Yes they should, unless the child is of an age where they can work to reimburse the store themselves. If you're too stupid to discipline your child like OP, that's your fault. The store should not have to suck up the loss on a ton of stuff because your child is a brat and you don't want to take any personal responsibility for their actions and the consequences of letting them run rampant in a public location. If your kid destroys stuff in stores, leave them at home, discipline them, or learn to suffer the consequences of their bad behavior. That's the JOB of a parent. It's too bad people don't seem to realize there's any personal responsibility on their part in raising a child anymore.

Yes, stores should make the parents pay for toys their children have opened, items they have knocked off the shelf and broken or anything they've put their dirty hands on and ruined, like clothes. If the parents can't control their children in a public place, like a store, I shouldn't be expected to pay extra because your kid is ruining merchandise and making it unsellable. In this case, the mom shouldn't have given the kid the toy. Take it away, throw it out, donate it to charity. Whatever, just don't let you child have it.

Not true. I work at Meijer and if anything gets damaged we can send the product back for a full refund

You're right peanutbutter. You almost definitely would have gotten yelled at. I was in teh food court at a mall one day eating, and watched a toddler walk out of hte mall into the parking lot, and since no one was there I went to pick him up. Of course when I walked back in carrying the baby the mother got up from her seat to yell at me about touching other peoples kids.

I would have yelled at her right back for not watching her kid in a MALL, one of the easiest places to lose a child in. I hope that's what you did.

Nope. I don't like making a scene. I seen more than one parent just as bad as that, but at least this time the child didn't get hurt/punished for something. I've watched mothers knock thier children down and laugh. That child just cried and said he hurt his leg. I've watched a father smash the cell phone that his daughter just bought that she paid the bill for herself, because he said her ring tone was obnoxious. This one was rather loud and an intense shouting match followed. I've watched mothers leave crying infants unattended in a stroller for 45 minutes. So this time i was yelled at and got the evil eye for a while, but it was worth it because the baby was fine.

Yelled at or not, you did the right thing. That child could have been injured or worse.

Wow, where the hell do you live? I've never seen things that intense, but maybe that's because I live in a moderate-sized town where if a parent did that they'd be chewed out for it. I respect you for holding back, but I guess I was just raised to say something when I see someone being a prick. But that's what I get for having a dad who was raised on L.A. streets. Adults there are sooooo much worse than here in Nor Cal.

if your on about positve reinforcment then yes i have heard of it but it doesnt work the same way on children unfortunatly. No matter how much rewards they get for good things they will still act out. Thats what kids do

Pavlov? The name rings a bell...

Pavlov's Dogs is CLASSICAL CONDITIONING. You need to use OPERANT CONDITIONING.

haha good old grade 12 psychology!

Nope, negative reinforcement also has the effect of reinforcing, not stopping the behavior. The only difference is that rather than rewarding good behavior with a positive stimulus, you reward the good behavior with removing a negative stimulus. What you mean to say is punishment. If you're not sure what things are about, don't come telling others how to raise their kids (and making a fool of yourself in the process.)

Let's see. A car is thousands of dollars and a window is hundreds of dollars. You could break all of them to make mommy cave in and it wouldn't equal the cost of the car. Well, maybe it would on your car.

Oh it must be so cool to be you, and to never have made a single mistake in your entire life.

This woman made the same mistake twice in one day. She didn't learn from her mistakes and I think THAT is what #18 has a problem with.

Have to agree with Flounder, that's a pretty stupid mistake.

She doesn't have to have actually removed it, just damaged the packaging enough that the store insists on being reimbursed.

Make her BURN it