STAY CLEAR OF THIS STORE IF YOU ARE A PARENT BECAUSE:
So yesterday I started my day off quite well. Left home around 8.30am, picked the boys and my mum up from her house, as the boys had had a sleep over at Nanny's house. I was going out
for the day with my mum.
We sometimes visit the Salvo op shop a few suburbs away, as it always has good quality clothes for a very reasonable price. It's situated under a church. I had Dylan and Shanae with me.
So we arrived there and started to look around. I said to Dylan "stay where Mummy can see you", and he decided to go look at the toys.
Have was being reasonably well behaved but about 15 mins later he just kept running around the shop, and would not stay where I could see him. I said to him" you must stay where mummy can see you, now please stop running around". He persisted in doing this is, which really got my blood boiling!!!
I have started the 3 boys on Omega Fish Oil tablets, 2 days ago and that's when I decided I may take another approach in the way I deal with their misbehaviour.
So I walked over to him, grabbed him by the hand and said to him, " Dylan you keep runnning around darling, and not staying where mummy can see you, so I will hold your hand now until we're ready to go".
He got quite upset and started to whinge and whine, had quite a slight volume to it as he was not getting his own way! But I kept it together, I did not smack him and just kept telling him that he had to stay with me now because he had not done what Mummy had asked.
I'm guessing this noise of his tantrum was annoying, because the op shop gentleman looked at me and said, " if he can not stop that and be quiet, you'll have to take him out of the shop". I was like WHAT??? I said " beg your pardon", and he repeated "if he can not stop that, you'll have to take him out of the shop!".
I was so hurt and horrified by this. I mean Dylan was having a tantrum because he couldn't get his own way and I was trying the best way possible to deal with it. A lady shopping inside the shop, then turned to me and said " he seems very unhappy to be crying like that!". She did not know what was going on, when did it become her right to put her 20 cents worth in????.
I turned to her and said, "listen here, my son keeps running away from me and will not stay close to me, therefore I am holding his hand so I can see him, he will not get taken by anyone and will not run out into the carpark and get hit by a car!". I was so angry and hurt. I was trying the best I could do deal with the problem at hand.
You see lately, I have had the worst time with my 3 boys. Their misbehaviour, not doing as asked and I have been getting so upset and stressed about it all.
So I walked out of the shop, it utter disgust and went straight to the church's office to make a complaint! I spoke to a lovely lady there, but was informed the gentleman that was head honcho was not there and she would take my name and number and he would get back to me.
He rang later on and asked me to tell my side of the story. I told him exactly what had gone on. I had explained to him that I thought this was totally unfair. I mean I'm sure everyone has seen a child have a tantrum while out shopping??? He proceeded to tell me, that the gentleman in the shop was the manager and was quite within in his right to ask me to leave. He also said, "we cannot having children playing up in our shop for the amount of time and upsetting other shoppers".
I said to him, "you are willing to lose a customer and money for your charity, because my child decided to have a tantrum in your shop???", and the reply was "yes, we cannot have children playing up like that and upsetting customers in our shop!".
So I replied to him, "I think you are very rude, this is a op shop for christ's sake not David Jones and from now on I'll be supporting another charity with my money, not yours!" and hung up.
I am going to take this further, as I think it was unfair and just plain rude. I am not Mrs Money bags, and most of the time I can pick up good quality clothes, even labelled clothes like Jay's Jay's etc etc from op shops and markets for a great price as I cannot afford to buy them brand new.
So, what do you think?
Were they rude in asking me to leave?
Was it fair?
Should I take this further???
Let me know what you think, thanks for reading.
Shelley
(August 2007) (
Amanda xxxxx
I am horrified!!! I only occasionally go to op shops these days as having four boys, I usually have enough stuff to pass down without having to, but I DID go into a Salvos store in my area in June and there were quite a few children running up and down the ramp that took you to the furniture section, and eventually this mother had taken enough nonsense from her children also and had a sulky child too, but she didn't get any complaints from anyone that ran the store. I really don't think they have a right to. What is the world coming to??? I don't understand it. I am curious whether the people that were so nasty to you have ever had children of their own...??? I have a lady that lives behind me who constantly says "SHUT UP...!!!" quite loudly mind you, every time I am telling my children to do the right thing. She says to people that I am loud, but it just seems that way as my yard is huge and it backs onto the units and amplifies the sound as I only have a few trees in the backyard. Just like her, I think the people that told you should basically, mind their own business!!! I wouldn't be going there again either if I was you, and I would definitely be taking it further also. Those shops are meant for everyone, and you shouldn't have been discriminated like that.
