Let the children have their way

Everyone who comes from the shallow end of the gene pool should automatically be enrolled in Parenting 101.

I am well aware of the fact that I don't have any children. But I do have common sense. And frankly, just because you pop out a couple of youngins does not automatically qualify you for membership in the Common Sense Club (it's a very exclusive organization, and the name trademark is pending).

Case in point:

Last night RM and I decided to hit up a local ice cream establishment for a chocolate-dipped cone. It was 10:30 at night, and the weather was pretty dang cold, so it seemed like a perfect time to have ice cream.

Upon entering the establishment, we were greeted with some screeching. Apparently, after Greek Fest was over for the night, every parent with a child under the age of eight decided that it would be a fabulous idea to take said children out for ice cream. With chocolate. And candy. Brilliant.

I decided to ignore my instincts and agreed to stay there to enjoy my ice cream. I thought I'd give the "parents" (I use this term loosely, because there wasn't a whole lot of real parenting going on) the benefit of the doubt and trust them to ensure their children behaved accordingly in a public place.

You know, you're supposed to trust your instincts for a reason.

Of course, yet again, these "parents" let me down. The children were so wound up that they were running (we're talking marathon-running speed here) from one end of the place to the other, screaming and laughing the entire time. And, might I add, all of these children were wearing flip-flops while running. They almost plowed into RM at least four times, but neither they nor their "parents" even noticed.

And what were the "parents" doing during this time, you may ask? Excellent question. The "parents" (eight in total, with only four children creating the disturbance) were sitting down with their backs to the kids, busy talking to other adults and snarfing down their ice cream.

Every once in a while, one "parent" would look over at the running, screaming children and say, "Gracie, please stop" in a quiet little sing-song voice. Nothing says authority like a sing-song voice, let me tell you. If I was Gracie, I would have been shaking in my flip-flops. However, Gracie was tough and chose to ignore the "scolding" that she was receiving. Kid's got cojones, I tells ya.

I was so angry at this point that I had to get out of there. It is just so upsetting when I see blatant examples of how people are so self-absorbed that they cannot be bothered to think of anyone besides themselves. Yes, it was the children who were misbehaving, but the fault lies entirely with the "parents". I mean, the "parents" weren't even thinking about their children's safety, letting them run around in inappropriate footwear. THAT was the worst thing for me, I think.

So here's my advice to all the "parents" out there:

It's one thing if you want to be a jerk and think only of yourself all your life. But if you bring a kid into this world, you need to smarten the hell up and lose the ego. At that point, there is someone who is more important than you, and with a little bit of luck, maybe the kid will turn out to be a better contribution to society than his/her parent.

A person can only hope.