loco parentes?

today i was fortunate enough to observe several examples of what's wrong with the way this country raises children.

first, we came across the rudest little brat ever when we went to our regular diner for my birthday pancake brunch. when kz attempted to sit down at the counter, this little punk of around age 7 or so spat at him, 'hey my BROTHER is sitting there!" in the whiniest, most accusatory tome imaginable. kz and i exchanged glances and began chatting with the waitstaff. all the while the little monster is kicking the chair, pushing his brother, fighting off his father's half-hearted attempts to restrain him, and making a lot of noise. i remarked to kz that it appeared to be 'take your autistic child to breakfast day', and we decided to move to a table at the other end of the diner. the woman at the counter on our other side asked if we were leaving and i said, "yeah i don't deal too well with poorly behaved children and their gutless parents," to which she said, "neither do i!" and shot a dirty look at the offending party. all the while, the dad is hanging his head in chagrin trying to ignore the stares and sighs of every single patron in there, quietly saying, "no, please - stop hitting your brother, no, come on now, settle down" to which the imp keeps shrieking louder and saying stuff that would have gotten me a fresh one as a kid, like "no, YOU shut up dad!!" i kept hoping maybe a box of rat poison would somehow tumble into his breakfast as they prepared it in the kitchen. it certainly made me wonder why some parents think they have the right to subject the rest of the world to their dreadful offspring.

later on found me at marshall's, trying on a lot of shoes to help me further my quest to purchase 1 frivolous item for myself on my birthday. i succeeded, of course, in the form of a pair of black slingback anne klein pumps. expect nothing less at marshall's on a sunday than throngs of women of all ages and from all walks of life, speaking in several languages and followed by a melee of bored children intent on knocking down everything within reach. i was standing in front of the nine west boot display doing some visual scanning of the goods when unremarkably, a girl of about 10 walked quietly in front of me, muttered 'sorry,' and continued down the aisle. her mother was in tow and snapped, "patricia! what are you thinking? how about 'excuse me,' maybe???" and all i could think was jeez, i have to squeeze by so many old biddies and women in their conspicuous consumption trance in this store that i can't be bothered to excuse myself each and every instance, or i'd spend more time apologizing than shopping. so i said to the mother with a smile, "don't worry about it, it's totally ok," hoping she would see her daughter hadn't done anything to offend me. she turned her death-ray laser sights on me and said in the same tone she had just used on her kid, "no! it's not ok at all!" and stalked after the little girl to lecture her further. all i could think was jesus, this is as rough as the cambodian mom i had just observed in old navy, who landed a fierce smack across her toddler's face because he was making the sounds men and children often make to inform the matriarch that shopping has gone on long enough. i had chalked that up to cultural differences; i guess not.
if only i could rotate these kids around and give that little fucker from the diner to these two moms. let's see who comes out on top of that throwdown...

so seriously, parenting in this country is a disaster. stop hitting and shaking and pulling your defenseless toddlers because they don't feel like being dragged around the discount bin a 3rd time, and stop acting like a pussy instead of a parent when your kid is making dining a miserable experience for everyone in the vicinity. take some fucking classes or something. or just stop getting pregnant, that'd work too.