OT - Dear Parents

Wow.  At least these kids weren't standing on my table!  I can't believe parents wouldn't address that. Besides the fact that it's terribly rude to let your kids disturb other customers that way, wouldn't you think it was your job as a parent to teach your child how to behave in public?

As a parent, I have to put in my two cents. I have a 15 month old daughter. I'm 35 and have more patience with her than I ever could've imagined. All that being said, she knows that when mommy says no, no means no. She knows when we're out that if she acts out we leave, period. No toys no kisses. I don't have a perfect child and don't kid myself thinking it. What I did have were parents who set a shining example for me. Kelly, I really feel for you. That was poor parenting on their part. I hate it when I go somewhere like that and there are distractions. I choose not to take mine there until she's able to not get squirmy and fussy in the time I need. To the furbaby momma. Don't be too hard on the ones you're watching...you never know what else has happened that day. Sometimes a kind word or smile for a stressed momma is the difference in a hug or harsh word for her child. We can all benefit from that.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

They dont make enough hand sanitizer for me to have even considered taking my kids to those kinds of places.

Kelly you are so right.  I am in the field of early childhood education.  There are exceptions but most of the time the child is not to blame, it is the parents fault for not teaching the children manners.  Maybe they do not like diciplining their children, but they are only hurting the child when they do not teach them right from wrong. 

Something scary is, if parents aren't teaching their preschoolers manners, what are those kinds gonna be like in ten years?  Some of them may be lucky enough to just pick up on what is considered appropriate and what's not by watching others around then, but not all kids can do that.  Many kids need to be taught social skills and manners and all that stuff.  People will be much less tolerant of their bad manners when they are teenagers, but how are they supposed to learn?  And it's not really that hard to tell a kid, "We're in a restaurant now so we need to use a quiet voice" or "We don't climb on tables in a restaurant" or "We don't put our feet on the chairs because we don't want to get them dirty."

Maybe it's me....but i have ZERO tolerence for that kind of foolishness....and usually its the parents that my tolerence drops so low for.  My blood starts to BOIL when parents ignore thier kids in public...espically if the kid is having a tanturm.  Take them outside, talk to them, calm them down...dayum it do SOMETHING.  Just don't sit there with this zen expession on your face while your kid makes my day/outting miserable!!  Cause PLEASE believe it i have no problem asking you to take your kid outside or something.

When I first brought my new house about 2 years ago, I was without a washer/dryer for a few months.  It wasn't a big deal to me...i wanted these uber expensive washer/dryers with a steam feature and I didn't want to put it on my credit card or finance it so I saved for a while for them....but that ment trips to the laundry mat.  OMG....I SWEAR the dredges of society and thier bad assed kids from hell frequent those places.  Kids running around knocking peoples laundry over, trying to play tag INSIDE, screaming babies....every 3 weeks it was a testiment to my patience and the power of noise canceling earphones.

My final straw was when these 10-12 year old boys were tossing a football around INSIDE the building.  The attendant had asked the boys to stop 2-3 times...the mother either was ignoring them or was too busy on the phone THE ENTIRE TIME.  They proceeded to knock over 1/2 my clean laundry onto the drity ass floor.  I proceeded to march them over to thier mother, with the football in my hand and demanded that she give me the money to rewash the clothes (I was NOT about to put on underwear that had fallen on the dirty laundrymat floor).  I think it shocked her that anyone dared to say anything to her or her children about thier behavior.  I point blank asked her "Do you let them throw a football around inside YOUR HOUSE...then why would you ignore them doing it here where they can hurt themselves or knock over one of these elderly people here?"  My thing is...what if one of these kids had slipped and fallen and hit thier head on a machine?!?!?  Oh wait...I know what would have happened...she would have tried to sue the laundrymat for a "wet floor" sign or something...*sigh*

After that incident, I went to best buy the NEXT DAY and brought a washer and dryer.  The hell with a steam feature...I just wanted clean clothes without having to listen to screaming babies as the sound track to doing laundry at that point.