Bookshops: Don't treat us like babysitters
By Wayne Thompson in New Zealand Herald
 Wednesday Apr 7, 2010

Photo / Gisborne Herald

A children's bookshop is working with security staff of a nearby tavern and casino over the growing problem of parents leaving children to read while they gamble.
"If a child becomes distressed we will find out where the parent is and return the child to them," said Mary Sangster, who is office manager of The Children's Bookshop Christchurch, which also owns Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop in Ponsonby, Auckland.
"We work with security people where kids have been left in the shop.
"We will do our utmost for it not to happen because we are not a baby-sitting service."
The stores have a playpen and a train table.
"So children are left playing while they whip out next door or to the hairdresser, bank or the post office. We have seen them come in and say 'you just play here and I'll be back in a minute'.
"Our primary concern is for the good of the child; it's illegal to leave a child unsupervised and we would have liability if anything happens to the child."
Some Auckland booksellers contacted yesterday agreed with a complaint in the Side Swipe column in Monday's Herald from a worker at a suburban mall bookshop, who had found children as young as 4 or 5 years old left in the store, on their own.
Full story at NZH.