why do parents not control there kids in stores?

parents these days are too afraid of looking bad. if a parent were to yell at their child, or any other form of discipline in public, they would be risking a bad mark from the people around them. some may even find them to be emotionally abusive, for they only see the situation out of context. parents are too anxious of what the public's reaction would be if they showed a disciplinarian attitude towards their child. so instead, they just ignore the problem. it is ironically counter-productive.

I agree with you, I feel that it is my responsibility as a parent to make sure that my children are not an inconvenience to those around them when I take them into public places, so when me and my children go out, they walk right next to me, hold my hand if they are too young to walk by themselves, and talk in inside voices. People say "oh, you dont understand, its hard to control little kids", heres the thing, I have five children under the age of ten, including an infant boy, a toddler 3 year old girl, a 5 year old girl, and 7 and 9 year old boys, basically every group known for causing trouble, plus my 13 year old sister-in-law is with me on occasion, if I can keep my kids well behaved and under control in a store, anyone can. I know that kids are kids and need to have fun, but that doesnt mean their fun has to come at everyone elses expense, when my kids are at the playground or park they are free to run and scream their little heads off, at home they can play and make a decent amount of noise as long as it doesnt disturb the neighbors (we live in an apartment), but in stores its time to calm down. They can still have fun, but that doesnt mean running around being destructive, we play quiet games like I Spy and guessing games and we tell stories to each other. If they start acting up, we go sit in timeout on the curb outside until they are ready to behave, then we go back in. Unfortunately, some parents believe the opposite, that their little angels should be free to be terrors and race around stores, because the only way a kid can have fun is screaming and running, and everyone else can just deal with it. I feel bad for those kids because they are too young to realize that they are just embarrassing themselves.

I think some parents just don't want to be bothered with disciplining their children. They might scold or punish their children only for their convenience. Unfortunately, there are some irresponsible parents. As a parent myself, I sometimes would go up to the parents, and suggest that they keep a closer eye on their children, more for their children safety than anything else, which might be more easily accepted.

I find it annoying too.

I mean, with some things they do its just kids being kids, but the parents need to control them more. They really need to be within reach of the kid(s) at ALL times. Anything could happen.

Wow, that sounds pretty tough. I mean, did you make it through alright? No injuries or anything? I hear tell one can get PTSD from an experience like that. Maybe you should seek professional help so you can better deal with the emotions this traumatic experience has left you with.

While it's good of you to think of the book store and the possibility they could be sued, you need to think of yourself first here. You can't help the bookstore until you've helped yourself.

maybe they are just exhausted and just want to "let it slide"

maybe they know their kids will react strongly to discipline, and they don't want to start a scene in the store so they wait to discipline their kids at home.

maybe the kids are not theirs and they just don't care

maybe they are in a rush and have too much on their mind and just want to get what they want and leave as fast as possible.

maybe they are just bad parents

This isn't the only place that the parents let there kids run, they can't control them anywhere that they take them because they don't know how to train them.Anyone can have children.

I hate kids. I have no kids, I will never have kids. Everybody I know who has kids disappears into their kids' world and loses the ability to notice that non-kids related things happen all around them. Ugh.

I hate that. And when they push or hit you and your about to hit the kid back but then there mom comes and clearly sees it and doesn't even apologize. I know so many people who almost back handed those annoying brats.

Because they didn't want to bring them, because didn't want to pay a babysitter either.

So they tend to forget they are with them. They just run off.

Next time tell the manager.