Should I Have Said This...

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Today I was at K-Mart picking up a few things. there were these three kids between 8 and 11 riding the bicycles and those "ripsticks" or whataver theyre called all through the store. the would come around a corner yelling "beep beep" or "coming through". the parents couldnt be bothered, they were just standing there pawing through merchandise and making a mess of it (as a former walmart employee that bugs the hell out of me).

they came around a corner in electronics and almost hit me, they told me to get out of they way because they were racing each other,i said to them "do you really think its a good idea to ride those in the store?" they turned around and went the other way, i also mentioned this to a manager on my way out.

when i got home, i was telling my mother about it, she told me to NEVER scold someone elses child, especially where im an adult, the kids just have to go crying to their mother and i could get in trouble.

does this show a lack of social filter, or was i just trying to stop childish jackassery?

id like to think the latter, but is this where america as come to? telling a child to stop a potentially dangerous behavior, and have to worry about legal trouble?

A lot of whether you can "get away with" scolding someone else's child has to do with circumstances, and your own age as compared to the child. I've done the same thing you have, but a lot more forcefully. I probably would have stepped right in front of the little brats and glared at them. But then I'm not exactly a small person, and am told I often look angry when I'm not. I'm also almost fifty years old, and usually much older than the kid's parents.

"do you really think its a good idea to ride those in the store?" to me, is a pretty tame response, and not at all inappropriate. I can see myself grabbing the handle bars of the bike or scooter, and telling them flat out it's against the rules of the store (which as a former employee of Wal-Mart, you should know is true.) I highly doubt that a story manager would not back you up, as what they were doing is a hazard to other store patrons. Allowing that kind of behavior, if it results in injury, leaves the store open to liability.

I think you did he right thing.

Agreed It is a public place, and you are entitled to.. um.. not get run over by little jerks on bikes.

It doesn't sound like you scolded the kids at all but behaved very appropriately. You might have gone to get a manager to complain sooner, but I don't think anything you did was out of line. Now, if you'd really laid into them and lectured them that might have been a bit risky. You are an adult, they nearly ran into you and then had the nerve to tell you to get out of the way so they could behave inappropriately and dangerously. NOT saying something would have been highly inappropriate in my book. I think your friends advice on this is inappropriate.

There were kids acting like that in Wal-Mart. I told them to stop because they were going to hurt someone. They nearly ran into my kids who were little at the time. I told a manager right away, as soon as I could find one and the manager was grateful. The store can be liable if the children hurt someone or break stuff. A few minutes later as I was checking out I saw the mom in the nail salon in one of those massage chairs having a pedicure and the children were telling her that the manager said they had to stay with her. She told them to get lost and stay out of the salon, she wanted a break from them. That's some quality parenting there.