Is AUTHOR wrong in the post ? POST : First off all, I apologise for my use of the term ‘disabled’. It’s brash, unspecific and general, but I’m afraid I have a severe lack of knowledge on different syndromes and disabilities and I am unable to specify which disorder her daughter lives with. It does not appear to be a physical disability. 

A bit of background: I’m a customer assistant at the local shop where I live. I’ve worked here for over a year, and I’m generally praised for my communication skills with our customers and I often receive positive feedback from customers themselves. I like working there and I like the customers (apart from the odd few, but y’know, retail). 

Our shop is very small and only ever has 2-3 people working a shift at one time. This means we get to know our customers on a reasonably personal level. This woman and her daughter come in to the shop often as they live nearby. They initially made a point of getting to know everyone by name, which I appreciated as it was friendly. But they continued to get closer. The mum will come in with her daughter (who is around 24, and a very sweet girl, but is very attached to her mum and will do anything she says), and will say to her daughter ‘oh look, _____ is working, to give him/her a hug’. This happens very often and not all staff are comfortable with this, particularly some of the males, but we are all often afraid to say no. 

Furthermore, the mum began asking, on her daughters behalf, if we could add her (the daughter) on Facebook/WhatsApp so she could have friends. One of my colleagues felt too awkward to say no and now the daughter messages her 24/7, comments on all of her Facebook posts, and proceeded to find all other social media through her Facebook. She posts statuses saying ‘_____ is my best friend’ and tags my colleague. The mum will also say ‘there’s your best friend’ or even ‘there’s your sister/brother’ to her daughter and point to members of staff, and I even heard her refer to my boss as her daughters dad. This makes the daughter believe she is much closer to the staff than she really is. 

Her mum has begun to walk straight into the office at work, which even the customer assistants are not allowed to do, because she believes her and her daughter are on close terms with our staff. We are all far too uncomfortable to tell her no for fear of discrimination. Her mum is also very touchy with staff, for example, stroked my boss’s beard and told him he needed to shave. The next time they were in, her daughter did the same, because she has obviously seen her mum do this and assumed it was appropriate behaviour.

Today, they came into the shop, and told me they liked my hair. The mum asked me if I could come round to their house for a ‘girls day’ and do her daughters hair. Her daughter became so excited and asked for my phone number to arrange this. The mum said she’d make lunch and take us out afterward. I understand that it just be hard for her that her daughter doesn’t have friends, but this is not the way to help her make them. I very so awkward and under a lot of pressure, that I claimed I was super busy over the next couple weeks. She asked for my number and my rota of shifts so she could see when I’m free, and I finally broke and told her to stop. I said I wasn’t comfortable with her behaviour and that she needed boundaries. 

She was angry and upset and I’ve felt guilty about it since, but she makes me so uncomfortable that I immediately become anxious when they enter the shop.

AITA? 