Rant Time!

This article really burns me up. And then I go do something stupid and read the comments. Now my blood pressure is boiling...

Kids misbehaving in public. It seems so easy to solve, right? Let childless couples decide to ban children from public, because after all, the parents are not doing their job and disciplining their kiddos. Simple on the surface, but there are definitely underlying wars abrewing...

Are their some parents who allow the kids to be unruly in public. Resounding yes! And store owners, restaurateurs, and such need to be able to ask those to leave who are running all over the place and causing screaming fits for upwards of an hour. I am not talking about those parents who remove their child after a fit ensues, because guess what? Kids are unpredictable. If you should not leave the house until you can 100 percent count on them not making a scene, then I know many adults who should stay at home. Thinking road rage, anyone?

There is another extreme that seems to be getting a pass here - the childless by choice couples who haughtily proclaim to every parent in sight their own personal (not by experience!) wisdom of just how to raise everyone else's kid so that these little ones will not interfere with their space. Do you think keeping kids well behaved will satisfy these groups? Well, not entirely, because after all these kids that they do not want to be living with on their planet are daring to breathe THEIR air that should be reserved for them and only them. Well, and maybe for their little dogs which they take to pet manicurists and pet psychologists.

By mere fact that they look up and see a child sitting quietly and eating with a parent utterly offends their world. Oh, they aren't this way, you say? Look at the disgusted looks they shoot the Mom who is sitting in a corner breastfeeding COMPLETELY UNDER A BLANKET. Listen to the time in the store that they see me with my four boys saying not a word, and then comment where my boys can hear "Oh look at all of those boys that she is stuck with! Hate to be her!". What about their crude conversations on the cell phone about their personal life that I quite frankly do no want to hear, and especially don't want my children to overhear. Since when did turning 18 give you a pass on being polite to others in public? But no one mentions these things...

Kid free zones? Go for it! We just won't be patronizing those businesses and that's fine by me! Just make sure that if you hate children that you also do your part and stick to those places as well. Leave the rest of us who want KID-FRIENDLY places alone. Because that is where I will QUITE HAPPILY be...

Sheesh...Self-serving adults who never grew up...


HT: Mark Shea