me nervous! sticky alert!' and kind of shoo them out. lol.

Now i have these cool stickers w/ my mermaid logo on them... so I pass them out to kids and they are usually a good distraction.

[davejs]

Yah, I know what you mean about the kids. What really burns my britches is when you 'reprimand' the kid's, sometimes the parents get mad at you. The parents completely ignore the kids and they get the run of the place and have to grab everything. I see these kids actually touch and grab every little thing as they go around inside my booth. I do not run a babysitting service, sorry.

I recall that one time a kid actually plopped his overweight body down on this metal stand that I had (It was empty at the time) and I reacted quickly, telling him to get off. I did not think it would support very much weight and I do not want to get sued if he gets injured. The father was a real original butthead and told me not to yell at the kid. I informed him that it is not a chair and I am concerned that his child might get hurt. Then he starts going off on me saying 'You don't yell at my child like that.' After about fifteen seconds of that, I told him that he had to leave. Got madder, telling me that he was going to buy one of my bags. I told him that he had to go. The guy had been going ballistic.