Chaos at uniform stores as parents turn rowdy

Dubai - They were jostling, shoving, pushing each other in order to get their hands on the required piece of shirt, trouser or tie.

By Nasir Mahmood

Published: Tue 1 Sep 2015, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Tue 1 Sep 2015, 8:32 AM

"Come touch me and see what I will do", said a woman parent in response to another man who had protested against her jumping the queue at a famous outlet that provides uniforms to a number of major schools in Al Qusais.
I witnessed the utter chaos at a shop I had gone to for collecting my son's uniform on Saturday, a day before schools reopened. Complete pandemonium prevailed at the shop, where the shop attendants were far less than the huge crowd gathered to buy school uniforms.
They were jostling, shoving, pushing each other in order to get their hands on the required piece of shirt, trouser or tie. You could see clothes flying from here to there as parents scrambled to get closer to a huge steel container where a huge chunk of unpacked clothes was placed - in all sizes - for parents to sort out the required piece.
To add to the heat, the shop air-conditioning system stopped working and the situation went from bad to worse when a couple of women tried to jump the queue to avoid the wait to make payments.
When one woman tried to squeeze herself in one of the three queues, a man standing in front of me shouted: "I won't let this happen, just follow the rules and get in the line where we have been waiting for hours."
The woman replied: "Just shut up, it's none of your business." To which the man retorted: "Is this what you teach your kids a day before the schools reopen?"
Unable to control his emotions, a hefty teenager accompanying the woman pointed his fist to the man threatening to punch if the latter did not keep quiet. The situation was brought under control after the intervention of two shop attendants.
By this time, the man had gathered many supporters who were shouting to stop another woman who was trying to get close to the counter again after breaking the queue. However, when she reached the counter a guy ran up to the shop attendant and asked him not to accept her payment as she had jumped the queue.
The woman with an air of arrogance looked at the man and said: "You don't know who you are talking to, I am a police officer, okay."
When asked to present her ID, the woman ignored and went ahead to the counter. As she tried to make the payment, the man held out his hand to stop her. Challenging him to stop her she said: "Okay, I am going ahead, come touch me, stop me if you can."
She went ahead and made the payment while the guy was left speechless and silently returned to the queue.
This was all happening in front of school children who were gearing up to start the new school term after the summer break.
I am sure the same scene will be taking place at a number of such outlets in the days to come. How I wish parents would stop behaving like such rowdies. They should not behave like this in front of their children. nasirm@khaleejtimes.com