Kids are people, too.

During my stint working retail I noticed something about kids that most adults seem to ignore. Actually, the thing about the kids, is the kids themselves. Many of the adults in the store would only pay attention to kids if they were to do something obnoxious, or rude. Even fellow employees would ignore anyone who wasn't quite tall enough to see over the counter.

Let's look at something that happened about one month ago, where I was wandering around a Wal-mart looking for something trivial, which really means I was standing in place staring at something shiny. As I'm zoned out, two kids walk behind me, and stop at a nearby fixture - a brother and sister, about 8 and 12 years old. They looked a little lost, but I didn't want to be that creepy person that harasses children.

It wasn't until I overheard the little boy say to his sister;

“We can't find anything, 'cuz people keep lying to us!”

That my retail senses started tingling. I approached the kids, who were wary of a strange adult with no name tag or uniform helping them – it took some reassuring, but eventually I got them to the items they needed; things their mother had asked them to get, like food ingredients, toothpaste and batteries. Kids are human beings as well, and it sounded like this pair had hit multiple strikes on the customer service side of things.

Why, exactly, is it so hard to take a child seriously? Does our society pound into our heads that we need to protect, shelter, and nurture kids to the point of treating them like they're completely helpless? Once I'd assured them I wasn't going to do anything dishonest, both of them were helpful in explaining what they were looking for, which most adults have a very hard time with. And I quote; “I'm looking for a book, and it's blue. No, that's all the information I wrote down.” Said the stupid woman to the customer service people.

My second encounter with something like this happened a few days ago, at a small arts and crafts store near my house. I was on the prowl, looking for yarn, which I've never purchased before – so I probably wandered around more than I would have normally. My timing at the register was synced up with a nasty woman who was almost dragging her curious little girl around the store. This mother acted like she was used to having her daughter on a harness and leash, but left it at home this time.

This little girl was adorable, probably no older than 4, she wasn't grabbing things – she just looked at pretty stuff; Beads, colored felt, paints. To me, this is a relatively normal, well behaved child. At the register, the little girl wanted to ask her mom what something was, so she politely tried to get her mothers attention, by quietly saying “mommy, whats that?”

The mom, who had been berating the cashier for five minutes about how little he knew about the store, was clearly irritated by the interruption. Her response to the quiet question was to forcefully grab the little girl by her arm and say “I told you not to interrupt me when I'm talking to real people.”

The cashiers jaw dropped, and the expression on his face was like he was reciting a ten step program - reminding himself it was illegal to beat snobby women in the head with a cash register. I now had the option to defend the cashier from the insults, or defend the little girl who hadn't done anything wrong.

I leaned forward and behind the woman, giving the cashier time to regain logical speech patterns, and said “That wasn't necessary” to the mother. She shot me a look that would have Medusa stone cold, and I smiled at her. When the mothers' attention had gone back to the cashier, I let the little girl show me the packet of colored, shaped foam that she wanted to ask about.

As the mother and daughter combo left, I overheard a much quieter “And you don't have to bother strangers, either” with no physical contact or anything else of the sort. I then apologized to the cashier for not standing up for him, when he said I'd made his day by saying anything at all.

I would call this a good example of creating an early learning handicap. If someone asks a question, and is met with an aggressive or negative response, what are the chances of them asking more questions? What about a small child, picking up and learning about the world around them, being put in their place by impatience? I don't mean to rant, but how can we blame children for the way they turn out, when something is clearly wrong with the development process on the adult level?

Now imagine me, only treating kids like real people.