Ooooh Baby!

Well, we just got back from Disney. Every trip to Disney is always a reminder to me of why I dislike so many parents. It’s because there are so few of them. There are plenty of procreators – those people who have children without thought as to whether or not they actually have the mental and ethical capacity to then raise said children. You see a PARENT is one who actively parents the children they have. A parent molds the behavior and thoughts on their child’s “tabula rasa.”

There is no watching of children. There was a young boy of about 7-9 years of age running through Epcot yelling for his mother. He then stopped the boy walking in front of us who was approximately 8-10 years of age and said, “I can’t find mom.” The older boy merely shrugged. Neither seemed particularly disturbed. Do you think that, possibly, mom would consider suing Disney if her unattended-by-their-parent-children were to… say, trip and hurt themselves? Nah! She’d blame herself for not watching her kids that she so lovingly brought into this world. Right? You don’t think so? Me either!!

Then there is the extreme swing the other way. Seven year olds still being pushed in strollers. Girls as old as 12 coming out of the Bibity Bobity Boutique all princessified. And, my personal favorite, boys as old as 9… NINE… going into the ladies room with their mothers. no, No, NO!!! I don’t think so! Are you kidding me?? Please just kill me! Now, mind you, if any of these kids looked like they had special needs, I would not be so unremitting in my assessment. They all spoke properly and adequately for their age. They all walked and moved as well as I do. The “parents” are just creating large babies for their own personal need to feel needed. God forbid we create any form of independence.

Now, it might seem as though I’m making two dichotomous statements. In fact, I’m saying the same thing. The vast majority of “parents” are LAZY. They don’t want to think about what the appropriate amount of any behavior is. So, they just err on the side of what they think is caution and go to one extreme or the other. People either treat their children as small adults assuming they will know how to behave magically with little to no supervision of the child’s behavior, attitude or manners. When was the last time a kid – who was obviously old enough to know - said, “Excuse me” as he/she ploughed into you? When was the last time you saw a parent correct a child – who was obviously not old enough to know – before or after that child ploughed into you? OR People treat their children as endless babies who are never responsible for anything. They don’t actually teach them anything because they do everything for the child. All the kid learns is that adults are supposed to be there at their beck and call.

Now, I KNOW it’s not easy raising kids these days. I don’t need to have my own children to know that. I get it. All I’m saying is to use a little discretion before, during and after having the little buggers. If you do, your children will follow suit and then it will be a much better world to live in. It’s not about closing borders or opening them. It’s not about tax hikes or breaks. It’s not about the Dow going up or down. Making the world a better place is merely about realizing that it’s not all about you. It’s about knowing that you’re not here in a vacuum. Two-sides to every coin. Pros & cons and all that. Shouldn’t that be the biggest lesson we learn from being part of a family?

Finally, I’ll leave you with the best familial interchange I saw while at Disney. Ironically, it was on my last day there. Hubby and I were going for breakfast at one of the restaurants on Boardwalk. There was a family in front of us in line – mother, father and two children. The restaurant has a wall of bookcases that have bottles of wine stacked on the shelves. The little boy – who couldn’t have been more than 4 – toddles over to the bookcases and is, silently, looking at the bottles and reaching up for them. This, in and of itself, did not seem too out of the ordinary. Little kids like to touch things. It was the following comment that made me realize what was really going on. The father turns to his son and, in his best Bubba-esque drawl, says,

“Oh no buddy. That’s not beer. That there’s wine.”

Yep! Father of the year right there.