Your local newsagency is not a child care centre

A mum a child, around 6 or 7, entered the newsagency the other day. Mum took the kid to our toys area, said something and left. We saw mum walk towards a nearby supermarket. We told the kid to go after their mum.

Mum came back with the kid and ripped into us telling us that we should not have told their kid to follow them, that it was none of our business. The admonishment went on for a bit.

We explained that we are not a child care service and that unattended children are reported to centre security, who will attend and remove them for their safety and our safety. The mum responded with even more choice words and admonishment.

This happens every could have weeks in the newsagency in a large shopping centre. Parents seem to think it is okay to leave their young kids with us while they shop elsewhere.

Our position is no, we’re not a child care service. Any child found in the shop alone is reported to security, for their own safety.

All that would need to happen is that a kid left alone trips or otherwise injures themselves in the shop without a parent present and we would be in a legal minefield.

Or, what if someone noticed a parent leaving a kid and the kid was taken by them? What then?

Parents leaving their kids don’t seem to have thought through the consequences of something going wrong in the shop while their kid is left without supervision.

It is frustrating that we have had to say on social media that our newsagency is not a childcare centre.

There may be some reading this who think it’s okay. We all have to made decisions on matters like this in the context of our own situation. The shop I am writing abut today is in a large Melbourne suburban centre. We are near two exist. Abduction would be easy. The kid drifting off to other shops would be easy, too, as would getting lost in a crowd.

The risk for the child and for us and those who work in the shop is too great. hence our zero tolerance policy.

Back to the kid who was left, given how the mum spoke to us, we feel for how life might be at home for the kid.