So I'm at work the other day and...
... this little kid comes up and puts a copy of GTA Vice City on the counter and gives me this sweet look with his big brown eyes. There's a lady right behind him who looks like she could be his mother, so I start ringing it up. I look over at her, and tell her the total, and she looks at me confused.
"You're not with him?" I say pointing to the wee tot. She shakes her head. I cancel the sale, and tell the boy he needs to bring his mom or dad over before I'll sell him the game. He wonders off; looking disappointed but not surprised. I sell M rated games to kids all the time, but only if they have they have a parent or guardian present
The woman in line commends me for what I did, and then launches into a tirade about how "they" have proved that video games cause ADD. "It's the flashing lights" She concludes. This isn't the time to play dueling studies and debate the validity of electronic media. I notice she is buying a kid's cartoon, but decide it would be imprudent to point out television's effect on children's attention spans, or the fact that there are members of my family with ADD diagnosis that have never played a video game in their life. That's called being polite and professional. It's also called, not getting into a heated argument with a customer with my manager standing four feet away.