I'm going to get straight to the point of this post... because people are ridiculous. And some people should not be allowed to have children.
A couple of months ago, this taller, middle-aged gentleman was sitting in the kids' area with his daughter who was about 3, and a baby in a baby carrier. He was well-dressed and groomed (unlike many patrons of our library), but also looked harried and uncomfortable. As I shelved, I was coming up with potential life stories for him. I kind of felt sorry for the guy because he just couldn't seem to handle his kids, and I thought maybe he was a single dad, or he just had them for the weekend or something.
Then he and the baby carrier baby disappeared, and his 3 year old was just hanging out at a kid computer by herself. I figured he had gone somewhere else in the library (parents do that all the time, they go get on an adult computer or spread out at a table somewhere), so I didn't really think much of it. A few minutes later, I noticed she was looking around for him. Then she came up to me and asked me to help find her Daddy.
I nodded and she took my hand and we started walking around the library. He wasn't anywhere.
I told her to go sit back down at the computer and that I would find him for her. On my way to find my supervisor (S) for her help, I saw that dad was out in the parking lot, on the phone and smoking a cigarette. I told S the situation, and where the dad was, and she marched right out into the parking lot to get him.
When he came back into the library, he went pretty leisurely over to the kiddie computers, and I heard him say to his daughter, "I told you I was going out to feed your sister." Seriously, guy? She's THREE. You don't leave your 3 year old in a public space alone so you can go have a smoke and take a phone call AND use the excuse that you're feeding the baby.
So. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I come out from the back of the library, and a couple of my co-workers are at the help desk talking about some sketchy guy in the library. I turn around to see who they're talking about, and it's the dad, so I throw in my experience with him. Which isn't unique it seems like (he brought the baby carrier to the desk once and asked if the librarians could watch his kid... WHO DOES THAT) He apparently has three adorable children, and a wife. One of his daughters, she's about 2 perhaps, was wearing sock-monkey footie pajamas and had been running around all happy-like, like happy 2-year-olds do.
A few minutes later, we're at the desk, and we see happy 2-year-old run across the front of the library and out the doors into the parking lot. I start to go after her, as does another one of my co-workers, and we look around for Mr. Clueless. He's glancing around for her, and I look at him and inform him that "She just ran out the door" with a little louder than library level voice, and a point towards the doors. He uttered a curse word to himself and ran out the door.
My angry co-worker by this time had grabbed a sheet with our child supervision policy that says children must remain within sight and hearing distance of their parent/guardian at all times. She walked up to him as he walked inside and he made some comment about her (the kid) being fast and she escaped before he noticed. She held up the piece of paper and tried to hand it to him. He shrugged her off and laughed, so she replied, "You need to take this and read it." And that was that.
A few days later, one of our volunteers came into the back looking worried and troubled. She spoke to one of my co-workers, and I found out that some library patron had said lewd things to her while she was shelving and that he was basically following her around. And I bet you can guess who it was.
And that, my dear readers, is why he wins the Tool of the Year Award.
