Children, pets (I am allergic to cats), relatives and S/O’s who know better than you but couldn’t manage to partition a hard drive, and then explain they “prefer” to have it done by a pro. :rolleyes:
I have regular customers with 4-5 screeching banshee children. I’m not really sure how many there are, they move too damn fast.
Lets not go into the houses I end up in where I want to roll in the dirt outside hoping to dislodge some of the filth that I am sure stuck to me in there.
Word. I go to playdates (and when the hell did we start calling them that?) and these kids are there for an hour and a half. I swear, some of the kids are asking their mothers for snacks 2 seconds after we arrive. And the mothers comply! With carefully prepared, gourmet fruit cups and homemade, organic, no-sugar, gluten-free cookies! My kid sees all this going on and asks me for something. I’m forced to dig one lint-covered raisin out of the bottom of my purse to give to him. Just stop eating and go play.
As for the rest of this, didn’t we just do this topic about 5 minutes ago?
No, we will not watch your kids for you. Please do not drop your eleven year old sibling off to take care of her sister and brother, ages 8 and 6, respectively. Then don’t come here and whine because we don’t allow them to stay by themselves. We are not babysisters.
No, your kids can’t stay here if you give your permission over the phone. Heaven forbid you actually have to watch your own kids. Yes, you have to pay if you come in-even if you don’t plan on doing anything. Do they let you into Kennywood (local amusement park) for free if you tell them you’re not going to ride anything?
And kids, don’t whine to me that “the guy let me in yesterday!” That was yesterday, and he’s not here. I am. And if you can’t call your folks, I’m calling security and having them do it.
(It’s gonna get a LOT worse here at the science center when the casinos go up on the North Shore. We’re anticipating some of the parents dropping their kids off while they go gamble. It’s gonna be lots of fun calling them up and threatening to sic CYS on them!)
I’ve worked onsite <shudder> as well, thankfully I don’t have to anymore, back when I DID have to work onsite, many of the machines I had to repair were G3 iMacs, the Keihei series (Slot-Loading optical drive)
most of those repairs were PAV (Power/Analog/Video) board replacements, the combined power supply for both the logic board AND CRT…
…a component capable of carrying a potentally lethal high-voltage charge, even when unplugged, and that needed to be discharged before removal…
Not the best time for “helpful” little people (or even big people) to be bothering me, I don’t particularly like being the ground path for 30,000+ volts and who knows how many amps of current…
thankfully, I’ve never been zapped, but PAV repairs were…difficult… at a customer site to say the least
Waddya mean? That’s an EXCELLENT ad! I wish they’d run one like it here. LOTS and LOTS of times a day. Especially between 4 and 6 pm. They should insert them randomly in video games and educational programs at Jr. HS and HS also.
When it’s appropriate, I can deliver whoopass too. My opinion is that by having a happy and secure child reduces the number of times one has to open that can of whoopass on the child. I only swatted Lisa a few times, and that was when she was deliberately testing my limits. Mostly she got timeouts or a scolding or both, and that was all she needed.
Today I was in a Pizza place. An adult pizza place near the College. It serves beer.
One family had two kids. One, the 4 yo girl was throwing food at her brother.Her 2yo bro was running around in a cirle, screaming/wailing at the top of his lungs. Parents ignored both.
Usually I complain to Mgt, but today I was just too fucking tired so I moved outside.
I complained to Mgt once about this, and although usually they at least talk to the “parents” one time they asked “what can we do?” I replied “ask the parent to leave, taking the child with them.” She looked at me and said "I can’t do that", so I said “Fine, then **I **will leave!”, and left my cart full of groceries there, and fired off an email to upper Mgt.
Yes, because better to piss off an entire store full of people than one clueless mother. I’ll never understand that. How hard is it to say, “Ma’am, your child is disturbing the other patrons. If you cannot control him we’ll have to ask you to leave.” If she gets embarrassed and gets the kid under control, you win. If she gets huffy that you are trying to curtail her precious child’s natural energy and exuberance and leaves, you win.
Either way, you get a store full of happy patrons.
I will tell you my SIL pulled her daughter out of a line at a Disney ride because she wouldn’t behave. Granted, it was a long line, we’d been waiting awhile, and we were nearly at the entrance, but my SIL pulled her away and we took her other daughter in to the ride while she waited in the gift shop. She said other parents looked at her in horror that she would deny her daughter the treat of the ride, but Niece had been warned, and that was that. Threats mean nothing unless you’re willing to follow through with the punishment.
I’ve heard tell of Premium Theaters east of the Mississippi. Where popcorn and soda come with the price of your ticket, the internal restaurant will deliver to your leatherette stadium seat, and it’s 21 and over only.
I’ve never been so happy to be old and to have a friend’s wedding to attend.
They could just broadcast a “generic” announcement over the PA. “Dear customers, we would like to remind you that poorly educated children with fingers full of chocolate are best kept away from the tower of Logitech cordless mice. Enjoy your shopping”
Yup. I felt sorry for her, dealing with his obvious meltdown. The older child (maybe 5?) was behaving just fine, and I think she was trying to help mom with the brother.
If the parent is addressing the needs of the child–or at least attempting to do so (even if his need is to learn that he can’t get everything he wants), I’m supportive of the parent. Unfortunately, that is not what I see most often. Or perhaps I notice that less. Whichever, I see way too many kids out of control, with parents oblivious.
I can see a lowly employee not having the power to evict an unruly customer, but surely the manager should have enough stones. I would never ask a clerk to handle something of that nature.
