Kid vs. Cart

Because of the winter blast we had yesterday, work today was slow, but it was still with incident. As you might expect, most incidents involve children. The simple fact is parents generally do a poor job of watching their kids. You can walk into my store and there will be children climbing on ladders or fixtures, playing soccer, basketball or football, you know, just being kids.

Well, a mother walked in with her two boys trailing behind. She had a Michaels cart with an infant in a carrier/car seat where it should be and she began shopping. I would see them from time to time watching the kids climb on the side of the cart and playing around. It was no big deal, because at least they stayed with their mom, and I didn't have to dodge them at any point.

Near the end of their shopping, I'm walking out of the register area and I see the younger child of maybe 3 years old climb up on to the side of the cart. The cart tips over with the infant in the carrier/car seat still secured in the cart. I literally gasped and stood their in shock for a millisecond before running over to help the mom lift the cart off her crying son, and making sure the infant was okay. To my surprise, the mom kept a cool head, made sure the infant was all right and then tended to her crying son who stopped crying soon after.

I see kids do this all the time, climbing on the side of carts, and I think it is only a matter of time before it tips over. What I don't understand is why parents do not keep their kids from climbing on the cart. They have to know it's dangerous and the carts are not jungle gyms, they are not bolted to concrete; they move . . . and tip. I know this is absolutely terrible of me, but I refuse to warn parents because;

a. Parents should know better.
b. I'm not the parent.
c. Hard lessons need to be experienced to be learned.

If I were to warn them about the dangers of carts, how would I go about doing that? Could I say, "I don't know kids, but I know carts and these tip over when kids climb on them." I don't know. If you confront the wrong parent, you could get a lecture about how their little precious isn't doing anything wrong. I would do almost anything to not have to deal with that.