Lately I've been seeing more parents with kids in the store and a lot of times I feel for the kids. The parents just have unrealistic expectations, granted kids should be able to be in a store where and not be rowdy but it's hotter in the computer department than it is in the front of the store.
At this point almost everyone else has a long sleeve shirt on under their polor or is wearing a jacket/sweater or work sweatshirt and in some cases a combination.
Back in computers we're all in short sleeve shirts and it's comfortable. So parents and kids come in and are bundled up, sometimes the kids are in the stroller so they are little. If it's any kind of buying a computer/researching buying a computer transation it takes awhile. The parents jackets and coats and hats and gloves come off, but generally the kids don't, either they aren't old enough to do it themselves OR their parents don't want them out of fear of something being lost or jackets being slung around like weapons.
So you have kids who are too hot, ususally tired, bored out of their minds, told over and over "don't touch" and I'm not surprised when they start to whine or get fidgety.
Or we'll have paretns who underestimate how long something is going to take. I had a customer come in with her two kids, still in their school uniforms and it was after 6, at the start she mentioned to them when she was done they'd get dinner. So I assumed they hadn't been home yet. The kids were 8 and 12 I think - lots of "don't leave my sight, don't touch, don't break anything." Mom came in with questions about Chromebooks. Then questions about regular laptops. Then she had 2 scenarios and then she had more questions and she kept saying "I have one more question" or "We'll leave when after I finishw it this questin"( directed at the kids) and it was NEVER a simple question. At the end she had FOUR possible scenarios with maybe a Fifth that she wanted me to make recommendations for with all necessary accessories and possibly a Fifth scenario. But she didn't have a budget.
And this was about a half hour after she came in. I finally wrote down some very general recommendations, suggested she firm up her budget with her husband and maybe do so more research. Our conversation kept getting interupted with her looking around to get an eye on her kids and going into the "Don't touch, stay where I can see you, put your jacket back on. I know you're hungry, we're leaving in a few minutes."
When she finally left it was close to 7. At one point I wanted to say "Stop telling your kids you guys are going to leave in a few minutes that's not true! Or at least let them go over in the gaming section and play on the Nintendo" But I didn't because it's not my place and the Nintendo is out of line of sight.
I felt so bad for those kids. I don't know what time they went to school but it's obvious it's been a long day, they wanted to eat and were bored and I could see the relief when the mom kept saying they'd be done soon and then the frustration when that didn't happen.
There are some kids who are just obnoxious and throw fits, but they are a lot of adults who throw epic shit fits for no reason. Or there is a reason and or their reason is their completely unrealistic expections about how stuff works.