Acting Childish And Childless

I’m working checkout. A mother parks her stroller beside my register without saying anything and starts to walk off. I naively thought she was just distracted and forgot to grab the kid out.

Me: *Calling after her.* “Ma’am! You… uh… forgot your baby!”

Customer: “Oh, no, I didn’t. He’ll be fine with you until I get back.”

Me: “Uh… no, he won’t, ma’am. I’m a checkout operator, not a babysitter.”

Customer: “It’s really hard to try clothes on with a baby and a stroller!”

Me: “We have larger changing rooms for this exact situation, ma’am.”

Customer: “He cries when I take him in there, and I can never relax enough to see if the clothes look good. He’s better off with you.”

Me: “Ma’am, if you think he’s better off with me, then I think he’s better off with the police. I will call them if you take one more step into the store without your son.”

The customer glares at me as she walks back over to my register, takes her stroller, and starts pushing it into the store.

Customer: “So does [Store] hate single mothers or is it you specifically?!”

She disappeared into the store before I could answer. When she came back through to pay for something, she chose the checkout lane furthest from me.