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| Aedyn at 20 months |
As I read her post I remembered back to last fall. Christmas decorations were out, but Jaron hadn't been born yet, so it must have been Octoberish. Aedyn and I were at Cracker Barrel with my parents and were wandering around the store after having finished dinner. Aedyn was 20 months old and was walking with me.
Now Cracker Barrel has their displays set up all over the place, they tend to put noisy and light flashing stuff very close to the floor, perfect for little hands to grab and touch.
We saw this fun little tabletop Christmas decoration, a piano if I remember correctly, it played Christmas Carols and the keys moved with the song. Cute! Especially for a toddler who loves the piano.
He reached out with one finger to touch. As I reached out to take his hand while saying something like "Aedyn, no touching, just looking." A nearby sales associate lunged over and grabbed his hand saying harshly "We don't touch!"
To this day I still fume when I think about it.
1. I was already handling the situation.
2. She got between me and my child.
3. She physically disciplined my child in my presence without my permission.
4. She did not even acknowledge me before, during, or after the incident.
OH, that makes me so angry!
We just left.
Had I been the mom then that I am now, I wouldn't have just left.
I would have said something to the associate to the effect of "Excuse me? Please do not touch my child. I'd like to speak with your manager now."
Then the manager would have gotten a polite earful about exactly what his employee had done and heard that while I would have been fine with the employee saying something to me about Aedyn touching, or being required to buy the item had he broken it, I was most definitely not ok with her physically reaching out and grabbing my baby/toddler and addressing him directly since I was standing right next to him and was actively paying attention and involved with what he was doing. I would also mention that if children touching was such an offense then they might want to consider moving that type of merchandise from children's eye level.
What do you think? Am I wrong in taking such offense at the sales associates actions? Have you been in this type of situation, if so, what did you do?
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