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"Wander around the grocery store" is a bit different than walking 20-30 feet ahead in the same aisle.
Exactly.
We are talking about a kid on one end of the aisle and the (presumed) parents at the other, calling him back. That's all the OP saw.
For a moment in time, the child got too far away from supervising adults walking in the same aisle. The man was looking right at him.
From there, we got to parents letting unsupervised kids run all over the store and heated discussions about "developmental appropriateness".
That is not what the OP described. The kid was being watched, the adult felt the child had wandered too far and was correcting course. Little kids move fast so we all know how quickly that can happen.
Getting all super judgmental about a snippet in time between parents & kids in the same grocery aisle seems seriously misplaced IMO.
It is bad parenting, period paragraph. Its one thing if a kid gets away from you - even that is questionable. But just letting them run loose is definitely over the line. Either get a kiddy-leash and keep them close that way, or keep them in the cart or a stroller. Do NOT let them run loose and run into people's legs or end up under a cart. Plus there's the whole toddler-fiddling-with-products issue.
I might have agreed with you on this one, until I had my kid (like the saying goes, I was a perfect parent and then I had a kid). If you were blessed with children that never ever tried to wander or run off in a public place, or returned to you immediately and obediently the first time you called them back and you never had to do it a second time, and/or sat quietly and complacently in a cart/stroller or stayed calmly within the range of a leash, more power to you, here is your gold star.
I am amazed more children aren't kidnapped form grocery stores, WalMart and Target. They're allowed to wander without a care in the world. It's a pedophiles dream!
I am amazed more children aren't kidnapped form grocery stores, WalMart and Target. They're allowed to wander without a care in the world. It's a pedophiles dream!
The world is not as big and scary as you must think it is. There is not some kidnapper waiting around every corner and there is not 100s or 1000s of potential kidnappers who don't know how to pull it off, but would if they could figure out where children are.
The world is not as big and scary as you must think it is. There is not some kidnapper waiting around every corner and there is not 100s or 1000s of potential kidnappers who don't know how to pull it off, but would if they could figure out where children are.
I'm speaking form experience. Considering when I was a child I man exposed himself to me in a Montgomery Wards I think I know what I'm talking about. I can still tell you where I was in Montgomery Wards and what he was doing. He followed me around for quite awhile until I started yelling for my parents. Children in fact molested and abducted in/from stores frequently. How often do you hear a Code Adam? How often do you hear people being paged? Frequently it's because a child is lost or wandering.
A few months ago, the store manager got involved in a wandering child situations are a local Walmart. Within 15 minutes, the 4-5 year old came up to the self checkout registers looking for his mom 3 times! She would come get him after being paged. The third time, the store manager came up to speak to the mother and told her that the police would be called the next time. Somehow the kid stopped wandering around! Before people jump on the WalMart sucks bandwagon, this isn't a WalMart problem. This is a parenting problem.
And many, many, many, many more children are 100% completely fine.
My parents allowed us to stay in the toy aisles at stores while they shopped and this was back in the 80s - hardly an "innocent" time in history.
I was thinking about this thread while driving on the highway home today. Sure, I could think about how that semi next to me could jackknife and kill me and my kids. I could think about wrong way drivers and blown tires and drifting into another lane. And I could do all that induce worthless, unproductive anxiety. What's the point?
I'm speaking form experience. Considering when I was a child I man exposed himself to me in a Montgomery Wards I think I know what I'm talking about. I can still tell you where I was in Montgomery Wards and what he was doing. He followed me around for quite awhile until I started yelling for my parents. Children in fact molested and abducted in/from stores frequently. How often do you hear a Code Adam? How often do you hear people being paged? Frequently it's because a child is lost or wandering.
A few months ago, the store manager got involved in a wandering child situations are a local Walmart. Within 15 minutes, the 4-5 year old came up to the self checkout registers looking for his mom 3 times! She would come get him after being paged. The third time, the store manager came up to speak to the mother and told her that the police would be called the next time. Somehow the kid stopped wandering around! Before people jump on the WalMart sucks bandwagon, this isn't a WalMart problem. This is a parenting problem.
None of which has any similarity with the situation in the OP, where the parents were in the same aisle, and aware of their child.
And the bolder? Pure hyperbole. Yes, it has happened, but it is rare. I am not advocating parents leave their young children unattended in stores, or anywhere else. But I see nothing wrong with a toddler (and the age is still unknown here), being allowed to walk ahead of his parents in a grocery store.
Having been the parent of a kid who could fall out of a high chair and a stroller he was tied into, my frame of reference tells me kids are fast. Agile and speedy me had my hands on him both times.
Grandson now runs like lightening. I once had to yell across a store for the dad to get the kid who just ran out the door because i couldn't catch him.
There are some places where kids should not be allowed to run free. Grocery stores and restaurants being 2.
They may be fine, but the rest of us are not.
I keep a weather eye out on all kids who look like they might suddenly make a break for it also, on city streetcorners and the like. "Running into the OP's legs", sounds like a scenario where the child or even OP could fall or get hurt. And I'm a person who likes seeing kids act like kids... which includes playing without having adult eyes on them glued 24/7. If the toddler is still careless/carefree enough to run headlong into people, for me that's the point where I stop being hands-free. I also suspect improperly guided while leashed dogs I see hauling their owners around of potentially twirling their leash and selves around my legs; and regard them suspiciously also. I know dogs and kids are fast!
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