No Running

My sister-in-law used to work retail. She also happens to be pretty much a safety Nazi based upon the hours and hours of training she received from a previous employer. My Sisala worked as a manager at a retail store here in Sonoma County. One of her pet peeves were when parents allowed their kids to run amuck in the store. First and foremost, it's a safety hazzard. Second, it's just plain rude and bad manners.

When my sisala would instruct kids running up and down the aisles to stop, she would be met by angry parents for "correcting" THEIR kids. The angry parents would then try to argue with my sisala that their kids running loose in the store was ok, because there was not a sign posted as such.

Wait just a minute here. At this point the PARENTS should be the ones slapped, and not the kids.

No, it's NOT okay for your kids to be running in stores, restaurants, or other public establishments where others are trying to enjoy a somewhat peaceful experience and not be subject to your brats existence.

I can relate a recent experience of kids running wild. We were sitting in a hotel bar and a large family of Mexicans rented a room adjacent to the bar to host a child's birthday party. Fine. Whatever. However, when the kids began running through the lobby, running through the bar, and jumping on the couch in the lobby the parents did *not* reign them in. That's when I had my problem.

I wanted to tell them that the "birthday party room" was down the hall, and I did not appreciate 10,000 Mexican kids running under my table to play hide-and-seek while I'm sitting in the hotel lobby bar relaxing and having my wine.

I'm sure the parents were oblivious as they were dropping yet another anchor baby in the corner.