I was derping around on the Internet and found this mom-shaming story I wanted to share with you guys. I’ll give you the backstory (or as much as I could get from this NewsChannel 4 article), and then I want to hear what you guys think.
I will point out that all stories have two sides, though…and unfortunately we only have the mom’s account here. But, given all the recent parent-shamings that have taken place at stores, restaurants, etc., I don’t find her story that hard to believe.
According to the article, Caitlin Esparza is the mother of a particularly rambunctious 2-year-old. (The child’s father referred to her as “living those ‘terrible twos’ to the fullest.”) Recently, Caitlin went to a local Nearly New store with her child and experience really bad service. So bad, in fact, that she gave it one star and left a detailed description of the story on the store’s Facebook page:
“The owners (or workers I’m not sure) of this store are absolutely hateful. They were extremely rude to me because my two year old daughter kept knocking a pillow off of their pleather sofa. I kept asking my daughter not to do it, but she’s two years old and there is only so much she can handle. She wasn’t touching the merchandise or breaking things…. she was knocking a pillow off the couch (not even onto the floor because it was attached to the sofa). They accused me of not parenting my child and when I told them I was going to give them a bad review, they said good because it would keep people like me out of the store. And then when I left with my daughter while my friend was checking out, they tried to speak badly about me to my best friend. If you don’t want children in your store, you should post a sign stating such. Also, half the dresses my friend tried on were stained or torn. I purchased a dress there earlier in the day, but of course they have a no returns policy, so I can’t even take it back. They were rude to me and they have my money!!! Overall, a terrible experience and I would not recommend this store, especially if you have children.”
So there’s that. And this is how the store chose to respond to her review:
“It is our responsibility to keep every shopper at our store safe. Even kids who want to walk on furniture and run wildly unattended. If her child would have hurt herself I’m sure we would have been blamed as well. We’re sorry your kid has you as a mother. We sincerely hope she doesn’t suffer because of your inabilities as act as a parent.”
Now, as someone with a long history of service jobs, I will be the first to say that it’s an incredibly stressful, grueling, and oftentimes thankless industry to work in. You work long hours for little pay, all while being as absolutely helpful as you can possibly be for your customers, no matter how nasty they are back. So, naturally, your fuse can become a little shorter than it normally is. However, I don’t believe that that’s ANY excuse for this level of parent-shaming, especially if Caitlin’s portrayal of the situation is accurate. And there’s DEFINITELY no excuse to say something as hurtful as, “We’re sorry your kid has you as a mother.” I think they should have stopped at the second sentence of their response, and just let it go.
What do you think? Was it appropriate for the store to take the mom’s review so personally? Was their response within reason, or completely off-base?
