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I was at Home Depot buying some stuff with my kids and the 5 year old was hanging of the handle of the cart like a monkey. It was one the low to the floor carts

I was at Home Depot buying some stuff with my kids and the 5 year old was hanging of the handle of the cart like a monkey. It was one the low to the floor carts for heavy stuff and the handle was a bit lower than a normal shopping cart. One of the idle cashiers, an older woman, came over said he shouldn’t do that because he might fall and bump his head. I said “that’s how he’ll learn”. She gave me a frown and walked away. He didn’t fall or bump his head, that lesson was saved for another day. Edit; she expressed her concern, she did not cite any company policy or appeal to authority. The handle was low enough such that I wasn’t concerned about a concussion. I wasn’t rude or snarky in this exchange although some seem to read it as such. Wow judgmental reader! I think this was mentioned in the fine article!

yeukhon 7y ago
And are you proud? (Stop flagging)
curiousgeorgio 7y ago
And from Home Depot's point of view, the employee thankfully helped the company avoid a potential lawsuit. I'm sure the 5-year-old will have plenty of other chances to bump his head in similar situations, and assuming he's human, he has the amazing capacity to generalize from lessons learned in other distinct ways. Nothing was lost in your encounter. EDIT: Love the (numerous) downvotes coming here on all responses to your comment, but in the spirit of promoting healthy discussion, a reasoned argument would be better.
- ACow_Adonis 7y ago
  I'll upvote you just because that was a trend that I explicitly called out to my wife: "it seems half of the official guidelines seem written around the goal of avoiding blame being shifted outside of the family-unit/potential to be sued rather than any empirical basis, measurement, or cost/benefit trade-off.
chrisseaton 7y ago
For every person giving a minimum-wage employee trying to help an unnecessarily snarky response, like you chose to do, there is someone else who'll sue them. So they can't win. The best thing you could have contributed would have been to be polite to the employee.
- vageli 7y ago
  > For every person giving a minimum-wage employee trying to help an unnecessarily snarky response, like you chose to do, there is someone else who'll sue them. So they can't win. The best thing you could have contributed would have been to be polite to the employee. Someone would sue a minimum-wage employee personally because they didn't say something to their kid playing dangerously? I know America is litigious but that sounds like it would never happen. They would sue the store owner if anything. The best thing would have been for the employee to keep their comments to themselves, which the snarky response probably reinforced.
  - vuln 7y ago
    That’s not how any of this works. The company would be sued and would most likely settle. The employee making 11$ a hour would be fired. The employee not reinforcing store policy is a dereliction of duty.
    - bonoboTP 7y ago
      Why is it taken for granted that the company will be sued? Would you personally sue them in such a case? It feels quite strange to me as a European. Not sure if it's just a distortion of the internet but it seems like Americans are constantly afraid of getting sued and pondering about who to sue for (to me) ridiculous reasons. I mean a store is not kindergarten, the parent should be responsible and they should have enough common sense to know how a shopping cart works. Unless the shopping cart is seriously damaged and, I don't know, has sharp edges or similar unexpected danger, I don't see how the company has anything to do with it. Is this sue-happiness due to the high medical costs?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
CardenB 7y ago
This seems very rude to me. Like others have said, lawsuits are a reality. Secondly, concussions are no joke.
- ultrarunner 7y ago
  On the other hand, I and literally everyone I know would have probably left the store with a crying kid and some slight embarrassment had one of ours actually gotten hurt. Lawsuits would be not be something coming to mind. In that light, is it not rude to treat someone the same as some of the least reasonable worst-case 'unable-to-parent-without-a-store-policy' types of people in society? I'm not entirely sure, but an immediate jump to compliance solely to allow an employee to save face may not be a good position to promote.
  - slavik81 7y ago
    I think people change their minds when they're faced with a ridiculous hospital bill for treating the injury. Their insurance pays the hospital bill and then sues the store for the amount paid. The parent isn't even really the one suing; it's their insurance company. That being said, it's not so terrible for the parent to push back a little. The company reduced their liability with the warning. Having the parent acknowledge the risk is a success for the employee.
Benjammer 7y ago
I mean this is probably the perfect attitude for the playground/park/outdoors, but maybe not a private business?
bryanrasmussen 7y ago
Since I am in a phase of my life where I am perpetually angry when I read the exchange in my head the response becomes rude of snarky, and of course I am at the best of times not apt to adopt a breezy happy tone that makes disagreements sound wonderful. I think many engineers don't do the happy tone. Maybe that's the problem.
bubblewrap 7y ago
I think the complaints of parents about outsiders giving advice are way overblown. Yes it happens, but why not simply shrug them off? Everybody is entitled to their opinions. And in a store, presumably the employers or owners make the rules. You can always teach your kid about concussions somewhere else (not saying you should have acted other than you did, as the employee only voiced an opinion, not a rule - but if the rule was "no hanging from carts", I think it should be heeded). Our favorite is parenting advice from the childless aunt. We just ignore it, problem solved.

yeukhon 7y ago

And are you proud? (Stop flagging)

curiousgeorgio 7y ago

And from Home Depot's point of view, the employee thankfully helped the company avoid a potential lawsuit. I'm sure the 5-year-old will have plenty of other chances to bump his head in similar situations, and assuming he's human, he has the amazing capacity to generalize from lessons learned in other distinct ways. Nothing was lost in your encounter. EDIT: Love the (numerous) downvotes coming here on all responses to your comment, but in the spirit of promoting healthy discussion, a reasoned argument would be better.

ACow_Adonis 7y ago
I'll upvote you just because that was a trend that I explicitly called out to my wife: "it seems half of the official guidelines seem written around the goal of avoiding blame being shifted outside of the family-unit/potential to be sued rather than any empirical basis, measurement, or cost/benefit trade-off.

chrisseaton 7y ago

For every person giving a minimum-wage employee trying to help an unnecessarily snarky response, like you chose to do, there is someone else who'll sue them. So they can't win. The best thing you could have contributed would have been to be polite to the employee.

vageli 7y ago
> For every person giving a minimum-wage employee trying to help an unnecessarily snarky response, like you chose to do, there is someone else who'll sue them. So they can't win. The best thing you could have contributed would have been to be polite to the employee. Someone would sue a minimum-wage employee personally because they didn't say something to their kid playing dangerously? I know America is litigious but that sounds like it would never happen. They would sue the store owner if anything. The best thing would have been for the employee to keep their comments to themselves, which the snarky response probably reinforced.
- vuln 7y ago
  That’s not how any of this works. The company would be sued and would most likely settle. The employee making 11$ a hour would be fired. The employee not reinforcing store policy is a dereliction of duty.
  - bonoboTP 7y ago
    Why is it taken for granted that the company will be sued? Would you personally sue them in such a case? It feels quite strange to me as a European. Not sure if it's just a distortion of the internet but it seems like Americans are constantly afraid of getting sued and pondering about who to sue for (to me) ridiculous reasons. I mean a store is not kindergarten, the parent should be responsible and they should have enough common sense to know how a shopping cart works. Unless the shopping cart is seriously damaged and, I don't know, has sharp edges or similar unexpected danger, I don't see how the company has anything to do with it. Is this sue-happiness due to the high medical costs?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

CardenB 7y ago

This seems very rude to me. Like others have said, lawsuits are a reality. Secondly, concussions are no joke.

ultrarunner 7y ago
On the other hand, I and literally everyone I know would have probably left the store with a crying kid and some slight embarrassment had one of ours actually gotten hurt. Lawsuits would be not be something coming to mind. In that light, is it not rude to treat someone the same as some of the least reasonable worst-case 'unable-to-parent-without-a-store-policy' types of people in society? I'm not entirely sure, but an immediate jump to compliance solely to allow an employee to save face may not be a good position to promote.
- slavik81 7y ago
  I think people change their minds when they're faced with a ridiculous hospital bill for treating the injury. Their insurance pays the hospital bill and then sues the store for the amount paid. The parent isn't even really the one suing; it's their insurance company. That being said, it's not so terrible for the parent to push back a little. The company reduced their liability with the warning. Having the parent acknowledge the risk is a success for the employee.

Benjammer 7y ago

I mean this is probably the perfect attitude for the playground/park/outdoors, but maybe not a private business?

bryanrasmussen 7y ago

Since I am in a phase of my life where I am perpetually angry when I read the exchange in my head the response becomes rude of snarky, and of course I am at the best of times not apt to adopt a breezy happy tone that makes disagreements sound wonderful. I think many engineers don't do the happy tone. Maybe that's the problem.

bubblewrap 7y ago

I think the complaints of parents about outsiders giving advice are way overblown. Yes it happens, but why not simply shrug them off? Everybody is entitled to their opinions. And in a store, presumably the employers or owners make the rules. You can always teach your kid about concussions somewhere else (not saying you should have acted other than you did, as the employee only voiced an opinion, not a rule - but if the rule was "no hanging from carts", I think it should be heeded). Our favorite is parenting advice from the childless aunt. We just ignore it, problem solved.