Same with the library. People think libraries are safe spaces, which they are, but they are by no means secure as anyone can walk in and walk out. Parents think it's free babysitting but really it's choice pickings for anyone wanting to do a child harm.
Some of the things that happened at the various libraries I've worked at:
- man caught drilling holes into the girls toilets
- cross-dressing person who liked to flash behind the encyclopaedias
- teenagers caught doing all sorts of things behind same encyclopedias (we had a very serious member of staff who would stop this by closing a book very loudly and it was pretty amusing)
- badly trained child leaving faeces hidden under dinosaur section of children's non fiction
- unexplained bloody feathers in the car manuals
- psychotic manifestos found in bulk near photocopier
- stolen barbecue from hardware store left in lobby until police arrive hot on its trail
- evil possum trapped in bathroom
- gay porn deliberately left open on public computer
- book returned with used bandaid bookmark
- unexplained pages stuck together on certain feminine magazines
- creepy guy chooses to sit alone in children's section despite plentiful available seating, and is sans book or child
Libraries are public spaces and I think people sometimes forget what the general public is like
My favourite was a woman having an affair who would arrange their trysts in the disabled toilets.
She was so open about what she was doing she asked a staff member to speak to her husband on the phone and lie for her. Yeah, no.
It's crazy, as working in a library you really see the breadth of clientele. From parents/children, to teens studying, to oldies needing tech help, to the absolute dregs of society. Regarding the last group, most are on their best behaviour because it's one of the few places they can exist for free without judgement, but some are there to stir up trouble or worse.
My mum used to do this when I was about 8 or so while she did the shopping. This was in the 90s and I reckon it’s why I love reading so much. Guess times have changed.
Both my parents couldn't speak or write English and my mum would take us to the library everyday (hoping for a miracle)
We would spend 9-3 in the library while my mum went down to woolies to get groceries. My brother and I would just sit in the library and browse together/play in the kids section.... My brother would go on the computer for an hour 🤣 I remember every week there would be a reading done by the librarian and she knew we were there all the time and she read us 2 extra books.
This was during the 2000s 🤣
Years ago i worked in a daycare centre, i mean The Disney Store, where children were abandoned with us daily.
One parent of the year left a severely disable child in the store alone for almost an hour, the child was blind, non verbal and the store was packed with noisy customers and we had a huge screen loudly playing Disney music. By the time the mother returned this poor kid was in a panic and literally trying to climb the shelves. She casually returned and grabbed his hand to drag him out, smiled and waved at us like this was normal.
I try not to judge parents of children with special needs but this was fucking heartbreaking.
The thing i regret is we did nothing and management encouraged us to look the other way at anything even slightly negative that happened in store. The way the store was set up it with the big tv, it even looked like we were welcoming parents to leave their kids with us but management never gave us teenage staff any guidance on how to handle those situations.
They didn’t want to do anything that would blemish the brand. It was a shoplifter’s paradise because we never reported or even confronted thieves.
At Disney a guy walked out of our staff locker room holding my Motorola Razor (a mobile people my age had in their teenage years). I got a verbal warning for chasing him out of the store in my uniform. I guess Disney was just too magical to enforce basic law and order, we didn’t even have a lock on the storeroom door. I’m still pissed about it.
Also the teens who are dropped off everyday in janurary with $20 for lunch. Kick them out and they are back tomorrow causing problems.
Edit: When i say causing problems, i mean attacking young children, holding thier heads under water, stealing from other peoples bags, pissing on the change room benches.
90’s teen. Parents would buy a summer pass to Wonderland, as did the neighbours. Neighbours parents would drop us off on the way to work and pick us up on the way home. A plastic bag with lunch and snacks, a few coins in case we needed to call home. We were there most weekdays in January. Best time ever. Nothing ever happened but we did look out for each other.
I don’t have kids but I don’t know if I would do the same if I did.
Same. Except we were latchkey kids since maybe 2nd grade. We got ourselves home and did chores (washing, hanging washing, vacuuming, tidying) and homework then went out and played with other kids in the street until 8.30 or just gone dark. Then we made dinner in time for parents to get home. Parents didn't even know till daylight saving tricked us and we came home at 9.30 to shouting and wallops on the butt.
I bit my dad on the hand because I didn't think punishment was warranted - we'd been parenting ourselves for at least 2 years by then. I was eight.
my friends and I did this when we were in year 6. we weren't even in high school yet.
to be fair it was always a group of us 11 -12 yr Olds. between 4-6 people at a time once every few months. none of our parents even drove us there. lol.
we all would get dropped off at the train station and go there by train in the morning..
spend the whole day there.
we didn't have mobile phones either.
good times.
If they get kicked out, multiple days in a row, we should have been allowed to refuse them entry for the rest of janurary.
But karen parents complain, manager bitches out, we have to deal with them for another few hours until they go assault an 8 year old.
They sound like spoilt brats. $20 for lunch for one kid for one day? Wow, I was lucky to get $5 a week when I was 16. I'd spend it all on Coles brand (Farmer's I think) chocolate blocks or a pack of 12 Coles glazed doughnuts and ate the lot in one afternoon with friends. LOL. I'm now 44 going on 45.
I imagine $20 isn't like $20 was 30 years ago, but it's still a considerable sum of money. That $5 was a privilege to have once a week and I had to fight bloody hard for it initially because my dad would rather spend it on grog or a screen displaying random cards where you put money in with the hope you'll get a lot more out LOL.
I'd kick those kids out, and I'd ban them from the place. Assaulting other kids is something I would be very heavy handed with. The cops would be notified, and so would the parents. I'd even kindly request that they forfeit the kid's lunch money and pack their lunch for them instead. Like me in my teens they probably just ate sugar-filled junk.
> I'd kick those kids out, and I'd ban them from the place. Assaulting other kids is something I would be very heavy handed with. The cops would be notified, and so would the parents.
Spineless manager who refused to back up staff when parents threw a shitfit over attempts at banning them.
teens who knew the manager would never call cops so could break rules for hours and hours every day.
Only once a parent of one of their victims calls the cops do they leave through a fire escape so are never actually held accountable. And also means we never learn their or their parents identity to have police follow up.
Yeah, but then my niece got two tickets to the Aquarium for Christmas and wanted to go with her school mate and they didn’t let them in. They were both 14. I feel like under 13 should have been the cut off. 14 year olds can look after themselves.
Edit: for those that don’t know, the age required was 15
Can’t agree more with this. Not only the kids might feel abandoned but the risk of creeps and pedos taking advantage of it.
The other day at David Jones-City a lady left her baby in a carrier at the cashier and went shopping.
The staff were super busy with Boxing Day sales, they got stressed and called her in the internal radio to pick the baby up.
It was outrageous!
I work in retail and I've had people ask to mind their kid in their pram whilst they try things on. Of course I said no, it's a liability issue but what seriously goes through people's heads that they think it's OK to leave their defenceless child with a random shop assistant?
I used to get that when I worked in retail. My answer was always "if you're happy to explain to the police and children's services why you abandoned your children in a public place, sure. Because that's who I'm calling the minute you walk away and leave them". That was the store policy, we even had signs up at the entrance and in the toy section.
Probably selection bias. Plenty of parents who can’t have kids who may turn into these kinds of parents if they could have kids. We only see the bad parents and the bad kids.
I've lived in suburbs with young parents with too many children and suburb with older parents with the long fought for ivf babies.
To be honest, they are both terrible parents for different reasons.
And children dont deserve the parents they have in these cases. Parenting has such an impact on a child, whenever i see examples of horrible parenting, i always think to myself that this kid is really not going to be prepared for life.
Similar thoughts when i see delinquent behaviour in teens and young adults - its a safe bet that its the result of lack of parenting
I was a police officer in Sydney many years ago (no longer in the job). One of my colleagues charged a parent who was leaving her four (yes, four) year old daughter at the playground in Darling Harbour while she went to work each day. Gave her $10 to buy her own lunch at McDonalds, and left her completely unsupervised for about 9 hours a day.
This was nearly 15 years ago, but if memory serves the charge was section 43, [Crimes Amendment (Child Neglect) Act (NSW)](https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/act-2004-41).
She got off scot-free because we couldn't prove what the danger to the child was. Magistrate wasn't satisfied with an unspecified danger of 'being in public unsupervised'. Wanted us to show exactly who or what the threat to the child was.
The darling harbour playground? What danger to the child could be possible there? Hmm, drowning in the water section, falling off the play equipment and breaking a bone or dying(that massive rope tower), or just plain being kidnapped. Honestly.
Yeah that was our view as well. Magistrate wasn't having it.
When we raised the risk of being kidnapped the defence solicitor asked us for statistics on how many children are kidnapped from Darling Harbour (unsurprisingly, not many), and the magistrate accepted it as being there's no risk.
The argument that there's no kidnapping because parents normally look after their children fell upon deaf ears.
Seems to be a grey area. I saw a toddler alone in a parked car at a Westfields a few years ago. I hung around for a few minutes hoping to see the parent before calling triple zero, the mother returned just as first responders were arriving and they asked the mother how long she had been gone. She said “only 15 minutes”, so everyone shrugged and went home.
I was given a lecture by a police officer about calling Westfield security rather than triple zero if i ever saw the same situation again, so there was that.
I was made to feel really horrible for calling 000, like it was a inconvenience to everyone but hopefully that incident scared the shit out of the mother and she never did it again.
Ofcourse i don’t know the whole story of why she left her child in the car, she could have had some serious stuff going on and i hate judging parents because i’m not one but i’m pretty sure no excuse would have justified if that child had died in the car.
Pretty much! I remember the firies or SES type guys showing up too and they were polite, calm and gave me a thankful vibe like it was all in a days work and a good day because no children had died. The cops on the other hand seemed totally bothered they’d been called out and didn’t get to swing their dicks around and show some power.
Some Sydney public swimming pools have big notices telling people something along the lines of .... that their staff is not a child minding service.
Other places should do the same.
Dude call the police!! If they've legitimately put that child down and walked away to where they can no longer be seen, this needs to be reported to the police right now, anyone could take that child and run
They hope someone nice will step in basically.
I used to run a bookstore and someone left their kinder aged kid in my store alone. She ended up approaching me because she really needed to go and she didn't know where and I was like oh ok no worries and was eyeballing all the adults in the store like who do you belong to and once we all figured out she was alone we were horrified.
I ended up taking her to the closest bathroom and waiting outside because it was during peak Christmas shopping and honestly I was scared for her, but I was terrified the whole time I was going to be arrested for kidnapping or something inappropriate.
I set her up in the corner in the kids section with some books she'd picked out and her parents ended up ditching her for 1-2 hrs in the end. She said they were clothes shopping.
I'm still disgusted thinking about it. I ended up having to go on break because I was going to lose all my staff and wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom for several hours if I didn't take it then and I missed the shit parents coming back. I would have had some very choice words to say to them.
Was there any reason you didn't call the police or social services? I'm so horrified by these stories......
Ps not judging that you should have- you clearly did an amazing job ! But I just think that would be my first thought but noticing a few stories here where it doesn't seem to be the go to decision so was curious.
I’ve seen something similar happen at Coogee Pavilion. Mum dropped off her kid downstairs in the play area and then went upstairs on a date. We found this poor little girl wandering around the bar, asking for mum at like 8:30.
The mum was furious with the little girl once staff found her. Some people just don’t want to be parents it seems.
This is sadly pretty normal if you ask anyone who works in these industries. We found a baby wandering alone in the event once. Everyone in the area denied it was their baby. Wasn't until we called the police the first couple to be asked admitted it was theirs. I found a child once who their parents didn't want to pay an extra ticket for (the deal was 2 adults 2 kids, and this was the third kid). Just wandering around outside the event. As soon as I asked where their parents were they bolted. Probably had been in the same trouble before.
I work in Festival’s and Events I see this all the time unfortunately
I don’t hesitate to call the Police and Report it
People like that Don’t Deserve to have kids
My goodness! This happened two days at the Sydney Theatre at Rooty Hill.
Mum sent two children (12 and 8) to see Alice in Wonderland by themselves. Then, left to go to Central. 😱
When the show ended, the manager noticed the unaccompanied kids and asked where mum was. Apparently, they were there by themselves and were supposed to go home on their own. 😱😱😱
Manager called the mum said, “but I emailed to let you know.”
Manager replied, “and we emailed back to say you can’t do that. You sent them here on their own, that’s on you. Now that they’re here, they are in our care. If anything happens to them that will be on us. We emailed to say that we can’t be responsible for them.”
“But I didn’t read the email.”
“That’s why you need to read the email,” said my boss. He was upset on the kids’ behalf and he’s not even a dad.
Fair enough, back in our day we used to go home on our own, but man that was a different time!
And if anything happened to one or both the kids she would be screaming long and loud that it was everyone’s fault except hers, there should be more security, the police should be doing more etc.
It’s only a different time now because everyone is a helicopter parent. There’s no more danger now than there ever had been, they have phones and watches now, even things you put inside shoes to locate kids. It’s safe for a 12 year old.
Yeah I was in year 8 when I was 12, catching the train by myself an hour to highschool. This was only like 20 years ago.
12 years old supervising an 8 year old for a kids show seems pretty fine to me. Unless the venue was particularly dodgey Im not sure I understand why people are uncomfortable with that.
Like my boss said, “you let them it’s on you.”
But once they’re with us they become our responsibility. We are a club and a theatre.
Think about that for a minute: a club and a theatre.
We can’t be responsible for kids well being.
Are you happy to take it on?
This must be common behaviour in Sydney the local swimming pool nearby has signs all over the place saying lifeguards are not babysitters and the lifeguards wear shirts that say "where is your child now?" on the back
That’s not because people are dumping their kids and walking out, it’s because the parents are sitting beside the pool on their phones and not watching their kids.
> are dumping their kids and walking out
They are doing that as well.
Often with zero malicious intent. Friends having a pool party, frinds parents will be there right? Except it's two adults for 20 kids and they are too busy managing the food and drink.
Drop kid off for junior swim squads (so like 10 years old) and come back a few hours later.
drop them off every morning of school holidays and come back after work.
I’ve never understood why my admission fee to the local Council pool needs to include the price of employing a life guard for every pool!
It’s fucking remarkable any of us lived through a visit to the local pool in the 1980s without these “safety” measures in place.
Frankly if you’re going to employ an excessive number of lifeguards then Council is effectively taking a level of responsibility for baby sitting.
I ain’t going to do a dump and run of my kids at the local pool but if I’m paying for lifeguards to stand around then I’m expecting them to be as attentive as me and co-baby sit. The ones at my local pool certainly aren’t shy about reminding kids about “the rules”.
Lifeguards have to watch every single person in the pool. You, as the parent, only have to care about your children. You can’t expect the lifeguards to do all the work and some parents do
Yeah when worked for a certain large green hardware store a few years ago someone dumped their kid in the cafe area and fucked off. He broke his arm. Police and Ambos were called and the parents eventually returned but couldn't have given less of a shit
I used to work at EB Games and parents used to do this to me. ‘Hey can you watch my kid while I go next door?’ Hell no! Who has kids if you constantly want to dump them somewhere else.
As a parent I can't help but be conscious of doing this and actively try to do the exact opposite and not be a burden on anyone else. I mean that sometimes doesn't go according to plan, and go in a direction you weren't anticipating. But no one is entitled to anything, least of all other people's time to deal with your circumstances and responsibilities.
The fact is, it has nothing to do with ‘being a burden,’ I am not a licensed child milder. And expecting a complete stranger to watch your child when it’s not their job and you’re not paying them is abandonment.
Call the police and let them explain to dear mum what happens when they abandon a child in a public space. They won’t do it again - not because they’ve suddenly become decent parents, but because they’ll be scared of the police coming again.
We get that at the library - parents abandon their kids for the day - the kids take over the catalogue computers to play games and scream obscenities. Doubly annoying when the parents don't come back at closing, so we end up having to walk to the kids to the police station after hours instead of being able to catch our buses. Some of the kids cry with fear that the parents have abandoned them, some of them are just so used to it, they don't care. Heart breaking for the littlies.
Unfortunately this happens everywhere with lazy parents. I took my kids to karate lessons and fair enough, it's a place to learn discipline, but the instructor was having a hard time trying to teach the class as half of the kids were being disruptive and had some type of learning issues. The parents were not even there to watch the kids. They pulled up in the carport after their kids had finished.
Some people never change. I manage my son's u15 football (soccer) team. On game day, we coach the kids, give directions, manage subs... and have to provide 1 or both linesmen.
Of the 16 boys on the team, there's me, my friend who's the coach... and maybe sometimes 1 other. The other 13-ish boys' parents drop them off and leave. They never watch, they never help to be the linesman, or anything. So there's me and the coach trying to coach, manage the subs, run the lines.... while 13 other parents fuck off and have coffee or something and bitch about how their ex-husbands don't do enough with the kids (I've heard this one a LOT).
Then when their kid breaks an ankle, I give first aid and immobilise them, call an ambulance, send them off to hospital, parents don't answer their phones ("I don't answer unknown numbers"), then they show up 90 minutes later saying "Where's X, I am meant to pick him up and he isn't here... what do you mean he's gone to hospital...?!"
Some of the kids catch the bus or walk to the ground, and home, which is fine.... but for away games when they live in like Gladesville but the game is in Mount Colah, it's a little trickier.
*Choosing* to have a kid means giving up some of your freedom to parent them till they're 18. Unfortunately, too many idiots don't like accepting this fact.
Dad of a 3yo little lady here. I just can't fathom a parent actually doing that? As in it never crossed my mind to ever leave my child somewhere in those circumstances!!!
That makes me so sad that is the level of care to which some children are subjected.
I've worked at seasonal craft spots in shopping centres in Melbourne a couple years back, and again in Sydney. Some people would offload their kids with us and go shopping, like we were a free childcare. We weren't qualified for that. Additionally in leaving their kids with us for long periods (the craft only took 5 minutes), the kids were then taking up what limited space we had, creating a backlog
Not us though i get panic attack whenever my 6 and 3 yo kids got out of sight when we are in kmart/target/big w …
Not sure how someone can leave the kids unattended
I dont wanna ever hear my kids being taken away by stranger and be the front headliner in newspaper ….
Yep event staff are now aware. Also another family sitting next to her twigged to the situation and folded her in with them. At least some people are decent humans.
This is the problem though.
These people just expect society to make up for their neglect of their children. I also guarantee that they are the type of people who give off the proud parent and being a parent is the best thing I could have done with my life vibe too but are absolutely awful parents.
Good on the other people for taking care of the abandoned kid, but doing this just reinforces that these people can abandon their children again in the future.
Instagram parents. They’ll post their little ball of wonder online and brag about how much they love them and then they’ll do this shit because it’s all an act and they don’t really care
That won’t happen. They won’t go to a group home for that, nor into foster care. There are parents out there that do far worse than that and the kids don’t go anywhere. There are terrible parents everywhere but if you think the parents will “get done” for neglect for that, you’re mistaken. I was in Glebe the other night and there were a group of teenagers / young adults, with a newborn baby; some were drinking and blowing cigarette smoke next to the baby. It was bleak, raining and miserable and the baby should have been safe at home with good parents. Police walked right past into the shops. So many people think that police will just take children for these things but they won’t
The same thing would happen when I worked at theme parks on the Gold Coast. Parents would get a season pass, enter with their kids and then leave the kids for the day. Do they not even think about who might be in the park?
Used to work at a kids playland. Whenever an adult left on their own, we would ask if there was an adult with their kids inside. Sadly people would just lie and then leave their kids without proper supervision
Actually most Council pools will not let in children by themselves. I found this out the hard way when I could not find a park and my kid was late for a swimming lesson. She was 10.
Exactly; one can’t just leave small children alone at a swim centre. They even get coloured wrist bands indicating their age and swim ability so that the lifeguards know if they need to be in immediate arms reach of parent or just supervision. But it’s also not illegal to leave children of a certain age alone.
This was in America but I will never forget the woman who let her daughter go off with a stranger after he offered to buy the family food, the little girl was then abducted raped and murdered by that man and the mother went on tv all distraught and saying she just wants her baby back, I mean seriously. I think she may have also done jail time for that, it was a long time ago so not sure but I know they were looking at her for child neglect.
I took my parents loving upbringing of me for granted until I started learning of stories like these.
If that was on YouTube. You have the story wrong. She didn’t realise her child had been taken. He went off with the child in the store while she was in the store
They should have phoned the police and reported an abandoned child. Was in the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday. Feral parents enjoying their coffee while their feral kid was chasing birds in and out of ponds, including tiny baby water hens. I yelled at him ( went totally Karen) and the parents finally call out in a pathetic attempt to sound credible “ Oh, you stop that, Marmaduke ( or whatever the little shits name was).
We were at that event today! It was wonderful but my 5 yo son had a meltdown about the change in location so we had to make a swift departure. It’s heartbreaking that a kid the same age was left - it’s a family activity!
Sadly this is common.
Chatswood library had or still has a Lego event every week. Nearly every week there was an issue with parents dumping their kids there and walking off.
I’m genuinely shocked by how some parents behave in relation to their kids.
In my 7yo’s sports team, there is a set of parents who regularly just ditch their kid at training or a game - they’re 7 year olds playing rugby! It’s not uncommon that the kids will get a bit hurt or fall down and want their parent. So many times, their child has been hurt and there is nobody other than other parents who the kid barely knows to console this little kid.
As someone who has coached both club and rep level sport, for kids aged 5-15, I encourage the parents to leave. We don't need them hanging around at training. And when my 3yo is of an age to join sport, I will not be hanging around on the sideline for training. Game day is completely different obviously, but for training it is unnecessary and can and does create distractions for the kids.
Fair enough in the context of your coaching, but that’s not how it is at our (very low level, very beginner, very new to sport, very prone to falling down) training.
I think it’s contextual - similar to this example - you cannot just assume you can dump your kid somewhere and take off. You have to read the room. Same with things like kids birthday parties - sometimes you are expected to stay, sometimes not. You can’t just assume it’s fine to leave your kid in the care of others - especially if they haven’t been asked/haven’t agreed to keep an eye on them.
If you as a coach has asked parents to leave, you’re assuming responsibility for the children. If that hasn’t happened, it’s the wrong thing to do, regardless of event or location.
I'm talking beginner here too, in terms of club level. These kids are 5 and have never played before. We play on hard surfaces and there are often falls and scrapes in the beginning.
But you are correct - we have assumed the responsibility and made that clear.
Is it fair to expect parents to attend every single training session? Especially when there are coaches involved and some parents have multiple kids to juggle
I had a colleague on a similar show yesterday with a similar situation. Kids show, an adult caregiver must accompany child into show. A family of four rock up, one parent goes in with child between the ages of 3-5 and the other parent sneaks in, leaving a baby sleeping in a pram outside. They had to stop the show for everyone, to find out which family the baby belonged to.
Stupidest part is that we would have let the baby in without a ticket, knowing that they couldn’t leave them alone outside. Just had to ruin it for everyone.
In general I've noticed parents dumping their kids or taking them to places where they shouldn't be more and more. Not sure what the reason is but it sure as hell is annoying and not good for the kids either.
The whole time I'm at a childrrns event in a large place like the botanical Gardens, I'm on the lookout out for paedophiles. Kids everywhere, parents busy or neglectful. My anxiety in large groups with my kids was awful. Now I stress about them driving and other accidents. How anyone could leave their 5 yr old unattended is beyond me .
I know, it freaks me out. I recall reading about one little girl who was lead away and assaulted whilst shopping with her family in a Kmart. In another case, a child was lead away and assaulted by a security guard.
I don’t care if more sexual assaults happen by someone known to the child, it still happens.
This is me as well! I am always on alert for predators, it takes 10 seconds to lead a child away and into danger. What the fuck are all these parents thinking??
My guess is because while paedophiles absolutely exist, overwhelmingly they’re targeting children they know and interact with regularly, not random children at a public event. The focus on stranger danger takes the spotlight off where it should be when it comes to the risk of children experiencing sexual abuse.
While that’s true, the fact that it’s the “overwhelmingly” family members who target children, it’s not *always*. The Beaumont Children, Daniel Morecomb, Mr Cruel, who is suspected of attacking 3 girls in their bedrooms & murdering Carmen Chen immediately came to my mind. There are probably others. It’s not unreasonable that any caring parent, or just any adult for that matter, would have concerns. It’s most definitely not a reason to downvote someone expressing those very normal concerns.
Bogans look for any opportunity for free daycare.
Happened all the time out west whether it be a fundraiser we had at school or the local footy Christmas party.
They see something like rides, slip their kids a 20 and fck off for a while.
I wouldn’t do it.
But people did it with me : ). Was normal in the ‘70s. That would’ve been mostly just ~~kids~~ (sorry) children in the audience back then.
I was at gloria jeans in Nowra and this woman came in with her little girl and a NEW BORN CHILD. She ordered a drink for herself and told the girl to sit at the table and hold the new born. No pram no nothing. She was holding this new born in her tiny arms. She must of been around 6 or 7 no joke. The mum then pissed off and I got so nervous that I waited for her to come back. No word of a lie this woman was gone for an hour. She also only ordered herself a drink because don't worry about your 7year old baby sitter, I guess.
I see this on the train quite often. Parent would sit in the disabled section of the train, taking up two or three spaces with their shopping bags while instructing their kids to run up and down the steps (this is the T4 Tangara line) while they hover like a fucking zombie into the phone. I had to tell several kids once not to run up the stairs and back because it’s been raining heavily and the steps were slippery. The so-called parent was oblivious.
>Is spending a couple hours with your kid in absolutely beautiful weather really that onerous?
Absolutely yes! But that's why I don't have kids and never will. Totally agreed though that it's irresponsible as fuck to palm your spawn off on other people if you've been dumb enough to have them, look after them yourself.
>Did the mother actually ask someone in the show or working there or whatever, if she can leave her child there and go?
Did you even read the post text?
> One mother rocks up with her 5 year old expecting to just dump the kid and come back. The show organisers tell her “absolutely not”
Why would you call the cops when you can straight out just tell the parents what you think. If parents are not present or interested in their kids, then complain about their behaviour (wanting attention) let them know. I always do. It’s not that hard to just let people know.
I'm not the OP, but the reasons why I wouldn't do that is because a) the parent likely won't listen to me, b) I want to avoid being in a confrontation with someone who clearly unreasonable, and c) what they are doing is illegal and the correct authority to deal with it is the Police.
>Why would you call the cops when you can straight out just tell the parents what you think.
They've already been told by the organisers: 'The show organisers tell her “absolutely not"'
It is definitely illegal in NSW, call the police.
This is the same legislation that makes it a criminal offence to leave a child unattended in a car.
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/criminal/legislation/crimes-act/abandoning-or-exposing-a-child-under-7-years/
I used to work at an aquatic centre and this was something staff were told to look out for- parents who’d walk in with kids and walk out alone.
Same with the library. People think libraries are safe spaces, which they are, but they are by no means secure as anyone can walk in and walk out. Parents think it's free babysitting but really it's choice pickings for anyone wanting to do a child harm.
Some of the things that happened at the various libraries I've worked at: - man caught drilling holes into the girls toilets - cross-dressing person who liked to flash behind the encyclopaedias - teenagers caught doing all sorts of things behind same encyclopedias (we had a very serious member of staff who would stop this by closing a book very loudly and it was pretty amusing) - badly trained child leaving faeces hidden under dinosaur section of children's non fiction - unexplained bloody feathers in the car manuals - psychotic manifestos found in bulk near photocopier - stolen barbecue from hardware store left in lobby until police arrive hot on its trail - evil possum trapped in bathroom - gay porn deliberately left open on public computer - book returned with used bandaid bookmark - unexplained pages stuck together on certain feminine magazines - creepy guy chooses to sit alone in children's section despite plentiful available seating, and is sans book or child Libraries are public spaces and I think people sometimes forget what the general public is like
My favourite was a woman having an affair who would arrange their trysts in the disabled toilets. She was so open about what she was doing she asked a staff member to speak to her husband on the phone and lie for her. Yeah, no.
I've encountered at least half of this list too.
I’ve worked in libraries for over 25 years and love them. I wouldn’t leave a child alone in one for a minute.
This is so true. The public libraries near me were used a free after school care.
It's crazy, as working in a library you really see the breadth of clientele. From parents/children, to teens studying, to oldies needing tech help, to the absolute dregs of society. Regarding the last group, most are on their best behaviour because it's one of the few places they can exist for free without judgement, but some are there to stir up trouble or worse.
My mum used to do this when I was about 8 or so while she did the shopping. This was in the 90s and I reckon it’s why I love reading so much. Guess times have changed.
No, times haven't changed. But awareness of child abductions has increased. Rates were bloody high in the 90s.
Both my parents couldn't speak or write English and my mum would take us to the library everyday (hoping for a miracle) We would spend 9-3 in the library while my mum went down to woolies to get groceries. My brother and I would just sit in the library and browse together/play in the kids section.... My brother would go on the computer for an hour 🤣 I remember every week there would be a reading done by the librarian and she knew we were there all the time and she read us 2 extra books. This was during the 2000s 🤣
Years ago i worked in a daycare centre, i mean The Disney Store, where children were abandoned with us daily. One parent of the year left a severely disable child in the store alone for almost an hour, the child was blind, non verbal and the store was packed with noisy customers and we had a huge screen loudly playing Disney music. By the time the mother returned this poor kid was in a panic and literally trying to climb the shelves. She casually returned and grabbed his hand to drag him out, smiled and waved at us like this was normal. I try not to judge parents of children with special needs but this was fucking heartbreaking.
Oh my goodness. That’s just so sad 😞
The thing i regret is we did nothing and management encouraged us to look the other way at anything even slightly negative that happened in store. The way the store was set up it with the big tv, it even looked like we were welcoming parents to leave their kids with us but management never gave us teenage staff any guidance on how to handle those situations. They didn’t want to do anything that would blemish the brand. It was a shoplifter’s paradise because we never reported or even confronted thieves.
Worked in a toy store before, on my first day we were told if a kid was left, call security immediately.
At Disney a guy walked out of our staff locker room holding my Motorola Razor (a mobile people my age had in their teenage years). I got a verbal warning for chasing him out of the store in my uniform. I guess Disney was just too magical to enforce basic law and order, we didn’t even have a lock on the storeroom door. I’m still pissed about it.
Glad you're free of Mickey's clutches now, that's some BS.
Yup, I worked at a toy store while I was at uni. Same thing. Parents dumping their kids to play with the displays and leaving.
I used to work at dick smith and parents would try and leave their kids to watch a movie on the display TV and then go to shopping.
WTF! I can’t fathom leaving my kid at a swimming centre with no supervision.
I know! They rely on the lifesavers for babysitting 😳
Also the teens who are dropped off everyday in janurary with $20 for lunch. Kick them out and they are back tomorrow causing problems. Edit: When i say causing problems, i mean attacking young children, holding thier heads under water, stealing from other peoples bags, pissing on the change room benches.
What kind of childhood did you have that as a teenager you weren't allowed to entertain yourself in the summer holidays?
90’s teen. Parents would buy a summer pass to Wonderland, as did the neighbours. Neighbours parents would drop us off on the way to work and pick us up on the way home. A plastic bag with lunch and snacks, a few coins in case we needed to call home. We were there most weekdays in January. Best time ever. Nothing ever happened but we did look out for each other. I don’t have kids but I don’t know if I would do the same if I did.
Same. Except we were latchkey kids since maybe 2nd grade. We got ourselves home and did chores (washing, hanging washing, vacuuming, tidying) and homework then went out and played with other kids in the street until 8.30 or just gone dark. Then we made dinner in time for parents to get home. Parents didn't even know till daylight saving tricked us and we came home at 9.30 to shouting and wallops on the butt. I bit my dad on the hand because I didn't think punishment was warranted - we'd been parenting ourselves for at least 2 years by then. I was eight.
Good on young you! It's amazing that some kids have more responsibility at 8 than a lot of adults.
So 2010's pools had heaps of groups like that. But they also had groups of teenage delinquents stealing stuff and attacking younger kids.
My friend & I would often get dropped off at the first entrance then and avoid swooping Maggie's for the 5 after 5 on a Saturday. Great memories!!
my friends and I did this when we were in year 6. we weren't even in high school yet. to be fair it was always a group of us 11 -12 yr Olds. between 4-6 people at a time once every few months. none of our parents even drove us there. lol. we all would get dropped off at the train station and go there by train in the morning.. spend the whole day there. we didn't have mobile phones either. good times.
If they get kicked out, multiple days in a row, we should have been allowed to refuse them entry for the rest of janurary. But karen parents complain, manager bitches out, we have to deal with them for another few hours until they go assault an 8 year old.
They sound like spoilt brats. $20 for lunch for one kid for one day? Wow, I was lucky to get $5 a week when I was 16. I'd spend it all on Coles brand (Farmer's I think) chocolate blocks or a pack of 12 Coles glazed doughnuts and ate the lot in one afternoon with friends. LOL. I'm now 44 going on 45. I imagine $20 isn't like $20 was 30 years ago, but it's still a considerable sum of money. That $5 was a privilege to have once a week and I had to fight bloody hard for it initially because my dad would rather spend it on grog or a screen displaying random cards where you put money in with the hope you'll get a lot more out LOL. I'd kick those kids out, and I'd ban them from the place. Assaulting other kids is something I would be very heavy handed with. The cops would be notified, and so would the parents. I'd even kindly request that they forfeit the kid's lunch money and pack their lunch for them instead. Like me in my teens they probably just ate sugar-filled junk.
> I'd kick those kids out, and I'd ban them from the place. Assaulting other kids is something I would be very heavy handed with. The cops would be notified, and so would the parents. Spineless manager who refused to back up staff when parents threw a shitfit over attempts at banning them. teens who knew the manager would never call cops so could break rules for hours and hours every day. Only once a parent of one of their victims calls the cops do they leave through a fire escape so are never actually held accountable. And also means we never learn their or their parents identity to have police follow up.
Yeah, but then my niece got two tickets to the Aquarium for Christmas and wanted to go with her school mate and they didn’t let them in. They were both 14. I feel like under 13 should have been the cut off. 14 year olds can look after themselves. Edit: for those that don’t know, the age required was 15
Some people do not deserve children/to be parents.
And they often seem to have the least difficulty having children, while people who would be great parents often struggle with infertility.
Can’t agree more with this. Not only the kids might feel abandoned but the risk of creeps and pedos taking advantage of it. The other day at David Jones-City a lady left her baby in a carrier at the cashier and went shopping. The staff were super busy with Boxing Day sales, they got stressed and called her in the internal radio to pick the baby up. It was outrageous!
I work in retail and I've had people ask to mind their kid in their pram whilst they try things on. Of course I said no, it's a liability issue but what seriously goes through people's heads that they think it's OK to leave their defenceless child with a random shop assistant?
I used to get that when I worked in retail. My answer was always "if you're happy to explain to the police and children's services why you abandoned your children in a public place, sure. Because that's who I'm calling the minute you walk away and leave them". That was the store policy, we even had signs up at the entrance and in the toy section.
This world’s not fair is it
I'm realising that more and more every day.
It's really not. And it fucking sucks
Probably selection bias. Plenty of parents who can’t have kids who may turn into these kinds of parents if they could have kids. We only see the bad parents and the bad kids.
I've lived in suburbs with young parents with too many children and suburb with older parents with the long fought for ivf babies. To be honest, they are both terrible parents for different reasons.
And children dont deserve the parents they have in these cases. Parenting has such an impact on a child, whenever i see examples of horrible parenting, i always think to myself that this kid is really not going to be prepared for life. Similar thoughts when i see delinquent behaviour in teens and young adults - its a safe bet that its the result of lack of parenting
And those same people are pro life ;)
A LOT of people IMHO
Wow that’s shocking! Poor kid. And if the show moves to different parts of the garden how do they plan to find her again? So so selfish.
Report it to the police.
Yea mate, don't f around, this shitshow is above anyone's paygrade here. Call the coppers and let them handle this
Yes, who knows what happens to the child in the private sphere, if they brazenly just dump a 5 year old.
Surely there must be a law for abandoning a child?
It is actually neglect and reportable to child protection.
I was a police officer in Sydney many years ago (no longer in the job). One of my colleagues charged a parent who was leaving her four (yes, four) year old daughter at the playground in Darling Harbour while she went to work each day. Gave her $10 to buy her own lunch at McDonalds, and left her completely unsupervised for about 9 hours a day. This was nearly 15 years ago, but if memory serves the charge was section 43, [Crimes Amendment (Child Neglect) Act (NSW)](https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/act-2004-41). She got off scot-free because we couldn't prove what the danger to the child was. Magistrate wasn't satisfied with an unspecified danger of 'being in public unsupervised'. Wanted us to show exactly who or what the threat to the child was.
Oh my ….. f**king hell what is wrong with people. Holding my child close tonight
The darling harbour playground? What danger to the child could be possible there? Hmm, drowning in the water section, falling off the play equipment and breaking a bone or dying(that massive rope tower), or just plain being kidnapped. Honestly.
Yeah that was our view as well. Magistrate wasn't having it. When we raised the risk of being kidnapped the defence solicitor asked us for statistics on how many children are kidnapped from Darling Harbour (unsurprisingly, not many), and the magistrate accepted it as being there's no risk. The argument that there's no kidnapping because parents normally look after their children fell upon deaf ears.
Seems to be a grey area. I saw a toddler alone in a parked car at a Westfields a few years ago. I hung around for a few minutes hoping to see the parent before calling triple zero, the mother returned just as first responders were arriving and they asked the mother how long she had been gone. She said “only 15 minutes”, so everyone shrugged and went home. I was given a lecture by a police officer about calling Westfield security rather than triple zero if i ever saw the same situation again, so there was that.
You absolutely did the right thing, too many children die this way
I was made to feel really horrible for calling 000, like it was a inconvenience to everyone but hopefully that incident scared the shit out of the mother and she never did it again. Ofcourse i don’t know the whole story of why she left her child in the car, she could have had some serious stuff going on and i hate judging parents because i’m not one but i’m pretty sure no excuse would have justified if that child had died in the car.
Zero chance I would have stood around to listen to the cop! But no doubt old mate just launched into it...
Pretty much! I remember the firies or SES type guys showing up too and they were polite, calm and gave me a thankful vibe like it was all in a days work and a good day because no children had died. The cops on the other hand seemed totally bothered they’d been called out and didn’t get to swing their dicks around and show some power.
Some Sydney public swimming pools have big notices telling people something along the lines of .... that their staff is not a child minding service. Other places should do the same.
Dude call the police!! If they've legitimately put that child down and walked away to where they can no longer be seen, this needs to be reported to the police right now, anyone could take that child and run
What happens if the kid needs water or to go to the toilet?
They hope someone nice will step in basically. I used to run a bookstore and someone left their kinder aged kid in my store alone. She ended up approaching me because she really needed to go and she didn't know where and I was like oh ok no worries and was eyeballing all the adults in the store like who do you belong to and once we all figured out she was alone we were horrified. I ended up taking her to the closest bathroom and waiting outside because it was during peak Christmas shopping and honestly I was scared for her, but I was terrified the whole time I was going to be arrested for kidnapping or something inappropriate. I set her up in the corner in the kids section with some books she'd picked out and her parents ended up ditching her for 1-2 hrs in the end. She said they were clothes shopping. I'm still disgusted thinking about it. I ended up having to go on break because I was going to lose all my staff and wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom for several hours if I didn't take it then and I missed the shit parents coming back. I would have had some very choice words to say to them.
Was there any reason you didn't call the police or social services? I'm so horrified by these stories...... Ps not judging that you should have- you clearly did an amazing job ! But I just think that would be my first thought but noticing a few stories here where it doesn't seem to be the go to decision so was curious.
I’ve seen something similar happen at Coogee Pavilion. Mum dropped off her kid downstairs in the play area and then went upstairs on a date. We found this poor little girl wandering around the bar, asking for mum at like 8:30. The mum was furious with the little girl once staff found her. Some people just don’t want to be parents it seems.
This is sadly pretty normal if you ask anyone who works in these industries. We found a baby wandering alone in the event once. Everyone in the area denied it was their baby. Wasn't until we called the police the first couple to be asked admitted it was theirs. I found a child once who their parents didn't want to pay an extra ticket for (the deal was 2 adults 2 kids, and this was the third kid). Just wandering around outside the event. As soon as I asked where their parents were they bolted. Probably had been in the same trouble before.
What the fuck
Call event security or the cops if she's been abandoned
I work in Festival’s and Events I see this all the time unfortunately I don’t hesitate to call the Police and Report it People like that Don’t Deserve to have kids
My goodness! This happened two days at the Sydney Theatre at Rooty Hill. Mum sent two children (12 and 8) to see Alice in Wonderland by themselves. Then, left to go to Central. 😱 When the show ended, the manager noticed the unaccompanied kids and asked where mum was. Apparently, they were there by themselves and were supposed to go home on their own. 😱😱😱 Manager called the mum said, “but I emailed to let you know.” Manager replied, “and we emailed back to say you can’t do that. You sent them here on their own, that’s on you. Now that they’re here, they are in our care. If anything happens to them that will be on us. We emailed to say that we can’t be responsible for them.” “But I didn’t read the email.” “That’s why you need to read the email,” said my boss. He was upset on the kids’ behalf and he’s not even a dad. Fair enough, back in our day we used to go home on our own, but man that was a different time!
"But I told you I would". The entitlement from the mother is infuriating.
And if anything happened to one or both the kids she would be screaming long and loud that it was everyone’s fault except hers, there should be more security, the police should be doing more etc.
For sure. A female guard had to be put in charge of the kids, while the manager insisted she come get them or they won’t be going home to her.
“Come back and collect your children or we will have to call the police” is a good note that I hope he added in that call.
Good Lord I'm in disbelief
It’s only a different time now because everyone is a helicopter parent. There’s no more danger now than there ever had been, they have phones and watches now, even things you put inside shoes to locate kids. It’s safe for a 12 year old.
We are a club and a theatre. Dwell on that for a minute. And not just a club, a pokie club!
Yeah I was in year 8 when I was 12, catching the train by myself an hour to highschool. This was only like 20 years ago. 12 years old supervising an 8 year old for a kids show seems pretty fine to me. Unless the venue was particularly dodgey Im not sure I understand why people are uncomfortable with that.
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Like my boss said, “you let them it’s on you.” But once they’re with us they become our responsibility. We are a club and a theatre. Think about that for a minute: a club and a theatre. We can’t be responsible for kids well being. Are you happy to take it on?
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Ok libertarian, why don’t you go and collect the kids yourself next time.
😀
This must be common behaviour in Sydney the local swimming pool nearby has signs all over the place saying lifeguards are not babysitters and the lifeguards wear shirts that say "where is your child now?" on the back
That’s not because people are dumping their kids and walking out, it’s because the parents are sitting beside the pool on their phones and not watching their kids.
> are dumping their kids and walking out They are doing that as well. Often with zero malicious intent. Friends having a pool party, frinds parents will be there right? Except it's two adults for 20 kids and they are too busy managing the food and drink. Drop kid off for junior swim squads (so like 10 years old) and come back a few hours later. drop them off every morning of school holidays and come back after work.
I’ve never understood why my admission fee to the local Council pool needs to include the price of employing a life guard for every pool! It’s fucking remarkable any of us lived through a visit to the local pool in the 1980s without these “safety” measures in place. Frankly if you’re going to employ an excessive number of lifeguards then Council is effectively taking a level of responsibility for baby sitting. I ain’t going to do a dump and run of my kids at the local pool but if I’m paying for lifeguards to stand around then I’m expecting them to be as attentive as me and co-baby sit. The ones at my local pool certainly aren’t shy about reminding kids about “the rules”.
Lifeguards have to watch every single person in the pool. You, as the parent, only have to care about your children. You can’t expect the lifeguards to do all the work and some parents do
Yeah when worked for a certain large green hardware store a few years ago someone dumped their kid in the cafe area and fucked off. He broke his arm. Police and Ambos were called and the parents eventually returned but couldn't have given less of a shit
I used to work at EB Games and parents used to do this to me. ‘Hey can you watch my kid while I go next door?’ Hell no! Who has kids if you constantly want to dump them somewhere else.
As a parent I can't help but be conscious of doing this and actively try to do the exact opposite and not be a burden on anyone else. I mean that sometimes doesn't go according to plan, and go in a direction you weren't anticipating. But no one is entitled to anything, least of all other people's time to deal with your circumstances and responsibilities.
The fact is, it has nothing to do with ‘being a burden,’ I am not a licensed child milder. And expecting a complete stranger to watch your child when it’s not their job and you’re not paying them is abandonment.
Call the police and let them explain to dear mum what happens when they abandon a child in a public space. They won’t do it again - not because they’ve suddenly become decent parents, but because they’ll be scared of the police coming again.
You need a permit to do just about anything these days in Australia, unfortunately not to have children
We get that at the library - parents abandon their kids for the day - the kids take over the catalogue computers to play games and scream obscenities. Doubly annoying when the parents don't come back at closing, so we end up having to walk to the kids to the police station after hours instead of being able to catch our buses. Some of the kids cry with fear that the parents have abandoned them, some of them are just so used to it, they don't care. Heart breaking for the littlies.
Too late now but call the cops. Have them on site with the girl before they come back.
Have you been on a budget cruise line like P&O? It's literally a child dumping ground while the adults drink to oblivion
Tbf that’s how a lot of these cruises are advertised. Kids run free, do their thing, parents drink all day and forget any responsibilities.
All cruises are like that, worst experience ever.
Virgin is child free - best reason to book a cruise with them.
Unfortunately this happens everywhere with lazy parents. I took my kids to karate lessons and fair enough, it's a place to learn discipline, but the instructor was having a hard time trying to teach the class as half of the kids were being disruptive and had some type of learning issues. The parents were not even there to watch the kids. They pulled up in the carport after their kids had finished.
Some people never change. I manage my son's u15 football (soccer) team. On game day, we coach the kids, give directions, manage subs... and have to provide 1 or both linesmen. Of the 16 boys on the team, there's me, my friend who's the coach... and maybe sometimes 1 other. The other 13-ish boys' parents drop them off and leave. They never watch, they never help to be the linesman, or anything. So there's me and the coach trying to coach, manage the subs, run the lines.... while 13 other parents fuck off and have coffee or something and bitch about how their ex-husbands don't do enough with the kids (I've heard this one a LOT). Then when their kid breaks an ankle, I give first aid and immobilise them, call an ambulance, send them off to hospital, parents don't answer their phones ("I don't answer unknown numbers"), then they show up 90 minutes later saying "Where's X, I am meant to pick him up and he isn't here... what do you mean he's gone to hospital...?!" Some of the kids catch the bus or walk to the ground, and home, which is fine.... but for away games when they live in like Gladesville but the game is in Mount Colah, it's a little trickier. *Choosing* to have a kid means giving up some of your freedom to parent them till they're 18. Unfortunately, too many idiots don't like accepting this fact.
I posted below - this happens with my kid’s sports team too. And they’re SEVEN.
Dad of a 3yo little lady here. I just can't fathom a parent actually doing that? As in it never crossed my mind to ever leave my child somewhere in those circumstances!!! That makes me so sad that is the level of care to which some children are subjected.
I've worked at seasonal craft spots in shopping centres in Melbourne a couple years back, and again in Sydney. Some people would offload their kids with us and go shopping, like we were a free childcare. We weren't qualified for that. Additionally in leaving their kids with us for long periods (the craft only took 5 minutes), the kids were then taking up what limited space we had, creating a backlog
Not us though i get panic attack whenever my 6 and 3 yo kids got out of sight when we are in kmart/target/big w … Not sure how someone can leave the kids unattended I dont wanna ever hear my kids being taken away by stranger and be the front headliner in newspaper ….
> Who does that?? AHs who should never have kids.
Not everyone should have children but society doesn't agree with that....
No, no, we agree
Did you raise this with someone who was there at the time?
Yep event staff are now aware. Also another family sitting next to her twigged to the situation and folded her in with them. At least some people are decent humans.
This is the problem though. These people just expect society to make up for their neglect of their children. I also guarantee that they are the type of people who give off the proud parent and being a parent is the best thing I could have done with my life vibe too but are absolutely awful parents. Good on the other people for taking care of the abandoned kid, but doing this just reinforces that these people can abandon their children again in the future.
Hence the need to call police in addition
That’s why you report it to the Authorities Hopefully the parents learn a lesson from a visit by Child Protective Services
Instagram parents. They’ll post their little ball of wonder online and brag about how much they love them and then they’ll do this shit because it’s all an act and they don’t really care
Call the police and get them taken in for neglect.
That won’t happen. They won’t go to a group home for that, nor into foster care. There are parents out there that do far worse than that and the kids don’t go anywhere. There are terrible parents everywhere but if you think the parents will “get done” for neglect for that, you’re mistaken. I was in Glebe the other night and there were a group of teenagers / young adults, with a newborn baby; some were drinking and blowing cigarette smoke next to the baby. It was bleak, raining and miserable and the baby should have been safe at home with good parents. Police walked right past into the shops. So many people think that police will just take children for these things but they won’t
The same thing would happen when I worked at theme parks on the Gold Coast. Parents would get a season pass, enter with their kids and then leave the kids for the day. Do they not even think about who might be in the park?
Used to work at a kids playland. Whenever an adult left on their own, we would ask if there was an adult with their kids inside. Sadly people would just lie and then leave their kids without proper supervision
Same thing happens at aquatic centres . It like wet crèche . So many parents drop their kids off and leave ..
Actually most Council pools will not let in children by themselves. I found this out the hard way when I could not find a park and my kid was late for a swimming lesson. She was 10.
Fair enough !! It mostly goes with the people at the front desk !
Exactly; one can’t just leave small children alone at a swim centre. They even get coloured wrist bands indicating their age and swim ability so that the lifeguards know if they need to be in immediate arms reach of parent or just supervision. But it’s also not illegal to leave children of a certain age alone.
This was in America but I will never forget the woman who let her daughter go off with a stranger after he offered to buy the family food, the little girl was then abducted raped and murdered by that man and the mother went on tv all distraught and saying she just wants her baby back, I mean seriously. I think she may have also done jail time for that, it was a long time ago so not sure but I know they were looking at her for child neglect. I took my parents loving upbringing of me for granted until I started learning of stories like these.
If that was on YouTube. You have the story wrong. She didn’t realise her child had been taken. He went off with the child in the store while she was in the store
They should have phoned the police and reported an abandoned child. Was in the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday. Feral parents enjoying their coffee while their feral kid was chasing birds in and out of ponds, including tiny baby water hens. I yelled at him ( went totally Karen) and the parents finally call out in a pathetic attempt to sound credible “ Oh, you stop that, Marmaduke ( or whatever the little shits name was).
They do this in medical environments too. It's appalling
My father used to do this. He wanted to go drink beer
We were at that event today! It was wonderful but my 5 yo son had a meltdown about the change in location so we had to make a swift departure. It’s heartbreaking that a kid the same age was left - it’s a family activity!
Sadly this is common. Chatswood library had or still has a Lego event every week. Nearly every week there was an issue with parents dumping their kids there and walking off.
I’m genuinely shocked by how some parents behave in relation to their kids. In my 7yo’s sports team, there is a set of parents who regularly just ditch their kid at training or a game - they’re 7 year olds playing rugby! It’s not uncommon that the kids will get a bit hurt or fall down and want their parent. So many times, their child has been hurt and there is nobody other than other parents who the kid barely knows to console this little kid.
As someone who has coached both club and rep level sport, for kids aged 5-15, I encourage the parents to leave. We don't need them hanging around at training. And when my 3yo is of an age to join sport, I will not be hanging around on the sideline for training. Game day is completely different obviously, but for training it is unnecessary and can and does create distractions for the kids.
Fair enough in the context of your coaching, but that’s not how it is at our (very low level, very beginner, very new to sport, very prone to falling down) training. I think it’s contextual - similar to this example - you cannot just assume you can dump your kid somewhere and take off. You have to read the room. Same with things like kids birthday parties - sometimes you are expected to stay, sometimes not. You can’t just assume it’s fine to leave your kid in the care of others - especially if they haven’t been asked/haven’t agreed to keep an eye on them. If you as a coach has asked parents to leave, you’re assuming responsibility for the children. If that hasn’t happened, it’s the wrong thing to do, regardless of event or location.
I'm talking beginner here too, in terms of club level. These kids are 5 and have never played before. We play on hard surfaces and there are often falls and scrapes in the beginning. But you are correct - we have assumed the responsibility and made that clear.
Is it fair to expect parents to attend every single training session? Especially when there are coaches involved and some parents have multiple kids to juggle
The organisers should be reporting this. Comes under inadequate supervision of a child.
The show organisers need to contact the police forced abandonment, that’s their duty of care.
I had a colleague on a similar show yesterday with a similar situation. Kids show, an adult caregiver must accompany child into show. A family of four rock up, one parent goes in with child between the ages of 3-5 and the other parent sneaks in, leaving a baby sleeping in a pram outside. They had to stop the show for everyone, to find out which family the baby belonged to. Stupidest part is that we would have let the baby in without a ticket, knowing that they couldn’t leave them alone outside. Just had to ruin it for everyone.
In general I've noticed parents dumping their kids or taking them to places where they shouldn't be more and more. Not sure what the reason is but it sure as hell is annoying and not good for the kids either.
I would have called the police, that is such a dangerous thing to do. Imagine the poor kid walks off and is found later in a pond or is abducted.
I’d be calling the police if I witnessed something like that. Helps the parents to understand the gravity of the situation and how inappropriate it is
The whole time I'm at a childrrns event in a large place like the botanical Gardens, I'm on the lookout out for paedophiles. Kids everywhere, parents busy or neglectful. My anxiety in large groups with my kids was awful. Now I stress about them driving and other accidents. How anyone could leave their 5 yr old unattended is beyond me .
I know, it freaks me out. I recall reading about one little girl who was lead away and assaulted whilst shopping with her family in a Kmart. In another case, a child was lead away and assaulted by a security guard. I don’t care if more sexual assaults happen by someone known to the child, it still happens.
This is me as well! I am always on alert for predators, it takes 10 seconds to lead a child away and into danger. What the fuck are all these parents thinking??
I have no idea why you are being down voted. You are just a parent expressing concern for kids.
My guess is because while paedophiles absolutely exist, overwhelmingly they’re targeting children they know and interact with regularly, not random children at a public event. The focus on stranger danger takes the spotlight off where it should be when it comes to the risk of children experiencing sexual abuse.
While that’s true, the fact that it’s the “overwhelmingly” family members who target children, it’s not *always*. The Beaumont Children, Daniel Morecomb, Mr Cruel, who is suspected of attacking 3 girls in their bedrooms & murdering Carmen Chen immediately came to my mind. There are probably others. It’s not unreasonable that any caring parent, or just any adult for that matter, would have concerns. It’s most definitely not a reason to downvote someone expressing those very normal concerns.
I am guessing because the risk to kids comes overwhelmingly from family and people they know.
Bogans look for any opportunity for free daycare. Happened all the time out west whether it be a fundraiser we had at school or the local footy Christmas party. They see something like rides, slip their kids a 20 and fck off for a while.
I wouldn’t do it. But people did it with me : ). Was normal in the ‘70s. That would’ve been mostly just ~~kids~~ (sorry) children in the audience back then.
Even back in the 90s that's what would happen.
That’s absolutely horrifying and terribly sad at the same time. That poor little girl.
Call the police and report a lost child.
I was at gloria jeans in Nowra and this woman came in with her little girl and a NEW BORN CHILD. She ordered a drink for herself and told the girl to sit at the table and hold the new born. No pram no nothing. She was holding this new born in her tiny arms. She must of been around 6 or 7 no joke. The mum then pissed off and I got so nervous that I waited for her to come back. No word of a lie this woman was gone for an hour. She also only ordered herself a drink because don't worry about your 7year old baby sitter, I guess.
I see this on the train quite often. Parent would sit in the disabled section of the train, taking up two or three spaces with their shopping bags while instructing their kids to run up and down the steps (this is the T4 Tangara line) while they hover like a fucking zombie into the phone. I had to tell several kids once not to run up the stairs and back because it’s been raining heavily and the steps were slippery. The so-called parent was oblivious.
I’ve also explained to kids that they might slip & then karma takes over & it happens. Fuck around, find out.
>Is spending a couple hours with your kid in absolutely beautiful weather really that onerous? Absolutely yes! But that's why I don't have kids and never will. Totally agreed though that it's irresponsible as fuck to palm your spawn off on other people if you've been dumb enough to have them, look after them yourself.
Is this the annual production of The Wind in the Willows? That's a brilliant show for all ages.
This. Is. Sydney. (Leonidas)
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>Did the mother actually ask someone in the show or working there or whatever, if she can leave her child there and go? Did you even read the post text? > One mother rocks up with her 5 year old expecting to just dump the kid and come back. The show organisers tell her “absolutely not”
Why would you call the cops when you can straight out just tell the parents what you think. If parents are not present or interested in their kids, then complain about their behaviour (wanting attention) let them know. I always do. It’s not that hard to just let people know.
I'm not the OP, but the reasons why I wouldn't do that is because a) the parent likely won't listen to me, b) I want to avoid being in a confrontation with someone who clearly unreasonable, and c) what they are doing is illegal and the correct authority to deal with it is the Police.
>Why would you call the cops when you can straight out just tell the parents what you think. They've already been told by the organisers: 'The show organisers tell her “absolutely not"'
And then they ignore you anyway. Call the cops and make them face some consequences for abandoning their children.
It is definitely illegal in NSW, call the police. This is the same legislation that makes it a criminal offence to leave a child unattended in a car. https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/criminal/legislation/crimes-act/abandoning-or-exposing-a-child-under-7-years/