Reddit Entitled Parents

EM thinks we're a daycare. Welp, her child is now gone

I used to work in a small chain of Bookstores/Stationery shops. We'd sell books, pens, paper and so on. It was a quirky little store, straight out of a romantic love novella (or a Stephen King book, if you prefer).

This happened a few years ago and I reconstruct it from my memory. While trying to be as accurate as possible I can't guarantee it.

The cast of this play:

EM: Entitled Mother

LG: a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation little girl

Me: a virtue example of a working class hero just me

ND: Nice dad (of little girl)

The Story:

EM walks into the store with LG. It's rather early in the morning. EM looks around, asks me if I could watch her child.

Me: "Oh no, I'm terrible with children, sorry"

EM tells me that it's not for that long and I shouldn't be such a fuss about it. I still politely refuse. It's not my job to watch children, I'm afraid to do something wrong. What happens? EM leaves the store, who do I find hidden in the corner? LG who seems to be rather shy/fearful.

This happened back in a time before everyone had smartphones. The kid obviously didn't had a mobile on it, I suspected the mother also wouldn't. Wasn't to surprised that LG didn't knew the number of their landline. I sigh. What are you gonna do? If something happens to that kid while being in the store and you being the only present employee you're gonna have a bad time.

Me: "Hey girl, what's your name?"

LG: "(her name)"

Me: "I'm (my name and surname)"

LG, happy like only kids can be if they think they did something smart or they knew something: "My surname is (surname)."

Now this rang a bell. I had a good customer with the same surname. It turns out that it's her dad. I didn't get paid enough to babysit. In fact I didn't even got paid enough to do my normal work. I call her dad at his workplace since we saved that number in our system. The call went along those lines:

Me: "Hi ND, here's Me from bookstore XY"

ND: "Oh hi (me), how's it going? I don't remember having any open orders."

Me: "Yeah, erm, look, listen, do you have a daughter?"

ND, confused: "Yes why do you ask?"

Me: "What's her name?" (I just wanted to ensure its really her dad and not just a stupid coincidence. If I think now about it, LG told me its her dad, so I don't know why I wasn't sure)

ND apologizes for EMs behavior and tells me he's gonna pick LG up as soon as possible.

While waiting for ND I picked up one of our sale-books (box with damaged books that we try to sell with huge discount before throwing away), a picture book from Disney. LG tries to read a little, I read a little.

ND arrives, LG runs to him and hugs him, crying that mommy was mean to her. ND soothes her and thanks me for babysitting her. He gives me a bottle of wine and buys something small from the store.

ND: "If EM shows up again, could you not tell her that I picked up LG?"

Me: "What. Why?"

ND: "If you don't feel like it you don't need to. It's rather complicated and you already did so much for us"

ND leaves. In the evening EM shows up. Just to point out – she dropped LG at about 09:00. It was 17:45.

EM: "Where's my daughter?"

Me, already chugged about half the bottle of wine and thus a little boozed: "Your WHAT?"

EM: "My daughter. I dropped her in this store and you were here."

Me, way to drunk for work (but already decided to go for another job or homeless, both would have been better): "YOUR WHAT?"

EM was on the edge. Thus I did what I thought was the smartest thing to do:

Me: "A guy came into the store and picked her up. He seemed nice. Gave me some wine for her"

At this point I expected her to explode/attack me, but she just left the store.

A few weeks pass and ND and LG come to the store. Both happy to see me. ND asks me If I got a few minutes. An excuse not to work? Obviously I took the time for...customer service. Gave LG the same book we've read the last time and had a talk with ND.

EM and ND where in the middle of a divorce when EM dropped LG at our store. One of the reasons ND wanted a divorce was that EM "wasn't nice" to LG. Now in my country as a male it's rather hard to get custody for your child. No matter what. LG wanted to be with ND but that doesn't matters. EM dropping LG in our store was a gift of the heavens. ND took LG to his sister over night, EM pretended that LG was sleeping at one of her friends. ND wanted to call them just to ensure that LG is fine. EM didn't wanted that. LG friend didn't knew where LG is. EM claimed she dropped LG at LGs friend. ND faked panic and involved the police. EM insisted that LGs friend kidnapped LG. Police asked ND and EM separately and ND told the police what happened. EM still insisted on her dropping LG at LGs friend. ND had proof of it being otherwise since he already called the police when he dropped LG at his sisters house.

Now in court ND apparently said something like "EM can have all she want, even my wine collection. I just want to be with my daughter." EM, knowing that ND didn't had any money left and had some quite expensive wines agreed. Daughter ended up with ND, mother paying alimony. What EM didn't knew: ND was replacing his wine collection before the divorce with the cheapest wines he could find at different discounters, gifting away the expensive ones. He knew that EM either is gonna take everything from him or will break his wine collection.

We both laugh, I gifted the book to LG who seemed very happy. When EM dropped her she was shy, seemed small and now she had such a big smile on her face and was curious for everything. She could read much better than a few weeks ago. She seemed like a bird taking of to fly towards the sun.

- u/ProfessionalDish