If you see bad parenting should you say something?

I can understand how a child can get separated from a parent, however I don't get how a parent wouldn't immediately make sure her kids are all with her once a page of a missing child has gone out, and so would not immediately come to the desk. I was in a wal mart where a woman came up to the desk, the person behind me got annoyed that they had to wait longer in customer service by this interuption, she kept apologizing to me, I kept saying find the kid first I can wait. This woman knew exactly where she was the last time she saw her child, but sometimes it only takes a second of a turned head. One the other hand one other time I was in a store and the woman didn't even know how she dressed her 3 yr old. The 5 year old with her had to tell them what the kids COAT looked like, it wasn't even that she didn't know what clothes the kid had on she didn't knwo what her own childs coat looked like. I was stunned. As for the woman you work with she definitely needs a clear message, and wake up call, before this child suffers, it is NOT healthy for an infant that young to be drinking soda. There are a few things that can be said to her diplomatically and if she is to dim to get it, then be blunt. She may become offended but think how would you feel if you hear something happens to her baby and you didn't say anything. Sometimes it is worth offending people. Grown ups I do not mind offending if it means a child is safe. And sometimes a person needs to be a busy body and report issues they are aware of even if it means that you have the hassle of being involved. We had a neighbor where the 3 yr old was responsible for taking care of the 2 yr old. When this woman became pregnant again she said after the the baby's born I am going to kill it. Sorry when you hear something like that and see a 3 yr old outside in January with out shoes [it gets cold in NJ in Jan} and you suggest she put shoes on, and the 3 yr old answers my mommy said I didn't have to. First of all why is a 3 yr old running around outside at all by herself? Then you have no choice, you have to call the authorities. Sometimes you say something, sometimes you don't because you may not know all the facts of what happened, and sometimes you just call the authorities. Children are helpless, they can't defend themselves against careless, or neglectful parents, nor can they protect themselves against an adults blantant rampant stupidity. At those times you just have to say something.

This is a very delicate and sticky situation. I mean all the cases you mentioned in my opinion are certainly bad parenting but to be honest I don't think the authorities would do anything about it if you did report it but then if you did report it they might at least talk to the parent and that be enough to "scare" the parent into doing better. I lost my oldest son in a Sears store one time - he was 3 years old. He couldn't have been missing 2 minutes when I realized it but I was terrified. A Sears employee found him and took him to the curtisy desk where they paged over the speaker system "We have a young man 3 or 4 years old named Nawn. His mother is lost." My son's name is Shawn but he had a bit of a Texas drawl and I knew it was me who was lost.

Wow I see it all the time too lol. Just the other day I overheard a father telling his son that they didn't give a S*IT about him. I think I know who you're talking about with the five month old. I tried to tell her that it wasn't smart to give him soda and she got really pissed at me for it. I feel sorry for her son. She's going to make him a very unhealthy and overweight sdult. He's going to end up hating her for it. He's teeth are probably going to be rotted away before he's even in school. I think someone, probably a doctor, should talk to her about it. Another thing that I saw at our store a couple days ago was a mom was literally pushing her kids out of the way. She made one of them even cry because he fell down and hurt himself. She did't even say anything to them. Some people just aren't sane enough or responsible enough to have kids. I wish there was something we could do about it but it's going to happen no matter what we do.