VA: Out of Control Children are Safety Hazards in Public Places
Aug 2nd, 2007
(24 votes, average: 3.58 out of 5)
Loading ...I was browsing a parenting forum the other day because I’m dumb and I like to torture myself. Anyway, the women were discussing a recent news story where a stewardess […]
Original post: Out of Control Children are Safety Hazards in Public Places
57 stitches, the number of spices in Heinz ketchup.
One thing I absolutely cannot stand and I know eventually it will cause an accident are those damn tennis shoes with wheels in them. I can’t go grocery shopping without having at least one brat not just bump into me but roll face first into my ass. I guess the fact that it is my ass they run into that makes karma such a wonderful thing but nothing feels better than being shoved into the handle of a grocery cart by a 10 year old full speed on wheels. That for one makes me wonder how long til a child rolls into a person holding an infant and the child hits the floor and dies from the out of control offspring. Also aren’t we a fat enough country that we should know it’s not exactly a good idea for our oompa loompa’s to be rolling around during the little bit of exercise they do get while strolling down the sugar ridden cereal aisle?
Having had my clean laundry tipped over by out-of-control children, left to run wild at laundromats, is usually enough to make my blood boil. But once these hellraisers actually cause injuries? Oh, man. And by the way, what the fuck is up with the people who were “disturbed” by their waitress’s appearance? I’d hope that people would have more compassion and sense than to base their dining experience on whether or not their server met their appearance objectives? Christ on a cracker, but people amaze me, sometimes.
Well said, V! My child is 8 now, and he knows that I expect impecable behavior when we’re out in public. He’s also old enough now that if he can’t behave in a public venue, I’ve got no qualms about diciplining him in public. Oh, the critics rave! “You can’t spank your child! That’s Child Abuse! I’m calling CPS! Evil whore!!”
But I’m telling you what, my child knows that I mean business. And has been complimented several hundred times on being such a well-mannered boy.
Parents who don’t dicipline their children in some way are crippling their children for life. They’re denying them life skills that they’re going to need someday to be able to cope and function normally in grown-up society. And that, friends and neighbors, is the real child abuse.
Amen to that. Having worked as a waitress in a restaurant where patrons sometimes brought kids, I fully concur. A restaurant is not a playground. I have nothing against parents having a social life - we had regulars with kids who were just lovely, but it was really irritating to have to keep a rictus grin in place while dealing with someone’s insolent snot of a kid.
I think society should definitely accomodate the needs of mothers with young children but it’s not a one-way street. Being a mother does not give one carte blanche rights over everyone else’s needs or points of view.
I’m okay with mothers in supermarkets being trailed by a crying, snivelling four year old in the middle of a spectacular tantrum. It happens and I actually find it pretty amusing even as I feel sorry for the obviously embarassed mother. But if someone’s kid is running around pulling items off shelves and the mother doesn’t do anything, then she has crossed the line.
A-fucking-men. People who don’t discipline their children correctly don’t deserve to be parents, and far more of a danger to society than many or most full-grown adult criminals - not only because their children are dangerous now, but because not a damn thing will change as they grow up.
I waitressed for a couple of months, and it is quite startling to note the contrast between well mannered children and sugar high gremlins.
Curiously enough, I can recall an instance where two different families were eating at the restaurant. One family had two adorable little blond haired angels. They were sweet and smiled when I asked them what their names where. The littlest boy blushed and told me, “grilled cheese!” The other family blatantly ignored their unkempt 5 year old. Once she realized she wasn’t going to be entertained by Mom and Dad she promptly grabbed the nearest butter knife, hopped off her chair and laid underneath an empty table, her leg splayed out in the aisle as she gnawed viscously at her stolen cutlery.
O.O
My parents never laid a hand on me or my sister once as far as I know. And apart from the occasional (and very rare since our family was never rich and we knew that well) “Please buy me that” tantrum in a toy shop they’ve never had any trouble with either of us in public. And we’re still usually the most behaved and polite among our peers.
Agression has been, is, and always will be the very last resort - when the agressor has either tried everyting else or just doesn’t have the brains to think of anything else. Not just in parenting - in everything.
…The spice seems to come back. This is more like it.
She seemed to suffer from the writers block or something, but again, very good text and on-the-point. Very good refreshment after weird worm postings and rantings specific to some people on the net started to get boring.
Hopefully the spice stays. After the self-pity saga that was pain to read I already thought the spice is back, but it was kinda blended down version.
Now, this kind of thing is more joy to read when she actually makes a point, and more general and stronger one than “if you happen to have a horrible mother who doesn’t allow pets and you want to help a kitty with maggots on its wounds this is what happened to me” -kinda stories.
Better this way, V, keep on dancing for me.
Even if the story is made up, the point is still very valid.
There is no excuse for bad parenting, and keeping your children safe is *your* responsibility.
I work in a supermarket as well, the screaming kids put a smile on my face actually. I don’t mind them at all. The biggest hazard children are the ones that have the shoes with the tiny wheel in the back. They go zipping around, bumping into people, product displays (often heavy ones), and other objects. I haven’t seen one yet, but I’m sure they will cause a serious accident one day.
(I have seen one kid about 13 years old who had exceptional control over his wheel-shoes. I was impressed.)
Right on! A friend of mine in high school had a similar experience. She was carrying a glass coffee pot around to give refills at a country club and tripped over some brat lying under a table with its legs sticking out. My friend tried to avoid falling, but turned to an empty table and dropped the pot, resulting in some nasty burns on her hands and arms. Of course, there was no apology from the “parents.”
The #1 reason that I don’t want to have kids is that I would be forced to interact with other kids’ “parents.”
It’s tough enough for me to go grocery shopping without laying the smack down on some idiot who thinks a trip to the store is a great family outing. Two parents and five kids completely blocking an aisle is not my idea of a good time. If two parents are available to be morons in public, one should stay home with the kids and let the other parent and the rest of us do our business in peace.
Applauding and concurring with the basic premise that parents should and MUST control their children (I’d advise muzzles, leashes and cages but that would probably have social services on my case) ie strap the little buggers down into a shopping cart while shopping or hold them firmly by the hand if too big for the cart and similar in restaurants strap ‘em in the child seats or insist they remain in their seats for the duration of the meal and ACCOMPANY them to the bathroom when needed. That said I have to point out that the child in the airplane case was a 19 month old baby - ie not of an age when you can effectively ‘reason’ them into good behaviour 100% of the time - who was not running about or causing mayhem but was simply repeating parrot fashion his latest phrase “bye bye plane” and the mother short of smothering him couldn’t shut him up. Try it some time, I had my 18 month old nephew loudly announcing “boom boom ratatata” during my great grandmother’s funeral service, he didn’t know it wasn’t appropriate or ‘badly behaved ‘ of him, in that case his mother could and did take him outside so as not to disrupt the proceedings. The mother on the plane didn’t have that option. Other passengers reported he did not prevent them from hearing the safety talk and the only one annoyed by him was the flight attendant herself who decided in her own sweet officious style to overreact and make a big deal out of what was a minor distraction. What if it had been a screaming newborn refusing to be pacified would she have had the mother throw it out the window? Don’t travel with babies and infants? I’m all for baby free flights but while airlines take the money of parents to transport their kids, they also have to expect that occasionally very small ones will make a noise and if that’s a security risk then have the passengers don their headphones and listen to the safety talk through the airplane’s sound system while the attendant does a mime demo as they do on many airlines I’ve travelled on.
There’s a difference between an infant and a toddler, Karen.
Hoooray for the stewardess!
The safety problem is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the kids that stay in their seats but scream and carry on while their parents/sycophants just ignore the commotion? If I’m going to pay good money that I risked carpal tunnel syndrome to earn in order to eat in a restaurant, why should I have to listen to the results of other people’s bad parenting? Should I have to sit there and take it? The same goes for any other public place - airplanes, subways, church, the grocery store, etc.
Everyone knows what the problem is: the manager of the restaurant (or any public space, for that matter) is often deathly afraid of the parents of the little demons making a scene, writing to the owner/district manager, and whatever other nastiness they can think up. This puts a fair amount of pressure on them to just accept the behavior. The problem is that there’s no pressure on the other side; nobody saying, “If you don’t either get those rude parents to control their kids or make them leave, I’m going to stop coming here and encourage all of my friends to do the same.”
What we sanity lovers need is a way to organize. An organization whose displeasure instills fear into restauranteurs everywhere - like the BBB used to be to contractors and stores.
Is there demand for such a thing? Would people bother to contribute to it and stay away from establishments that aren’t peaceful enough?
How funny that VA would have nothing to talk about but the mommy bloggers that irritate her so if she hadn’t plagiarized the majority of her articles.
How hypocritical of her to rant about mommy bloggers using their children for a meal ticket when she can’t even come up with material on her own.
As a Mother of 2 and 2 gr kids to boot, I will say that sometimes being in public makes it difficult to control kids, especially when there are fucking busybodies trying to tell me how to raise and discipline them!
This is the problem, no discipline until the little bastards grow up to be hoodlums and then we let the cops beat the snot out of them!
I can’t tell you the people who have made my life hell for daring to discipline my kids in public. NO I am not even talking about spanking, I am talking about getting in their faces and being firm with them, like when they break free & run out into a busy parking lot, —-some woman had the balls to threaten me with the state for daring to get down in my daughters face and yell at her to never ever do that again!
I threatened to give her my addy so the state can come and yell at me, then I would hunt her down for calling them!
As a former Retail worker and waitress I will tell you the number of kids “left” to do their own thing is NUTS!
Parents dropping their kids in the toy dept while shopping in the rear of the store and then wondering why their kids are missing?
I HAVE SEEN IT !
OOOOH I hate those wheelies shoes too….. The Lil Bastards whizzing by me in the stores with them on… I try to see if I can make them fall…. Hahahahahaha…. J/K.
But I have had an argument with my daughter who let my 8 yr old gr.son roll around our kitchen with them on…. She didn’t seem to have a problem with them. I told her skateboards and roller skates outside with the bikes… WHere The Fuck Was she raised?
She let him where them in wally world once he slipped and ended up rolling into a rack…. He don’t where them no more!!!!!!!