Retail

Working in retail is both enjoyable and horrible. It depends on the day.

The people can also be enjoyable and absolutely horrible. It depends on the day.

Now that it is August, back to school shopping is in full swing and there is never a quiet moment in the children's department. You can basically forget about trying to keep clothes looking tidy. The moment you have your back turned after straightening a stack, it has turned into a mountain of mess.

Oh and count on people dumping piles of clothes wherever they feel like it:  the floor, the swim suit section, shoes, on top of racks, even in other departments (such as the home department, women's, or dresses). 

But here is my question. What do you do when you witness something completely horrible and wrong? Or at least hear it? You see, today, while I was cleaning out the boy's dressing rooms, there was a mother and her son school shopping. Her boy was in a fitting room when he said, "Mommy I need help. I can't get it on." The mother went back to the room and I assumed she was going to help him. I assumed wrong. I heard her yell, "You know how to get it on! Just do it!" Then I hear what sounded like the boy getting spanked very hard and he starts sobbing. I felt sick to my stomach and didn't know what to do. Soon, they both walked out and the little boy had tears running down his cheeks. He reached for his mother's hand and she said, "You don't need to hold my hand!" And she yanked her hand away. 

I felt sick inside and I wanted to cry. What are you supposed to do in that situation? Did I do wrong by not doing anything?

But could I have made it worse to say something? Could I have gotten into huge trouble by doing something that wouldn't even fix the problem? 

To end this post on a happy note, I'll tell you about the bracelets. For back to school, we're handing out free bracelets to the kids. They're those simple jelly kind that come in multiple colors. I love giving these to them, especially if they are very young (still toddlers). They get the biggest smiles on their faces and in their cute toddler voices, they say thank you as if I've given them a million dollars. It is very sweet and I wished we were able to hand out bracelets all the time.