Hate/Want
Day 8
Hate
Parents who are oblivious to what their children are doing. Especially in a public space.
Now, I understand parenting is a full time job. I do. I know it's difficult to be in charge of a tiny human being with no sense of responsibility. I know that you have become numb to a great many things that your child can (and frequently does) do.
However, the rest of us have not, in fact, developed this same numbness. When your child is running around the indoor space shrieking at the top of his/her tiny little lungs and you just sit there and continue to do whatever it is you were doing (talking on your cell phone, eating, chatting with other parents who are likewise ignoring their children, smoking, fixing your hair...) as though nothing was happening, it makes us want to take matters into our own hands. Which we are frankly not allowed to do. Here's a thought, you don't want us to be mean to or yell at your kids? Fine, then don't give me a reason to.
Examples of behavior I would like to see parents attending to.
- shrieking randomly and frequently
- knocking things over (chairs, displays, items on shelves)
- Running around in a area designed for people to walk through in a manner that would suggest they are totally blind (the child, not the people) but in a REALLY big hurry
- banging on windows (and somehow leaving a disproportionate amount of hand smears on the window)
- staring at me (True story, a little boy, about 4 was staring at me while I ate lunch. I ignored him for a bit, and when that didn't work I set my food down and stared back at him with a totally blank expression. He started screaming and crying. Then his mother yelled at me for scaring her child. How is this my fault? I wanted to say "He started it!")
Ugh. Drives me crazy. And I'm not saying I was a perfect child. But when I wasn't, in a public space, my parents did something about it.
Want
I want to be able to understand subtext better. I'm not sure if it's a side effect from being such a forthright and ernest person myself or what...but I have a really hard time descerning what is going unspoken most of the time. I know people who can listen to an entire conversation and know with relative certinty that Person A is lying about last tuesday and Person B is anxious and didn't really mean it when they said X, Y and Z.
I'm not saying we all do that, but I'm really quite bad at it. It's a skill I've had very little luck in developing over the years.
Hate
Parents who are oblivious to what their children are doing. Especially in a public space.
Now, I understand parenting is a full time job. I do. I know it's difficult to be in charge of a tiny human being with no sense of responsibility. I know that you have become numb to a great many things that your child can (and frequently does) do.
However, the rest of us have not, in fact, developed this same numbness. When your child is running around the indoor space shrieking at the top of his/her tiny little lungs and you just sit there and continue to do whatever it is you were doing (talking on your cell phone, eating, chatting with other parents who are likewise ignoring their children, smoking, fixing your hair...) as though nothing was happening, it makes us want to take matters into our own hands. Which we are frankly not allowed to do. Here's a thought, you don't want us to be mean to or yell at your kids? Fine, then don't give me a reason to.
Examples of behavior I would like to see parents attending to.
- shrieking randomly and frequently
- knocking things over (chairs, displays, items on shelves)
- Running around in a area designed for people to walk through in a manner that would suggest they are totally blind (the child, not the people) but in a REALLY big hurry
- banging on windows (and somehow leaving a disproportionate amount of hand smears on the window)
- staring at me (True story, a little boy, about 4 was staring at me while I ate lunch. I ignored him for a bit, and when that didn't work I set my food down and stared back at him with a totally blank expression. He started screaming and crying. Then his mother yelled at me for scaring her child. How is this my fault? I wanted to say "He started it!")
Ugh. Drives me crazy. And I'm not saying I was a perfect child. But when I wasn't, in a public space, my parents did something about it.
Want
I want to be able to understand subtext better. I'm not sure if it's a side effect from being such a forthright and ernest person myself or what...but I have a really hard time descerning what is going unspoken most of the time. I know people who can listen to an entire conversation and know with relative certinty that Person A is lying about last tuesday and Person B is anxious and didn't really mean it when they said X, Y and Z.
I'm not saying we all do that, but I'm really quite bad at it. It's a skill I've had very little luck in developing over the years.