badstar

It's another "I hate people" day. I really hate people. Especially parents with kids. And store employees who don't bother, oh I don't know, telling an entire fucking store full of parents with obnoxious kids to control their brats.

We went to Michael's today to pick up some crafty things. I got some brilliant shrine ideas in my head and wanted to grab the requisite supplies to get started.

I was there long enough to find a wall shelf like I wanted, and two little decorations for it...but I was far from done. However, the shopping had to be cut short because no matter where we went, there were screaming kids running everywhere.

I mean parent is on one side of the store, and kids are as far from parent as they can be without leaving the confines of the store's walls, yelling, screaming, causing massive annoyance and headaches. Kids ranging from three our four to eleven or twelve years old. Playing tag or whatever. I almost tripped on kids a few times because they were just running all over the place.

Do I ever see a single employee try to locate a parent and ask them to please control their ~~rotten brats~~ precious tykes or get them the fuck out of the store? Of course not.

Coming up to the cashier, I made it a point to let the clerk know that we would have stayed longer, and would have done a little more for the economy by purchasing more merchandise in their fine establishment, but could not stand to be there because of all the screaming kids running around with no parental supervision.

Her response? "Oh, yeah, but it's not as bad as it is some other times you know. Sometimes for hours on end."

So...let me get this straight...the company doesn't care about little kids running unsupervised on a store screaming and yelling while their parents go about their business half a football field away completely unawares?

They're clearly unafraid of losing revenue from people who can't stand to shop in such an environment, but you'd think if nothing else there would be some sort of liability concern if the damned brats were to do something stupid and get hurt?

Oh...but then two of the kids were suddenly seen walking more quietly around. So she says "It looks like they've quieted down now if you want to continue shopping" (nevermind that you could hear other kids yelling and running around elsewhere in the store.)

No. Fuck no. I'm not staying there. I make some sarcastic comment about needing to wait for my projects until school starts and do my shopping during school hours, and she seems to think I mean "Oh, no that's okay, I'll just put my projects on hold until the little dears are back in school and then I can shop without having to inconvenience their screaming and running around." and says something like "Oh, yes, you should come back then. It's quiet here then."

Why the fuck do I have to deal with this...everywhere in this city? I have never seen half such a problem elsewhere that I've been. Most recently New York City, where the only place I had a bitch about out of control kids was the Museum of Natural History, and that was mostly confined to the gem room, which is set up to resemble a little kiddie playground. (No, seriously. If you haven't been there...it does.)

If you can't or won't control your kids, leave them at home with a babysitter. Or, better yet, stay home and fucking teach them to behave a bit. Yeah, kids need to have fun...but running wild around a retail store is not the way to go, and you're letting them do so is just a manifestation of what an inconsiderate asshole you are.

Oh, and then there were the kids screaming and yelling and running around on the train on the way home.

How loud were they? Okay, let's put it this way...I had the iPod on. Loud enough that it was probably damaging my hearing- it actually caused me some pain from time to time. And I could still hear every scream and shriek.

Fucking irresponsible parents.