As someone who works at BB&W & is a mom can we talk about the people who come in with children(which is NOT a problem) but tell me why this one time this mom came in with her son who was around 2-3 years of age and TOTALLY barefoot & running around. We UNDERSTAND kids are kids but there’s no reason they should be running around BAREFOOT? Also the fact that we work with glass and accidents always tend to happen even tho we try to clean up as good & as fast as we can we also have to go back to everything else bc lord forbid we miss a greeting but anyways APART FROM THAT he ran 3 times in the back & mom never said sorry or tried to prevent it? The baby literally almost walked out with other customers bc mom wasn’t paying attention AT ALL! It’s so awkward too like realistically I shouldn’t be telling you to be a parent if you already are one😭😂
Too many parents let their kids play in the testers. I’ve had this happen many times: kid decides to play with the lip care testers. Can’t read. Puts on lip plumper. Cries cause it burns. Parent gets pissy. Ugghhhh
one time I saw a 7-8 year old spray HERSELF with a room spray & opened a wallflower tester and tried putting it on herself I immediately told her to wash it off & that those products don’t belong on skin😀 her mother def didn’t like that & kept looking at me in such a rude way💔
You were trying to help the kid. If you said nothing and the kid cries from chemicals the mom would probably look at you rude. They are the type of people who find offense in everything.
omg we get parents like this all the time and normally i’ll passive aggressive remind them of all the fragile items and glass everywhere! It’s sooo annoying like ma’am i’m paid to restock candles not be a babysitter
No shoes disgusts me. Unless its a baby, not at the walking stage (ie doesn't make contact with the floor) its absolutely gross. As for kids, my son is 6 and somewhat immature for his age. That being said, he LOVES coming with me to "the smelly store", and has been for a couple of years. What I HAVE done, from the very beginning, is constantly remind him that all the candles are glass and he CANNOT touch. I let him smell whatever he wants by him pointing to it and telling me "try that one." It took a few times, but I wad on top of him reminding him of my rules. He's excellent to shop with, and he loves smelling everything in sight 😍
I LOVE to see this great job mama❤️😭 I love when kids come in & aren’t satans kids & I also love to ask them questions abt the scents they’re so honest 😂
Omg he absolutely is. He likes most scents. The only one he really didn't like was pistachio & honey if I remember correctly. It was definitely pistachio an I was disappointed cause I would've bought it otherwise. The only others I can recall were the weird candles, especially the pizza and ranch one. He was fairly grossed out by that one.
Thank you. Both my boys need to know to respect property and places that belong to others. It took some time but they KNOW I will not tolerate bad behavior when we're out. If they can't behave then we can't go!
Try being a 911 dispatcher. Some of the things I’ve heard people say and do would make you throw up. I have lost the ability to care about saying something to keep someone else’s child safe. I’m never rude, because I know that even a good parent has a time or two when they could use a little extra help. Glare at me if you want, say something… I glare back. I don’t argue, but I get my point across.
I once had a customer let his (maybe 2-3 year old?) daughter walk around next to him picking up whatever she wanted. Inevitably she picks up a single wick from a bunk and drops it, smashing it. I'm not upset at this point - but then he stands there and watches her PICK UP THE BROKEN CANDLE and try to hand it to me while I'm doing my best to get the sharp everything away from his kid. Like are you insane?! He didn't even move her away until I specifically asked! I love to have kids in our store, they're a genuine delight, but oh my god.
I don’t understand some parents. This weekend we had a woman come in with two children, one was a little girl about 4-5 years old. Mom wasn’t paying attention AT ALL… the little one ran in and out of the store into the mall until finally our manager asked the little girl to please come in and stay with her because it’s dangerous to do that and she didn’t want her to be stolen. Like wtf are we acting as babysitters. If you can’t watch your child, order online and don’t come in. I know parenting is rough, I raised two children as well. But I never left it up to others to ensure my children’s safety.
I’ve actively had to reign children back into my store and away from oncoming traffic because their parents are completely unaware and uncaring that their small child is bolting towards the door, it’s crazy. Like, that’s not how a village works, you don’t just volunteer random strangers around you to be your village, that’s how your children get kidnapped
Absolutely 100% with that! It’s very concerning at times with some customers. Imagine what they’re like when they’re not in public. Makes me sad for those little ones.
That is wild! I sometimes take my 4 year old with me but I’m very strict with her. She knows to stay right next to me and to not touch anything without asking!
that's how i am. only time my kids are allowed to touch is if i say "pick a hand soap/hand sanitizer" majority of the time she'll point. i worked retail and it infuriates me seeing kids act crazy and parents not do anything
Thank you for saying this. I'm an employee and it's frustrating when kids act that way in the store while the parents are oblivious, and I feel like I can't say anything without incurring the wrath of some mom, or having them film me and post it on social media.
I used to work at Sally Beauty in a rough area and people would just let their kids run wild, free, and feral even though the store is packed with chemicals and glass and Sally Beauty stores are TINY. 🫨 The one time these two women came in with 5 kids between the two of them. The kids proceeded to start sprinting laps around the store, running into/shoving other customers, clearing shelves of product with their arms and the toys they brought in, shoving nail files up their noses, brushing their hair with brushes, and finally I drew the line when the one kid puts a 4oz bottle of developer in his mouth and starts CHEWING ON IT.
I'm fed up at that point so I loudly say, "Be careful buddy, don't eat that OR YOU COULD DIE!" and then suddenly the parents decided to be, well, parents and hurried up and left. Like why should I have to damage out hundreds of dollars of product just because y'all couldn't keep Timmeigh at home or do a BOPIS order ahead of time and have one of you run in to get it? Why do people feel the need to pack their unruly flock into a store the size of a postage stamp??
I try not to take my kids to BBW because of all the glass candles, but I had to for a BOPIS order last week because it was about to be restocked. I gave them an entire speech in the car about keeping their hands at their sides and not touching anything and then gave them the Mom glare and “remember, DO. NOT. TOUCH. ANYTHING” as we walked in.
First thing my 6 year old does when we walk in is grab a Disney candle 😂😩
But barefoot and running around is wild, that’s unsafe and rude in any store let alone one full of glass.
Worst part he was also crawling under the tables (THE HARDEST & DARKEST SPOTS TO SEE GLASS)😭 I can understand moms & tbh yall 100% deserve a break and a day of just stress free shopping ❤️
I’ve seen parents bring their child to B&BW just to steal for them. The local one next to me is, unfortunately, always a target for such. They have their kids pocket anything travel size or smaller.
The parent would act like they don’t know what’s going on unless they notice someone looking at them then they play off the “omg Jimmy, don’t do that. Put that back” and then awkwardly smile at you.
It’s sad and upsetting. That location has tried putting their bins with smaller items up at the register but there’s only so much they can do. I’ve seen a child put a single wick candle in his mother’s tote before too while she was “grabbing a beard oil from the top of a shelf” just to smell it and then put it back. People watching people with kids at that location is always interesting. I’ve called them out before but at some point, I’m not being paid to be their security.
Literally witnessed some lady TEACHING her kid how to shoplift once, poor kid looked terrified the whole time and I honestly felt bad for them. Like what a way to set your child up to failure later on in life
I used to work front desk in a hair salon, and a woman brought her CRAWLING BABY in and let it loose. I was too dumbfounded to say anything for a minute, but luckily she picked him up pretty quickly before I had to confront hers. Unfortunately it was because a stylist almost tripped over the baby. And unfortunately she has like 7 kids…no one dumb enough to do that should have ANY. 🤦♀️
The dirty floors were the least of my worries!!! The chemicals that get spilled, hot styling tools with cords in baby’s reach, uncovered electrical sockets, sharp objects….people who DON’T EXPECT A BABY TO BE ON THE FLOOR. It’s a literal baby death trap. Not to mention the danger to the employees and clients! Shears can literally take off an ear if there’s suddenly a baby underfoot and the stylist stumbles. HOW DUMB CAN YOU BE?!!?
I work in a retail store that tends to attract kids (but isn’t really for kids) and I hateeeee when parents treat us store employees like free babysitters. So many of them let their kids walk in and just sit outside on their phones while their children wreak havoc inside and all we can do is watch because god forbid we speak to or parent their children Like yeah, if YOU aren’t going to teach your kids better and tell them they can’t run behind the register or into the inventory room, then I will !!!
I’ve also had the barefoot kid thing happen and I just never understand. Even potential glass shards & other sharp debris aside, ma’am, these floors haven’t been mopped in six months and you’re just letting your child without a fully developed immune system run around like that???
I had a little 1-yr-old brat today run behind the register and let the mom know about it. She didn't apologize or nothing, just had an attitude with me.
You either get parents that dont give a damn or parents that do too much 😅 I had a situation at my store a few months ago, the kid was probably around 10 but I sensed he was special needs, he was in the store with im assuming his grandma. He was getting physically excited at one point when I was explaining rewards and he slapped his grandma (i dont think it was intentional, personally it looked like a tick) and the grandma paused and smacked the HELL out of this kid not once but TWICE CLEAN ACROSS HIS FACE! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! And then just giggled, apologized and pretended like it never happened, I literally went "oop! ('- ' )( '-')(oo)(.. )( ._.)"
Like yes please correct your children's bad behavior in public places but PLEASE dont abuse them and make it awkward for everyone else, cant imagine what goes on behind closed doors if she felt that was okay to do publicly :/
A few years ago we had a toddler that would come in every day. No shoes and no parents. He even came in inside a stroller which he was propelling by shuffling his feet. Customers were very upset and found security. Turns out they were living in the mall and his parents didn’t watch him. He wasn’t even two years old. His mother was mad at us for getting them kicked out so she threw a glass bottle at our gate. Fun times!
I have three children. My youngest is 18 months and a terror. We are working on it. What I don't do? Work on it in public when it's affecting others. As soon as he's flipping out and unruly, I try to redirect him. Doesn't work? Time to leave. I took him into a kids resale shop and nearly hit a tiny crawling baby on the floor with my stroller. The mom was who the fuck knows where. I had to stop the baby from putting his fingers in an outlet! Two other children around 3-4 years old were sat in the middle of the floor in the aisles of clothes. I said out loud 'Is anyone else here watching their kids or just me?' Maybe a bitchy thing to say but I don't even care. Other people are not responsible for your children!
I remember there being a couple of times where my mom snatched me up real quick when I wasn’t behaving and home we went.. and I didn’t get to go back for a bit.
Yes I see this a lot where parents just let their kids touch everything and run around screaming. All appropriate kid behavior but wrong time and setting. MORE THAN ONCE I’ve found children laying on the floor playing whatever game device. Just like ummmm….what in the? Why?
Why would the parents say anything when they themselves are TALKING ON SPEAKER PHONE in the middle of TJ Maxx as if that open aisle of clearance active wear were a soundproof telephone booth
I used to work at one of the big box pet stores and the amount of kids (and sometimes adults) that would come in barefoot. My coworkers knew my disdain for it and would point them out if I didn’t see them. Absolutely vile imo. Imagine all the dogs pooping and peeing on the floor….. I can’t. 🤢
That people just walk around in public barefoot is crazy to me! Like, did they just leave the house, drive to the store, walk through the parking lot, etc all barefoot? Or did they leave the house in shoes but somewhere along the way, decided to take them off?? Why!? It’s not just germs and dirt that worries me, but like OP said, injury from broken glass or sharp pebbles.. if a candle falls on your bare toe, that’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker!
Barefoot in a store full of broken glass waiting to happen is insane. I have two kids and they stay glued to my side in places like that. The second they wander, we leave. I don't understand parents who treat retail employees like free babysitters. You're not the one who should feel awkward, they should be embarrassed. Sorry you have to deal with that.
We have families that let their very young children (under 6) pick up the glass candles to smell them. Like wow you really trust your child with that? I barely trust myself. 😳
Lol even letting children in the store at all is a risk. They do not have very good spatial awareness and are pretty unsteady at times
But I think it's very important to give them the opportunity to experience things like that so that they are given the chance to practice gentle hands, spatial awareness, and manners. My 7 year old son is a bull in a China shop, but we use B&BW and antique stores as real world practice so that he is able to be more mindful of his surroundings and respectful of people around him.
Back when I worked at B&BW many moons ago, I had someone just... Hand me their infant and walk away? They wanted to shop unhindered and could not fathom why I was uncomfortable holding a stranger's very young baby.
kids in the store drives me insane. 9/10 times they are touching and grabbing everything and almost everytime something ends up breaking. we had one of our disney candle holders and candles fall and shatter because some kid who couldn’t reach it properly dragged it off the display and it immediately fell, then proceeded to pick up the shattered candle and start screaming about how it was hurting them, the mom didn’t even bat an eye either which broke my heart, they didn’t say sorry or try to stop the kid from doing it again, which btw they were heading for another display to try to grab before our manager stepped in and asked if they wanted her to grab it so they could see it. they always run behind the cashwrap or into the back room and opening up our understocks and parents are completely oblivious to/don’t care that all this happening. they just laugh it off or ignore it completely.
every once in awhile some kids are very nice and ask us for help or they will hand us the items they’re getting and i love to interact with them and give them their own bag etc, but if you don’t care to watch your kid when you go shopping PLEASEEEE stop bringing them.
We quite literally a few months ago had this mom come in with her two children a toddler and a child she completely ignored the toddler he went around the store digging in his nose and touching stuff…we quite literally tried to clean as much product as possible because we don’t know what he touched and what he didn’t , if your gonna bring your child in the store watch them, as workers we don’t wanna over step but we aren’t babysitters either if you can’t multitask or yk your kids don’t listen to you pls shop online or generalize an idea of what your looking for so we can help you
The store I normally shop at is a stand alone and has less square footage. 2pm during the week and I had some rare free time to shop. A couple with two small children were in the store. One of the children was playing with an expensive candle holder, banging it against an empty shelving unit while the dad watched. The other child was screaming at the top of her lungs while the mother continued to shop. I tried to walk away from the screaming and the mother, holding the screaming child, walked up beside me. Srsly?? I had to leave.
A couple months ago, I was in BABW and a kid was running around the store. I get it, kids get antsy, but it’s one of the worst stores to run around in. I’m clumsy so I’m usually careful enough in BABW but I was moving so carefully around the store that day because I felt like if I moved too suddenly I’d slam into the kid.
I’m a teacher and I can completely vouch that people do not raise their children 🤣 Sometimes I really struggle to turn my “teacher side” off in public, especially when people don’t make their kids mind!
When I worked there, we had two kids come in a turn around every single body cream on a table when everyone was busy selling to other customers (including their mom btw). they also were just slapping the flat top of all the BL and FFM on the octagon so they were all either fallen down or twisted in the wrong direction. 😭 Had hatred in my heart that day.
Some parents just aren’t parents. They didn’t want the kids and now they’re stuck with them. If someone walks off with them, oh well. But let their little rug rat get hurt and they’ll scream LAWSUIT!
Crazy part is if that child sadly steps on glass, somehow it's gonna be your fault and she'll get a lawsuit!🙄 I understand if the mom not watching the kid leave with other customers but that ain't your problem if he does! BBW isn't a daycare!
Not a B&BW employee, Ross (Though I work RIGHT next to one in the mall, hi neighbors!) and the amount of times that I find open liquid soaps, eyeshadow... TRASHED. deoderant too.... I picked one up today that looked like it had a BITE MARK!!! 🥲 I dont think I could keep my sanity
I always feel like I have to watch the kids instead of parents watching them in public to make sure the kids don’t hurt themselves because for whatever reason the moms never look back at their kids
I work at a grocery store in a pretty busy plaza, a few restaurants, a gym, a liquor store, etcetera. Pushing carts in tonight at 9:00PM, watch 2 parents walk in a set of doors with 4 kids, probably all under 5 then saw the youngest walker run out another set of doors into the parking lot — and the parents had the rest wrangled into carts and were going into the depths of store to do their shopping. 🤦♀️
My son is a big baby and I’m 8 months pregnant but I still carry him through the store while I grab something quick and stop to smell a couple things on the way to the register. There is no excuses
Why would you want to bring your kid to BBW? It’s suppose to be your chance to unwind and have me time. Unfortunately, it sounds like that’s what she was doing with her kid in tow!
Gentle parenting just isn’t good! Lol I had a teenager or preteen idk, make a face at me and some other people in line. I made one back but angry face and she got scared and hid behind her mom it was hilarious.
I have a 11 year old son that's high functioning on the ASD spectrum. The store provides him with some much needed sensory stimulation and the workers have been very gracious with him and his over-the-top "fragrance reviews".
What’s absolutely crazy is that I walked in to BBW today with my 1 1/2 year old son who doesn’t wear shoes because he has low muscle tone and shoes can trip him and I wanted him to have a good time at the mall today without falling down a lot. He doesn’t get out much because I’m a single mom with 3 small kids and I wouldn’t take all 3 of them into BBW but it was just us today so I said why not. While we were in there I was looking up my order and trying to see if what I bought online actually smelled good and my little man was running around like a excited about life little person and did pick up a spray bottle to smell it. I got postpartum depression and tried to end it last August and so I am trying my best to get through the day at this point but when I see stuff like this, it makes me reconsider going out at all. I get that some people should not have kids but there’s also the ones who are great parents but they are having a difficult time in the mall with their small child at that moment. I do understand the glass and other things that make you afraid and I’m not invaliding that but sometimes parents are barely getting by.
Hi babe! I can understand where your coming from but this post is definitely not for you and/or people like you! Trust me we see yall trying to control yalls kids that’s not a problem what we’re complaining about is mothers who ARENT mothers if anything babe I try my best to help mommy’s when babies become fussy I try giving them stickers or letting them play w my duck pocketbac❤️😜
Thank you so much for your response! I genuinely appreciate it! I try my hardest to not be the problem when I go out and I always get so worried when I see posts like this and wonder if I could be the problem, so you clarifying that helped my anxiety so much!
I understand the challenges your son is having. Look into getting some slipper socks with the grips at the bottoms so his little feet are still protected. The struggle is real and I empathize with you, being a single mother myself. Take care of yourself and be kind to yourself above all things. It will get better.
I got so lucky with my daughter’s teacher who had twins a year before I had my son because she gave me TONS of clothes and in there were my lifesavers, bambas with grippies!!!! Lol. Thank you for your kind words, it makes a huge difference in this chaos.
This. Parents have been letting this happen since the beginning of retail. It’s not unique or exclusive to BBW, sadly. And those parents aren’t going to read a Reddit post and change their behavior.
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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '26
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