Do You Let Your Kids Ride on the Wood Carts at Home Depot?

only if I can run and push and jump on it and spin around first=) i love rding carts down asiles, if i say no to her I cant either=)

I have let my son ride on the Home Depot carts. We make him get off when we're loading wood on it.
My mom always let me use sharp scissors at home, even though we still had to use safety scissors at school. I've carried on that tradition by trusting my son to use a hammer and real scissors by age 4, a glue gun and sewing machine around age 5, and a drill and dremel tool at age 6. But at age 9, I still won't let him ride a skateboard or go to a sleepover.

I follow reasonable rules. I don't follow rules that were put there because the stores consulted their lawyers and the lawyers said put this rule on the carts.

I also don't follow stupid rules. Example: Maryland had a law (rule) that said if a motorized vehicle approached an intersection, a boy of at least 16 years had to go to the intersection and wave a pole at least 10 feet long with a red banner attached to the pole and yell "horseless carriage coming" before the motorized vehicle could pass through the intersection. The rule was finally taken off the books in the 1970's. Missouri had a law (rule) on the books where they put a bounty on cougars, coyotes, and Mormons. No, I didn't turn in any of my mormon friends for the bounty.

Ever use a Q-Tip in one of your ears. Q-Tip's rules says a Q-Tip is NOT to be inserted in the ear canal.

I follow the rules that make sense. The old saying is, "Rules are for monkeys. Guidelines are for managers." I've always been a manager.

Good luck to you and yours.

Nope, because I wanted our daughter to follow my rules. If I let her break rules in a business, why would she follow my rules?

Keep in mind, when we complain about the cost of things.. part of the price includes the legal fees and settlements they have had to settle, because of innocent, letting our kids ride the incorrect ways in baskets, flatbeds.. climbing on fixtures.. etc..

Be part of the solution.. not part of the problem.

No. While the kids are this young (3 under 5), I try to pretend all rules are super literal, and if it's not allowed it's not allowed. When they're older I'll loosen up and let them rely more on judgment, but I usually feel any rule is a good opportunity to learn impulse control for them-even when it pertains to super fun wood carts :) We do other lots of fun stuff that is allowed though. Plus, at our Home Depot, the staff yells at people for that. They don't want to get sued when little johnnie splits a lip on their cement floor nose diving off a cart.

Nope...

There's a reason that sign is on there. Most likely a child has gotten hurt while riding and/or they've been sued as a result.

In any event, I do my best to be consistent with enforcing that rules must be followed, whether or not we agree with them. I think it's a bit confusing to allow them to do something like that, which they clearly not supposed to do, but then punish them for not following rules at home.

Everyone has their own ideas of what a "stupid" rule is, so I wouldn't be surprised when some of your kids decide not to follow YOUR own "stupid" rules, because you decided "stupid" rules didn't need to be followed.

I didn't - knowing my kids, they would have gotten hurt.

I just gotta make a comment about the Q-tips, S.! The Q-tip people will tell you that they are supposed to be used behind the ear and around the outer folds of the ear. That's why they say not to use the Q-tip for inside the ear canal. I know people do that, and I have done it too. But I learned the HARD, HARD way, WHY the Q-tip people put that statement on their box! It was the last time I ever did it too. I was trying to gently clean my ear canal out, like I had before, but this time I ended up pushing wax under and into my ear drum. I didn't dig either - I was careful! I tore the inside of my ear canal in the process - the wax must have been a little hard or had an "edge" to it.

Not only could I not hear, it hurt so bad that I was desperate to get help. I went twice to an ENT who cleaned out my ear and gave me antibiotic drops for the canal damage. It still hurt like you know what, and I still couldn't hear. I got into a different ENT and she is the one who found it under the eardrum. She got that cleaned out and finally, I could hear and the pain went away.

I will never ever put another Q-tip in my ear again. There is a reason why the doctors quip "Never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear."
They are right!!!

Sorry to digress from your question, but if I can keep ONE person from suffering like I did, it's worth telling here!

Dawn

uuuummm no. they can push it but not ride on it...

I wasn't allowed to do it when I was a kid either. So it doesn't make it right.

So if your kid falls off and gets hurt - who are you going to blame? Are you going to be the family who went to McDonald's and scalded herself when she dropped her hot coffee on herself?

Guess it boils down to personal accountability.

No! I worked in sales for many years and have seen alot of kids get hurt just riding in regular shopping carts. I would never let them ride the flatbed cart.

I allow my child to ride them... I don't follow rules just because it's a rule. I usually feel there need to be a reason for something... if I don't see the reason, I don't usually follow it.

My goodness, there are SO many things I did as a kid that I would NEVER let my kids do...and I guess I would never use "well, I did it as a kid and I'M still alive and well" as a reason to let my kids do stuff if it wasn't allowed. Yeah, I'm a rule follower (the q-tip thing? I don't consider that a "rule", more like a ridiculous suggestion). The cart thing at Home Depot, well, I probably wouldn't let my kids ride it because I wouldn't want them to think of Home Depot as a place to play and those sorts of things as toys and playthings (I put the cart into the same category as most of the stuff they sell - definitely not kids' toys, right?). So even if there WASN'T a sticker posted on the cart, I STILL wouldn't let them ride it, it seems like common sense safety to me...

of course but rules are guides, they are just warning you not to do it so they dont have to pay a lawsuit later if your child was to fall off and get hurt or die. I let my kids on there as well occasionally. I just saw a family at Sam's club letting there little 2 - 3 year old jump on the brand new twin mattress they purchased and it was on there cart. They looked like up-scale, decent parents but there kid was jumping like a wild monkey all over it and they were pushing it at the same time. THAT I wouldnt do but its there choice I say. I let my kids ride the side and bottom of the shopping carts at the grocery all the time even though i read about injures. I think kids cant be kept in bubble wrap all there lives, how else will they learn and enjoy?

Yes I do. I've let my now 9-year-old daughter break silly rules her whole life. I break silly rules, too. Part of my intent is to teach her the difference between valid rules and the ridiculous. I also feel it's necessary to teach her that I trust her to "be careful" and use her own judgment when I'm not around.

I will not S. anyone for something that was my decision and my fault.

The "McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit" is one of the most misunderstood lawsuits ever. There are two reasons that the suit resulted in such a high $$ punishment for the company. One: The elderly woman suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns in her crotch area that required skin grafts. (Do you know anyone who has been burned to this degree and had this treatment? I do, and it is horrendously painful.) Two: McDonalds had been warned multiple times previously by the courts because of other lawsuits involving burns to reduce the ridiculously high temp of their coffee and they ignored these warnings. It took this suit for the company to change their policy which, I hope, has prevented others from severe pain.

If I am on my own, buying wood with my two kids - i.e I can't push a regular cart or stroller, and carry a squirming toddler, while pushing 200 lbs of wood - then yes my kids ride on the wood cart!
Truck beds, no way - I watched my friends little boy lean out while a truck was moving and fall on his head.

I let my kids eat things they drop on the floor.
I let them climb up slides
I let them drink a bit of wine with their meal.
I let them run outside naked (we live way out)

Yep done it a few times though I have had them sit right by the handles and hold those. They don't do it anymore since they are too old. But I have had to do a lot of things on my own since my husband is enlisted. With two kids in tow who miss their dad at times when mom is doing stuff dad normally did I would do something like let them ride on those carts or other bending of the rules to ease their mood or give the trip/errand a special mom feel to it.
If something had happened well I would have sucked it up and admitted it was my error for not following the rule. But so far no problems and my kids actually follow rules better than I do.

I let them ride and we get looks. I can't help thinking that I wouldn't mind riding one so I can see the temptation! I don't let them ride once anything is on the cart (to avoid it sliding and hitting them or knocking them off). That said, I do spend the entire time saying "hold on tightly...hold on tightly...no seriously, hold on tightly..." On a more serious note, I did just hear about a baby that fell when a clerk was pushing a grocery cart over a speed bump in the parking lot. He did not survive the fall. How awful for all. Perhaps I will rethink my stance on the wood carts. Sigh... I feel like there's nothing fun left for kids to do. No wonder they are all trapped inside playing video games.

I would not let them do that, but my DH would. I'm a safety monitor and rule follower. He isn't as uptight as I am, but I trust he wouldn't put them in any serious danger. And no question if we need wood from Home Depot, he is the one who is going to be there selecting it. He's just going to have to also be the one facing the cranky Home Depot employee who scolds him to not let the kids ride in the cart.

My parents spent a lot of time at Home Depot when I was a kid (they were around in the 80's in FL).
We often rode the wood cart. The kind that teeters back and forth.
We are all still alive and well (my brothers and I).
I agree it is CYA for HD.

Would I let my own kids? IDK. They tend to go from 0 to 50 in a matter of seconds. And my DD seems to lack common sense of any sort...

I know I do plenty of things other moms probably wouldn't approve of...but I'm drawing a blank right now. ;)

Heavens, yes! It's a big flat bed, my children know to sit their butts down or they're off, it's about 10 inches high, and I'm pushing it at about 1 mph. Good grief! As strict as I am, and as paranoid about safety as I am, THIS is the least of my worries.

The only time I would say no to it would be if the children were under three. Other than that, as long as they follow MY rules (number one, you remain seated or you're off - no second chances; number two, you sit in the middle of the cart) then I say 'go for it!'.

I let my kids ride in the back of truck beds.

Im sure I will think of more to add if I think about it... but that was the first thing that popped in my head