In The Current Day and Age, Was This Retail Employee Wrong to Refuse to Hold A Customer’s Baby?

In the best of times, people have varying degrees of comfort with children they did not birth.

Some people adore kids, and want to hold every single one who will let them, and others want nothing to do with kids or babies, no matter how cute, for valid reasons of their own.

This OP on Reddit’s Am I The A$shole works in retail, and with the current health crisis, is required to follow customers around and disinfect any surfaces they touch.

A single mother with two young children came in looking for a dryer, and wanted to check out the floor models before making any decisions.

Fine.

What wasn’t fine was that she kept trying to hand her baby off to the employee while she looked, but the person really didn’t want to hold the kid.

She demanded to speak with the manager, who agreed with her.

Both the manager and their co-workers agreed the employee should have just held the baby and been more sympathetic to the woman’s plight.

The people on Reddit were much more inclined to take the side of the poster, for some very valid reasons.

Also, there are liability concerns!

This person suggested that maybe the manager could hold the baby, since he or she was so into it.

And this mom pointed out that woman had plenty of options that would have been safer and more considerate.

Bottom line: people’s preferences should be respected.

I agree with the commenters, and if the salesperson was polite, don’t see the issue.

What about you? Sound off down in the comments!