This is the weirdest argument, really. Four year olds are not capable of managing themselves, and store clerks are not responsible for random unsupervised children in their store. That’s not their job! Even if the kid is well behaved, it’s still a small child! If I’m doing my job, I do not have time or attention to…

Two things. 1. Apparently, there are scores of people who both leave their children unattended in retail establishments and think there is something wrong with the poor souls who work there informing them that they can’t do that. It’s possible that jezbanned or others reading this are those people and if responding…

liability is joint and several

In my feed, your comment thread was first. And while you didn’t openly say that it was okay for the mom to dump her kid in a bookstore, you did question why an employee of said store found it necessary to send the kid back to his mother’s care. That, and many of your subsequent comments, suggested that you are fine…

Here is my personal reason for why I would have escorted the child over to his mother (I would not have allowed him to walk over to the nail salon by himself because leaving him at my store means that once I realize he’s alone, he’s essentially in my care until I hand him off to another responsible party. Not…

At least half of the concern, besides the obvious “we are not babysitters and can’t be liable for your kid” is that stores have no way of knowing that the parents are actually coming back, and they can’t just ignore what might be an abandoned kid and hope for the best. I used to work at Old Navy, and we had more than…

What a sad little life jezbanned must have.

Rothman v. Wal-Mart, D.C. N.D.GA. 94-Cv-2719 (Untended child shot plaintiff in the back)

Either you’re the bad mom or you’re an idiot. 4 year olds can not legally be left alone....because they’re freaking 4. Please don’t breed.

I don’t see the difference between this and sending a child off to amuse themselves in book store (or any store) while the parent gets a mani, pedi, haircut, or whatever

So it would be ok if your neighbor sent their kid to sit in your house while they went off to do something else? Didn’t ask you or tell you what they were doing. Just a 4 year old eating hashbrowns and getting greasy fingerprints on your furniture.

So if the kid decides to leave, is it the staff’s job to stop him and make sure he stays in the store? He could leave and go anywhere, I know my son would. Four year olds are not old enough to be trusted alone.

This isn’t law review. Run your own Casemaker search, I need to go represent actual clients. I posted today because you were trolling. I don’t need to back up twenty years of experience with a case cite.

I’m a lawyer. If I were a different type of lawyer, I would try to figure out who you are IRL because you are a plaintiff’s goldmine, my dear.

jezbanned wrote:

your children are not my responsibility. simple as that.

Child abduction by strangers is relatively rare when compared to child abduction by relatives precisely because it is a crime of opportunity. I have personally stopped at least one abduction by being mindful of unattended children and the creepers they attract. The business owner has a duty to safeguard the patron…

So the kid gets bonked on the head. Now what do the employees do? Call an ambulance? Give him a band aid? What if they do the wrong thing? They shouldn’t be in a position to have to make medical decisions for a kid.

That may be true, but it’s going to take a bit of legal legwork and paperwork and time and money to get to that conclusion. Bookstores, whether chain or mom & pop, would rather not.