Apr 14 2008
Lackadaisical Parenting
While searching for a restaurant for our rare Saturday night dinner without babygirl I came across the Yelp listing for our usual Friday night dinner with babygirl. I love this place. It’s a block away, the food is decent and most importantly it’s “family friendly”.
I think the demographic of the average Yelp reviewer must be somewhat different from the average customer of Rockwell’s Neighborhood Grill, since most of the reviewers complain about unruly children and the most of the customers are unruly children.
This bothered me at first. Not because the yelpers didn’t appreciate the joys of dining with toddlers. It’s certainly their right to want a relaxing and romantic atmosphere for their first date. It was the fact that most of them blamed the noise not on the children, but on the parents. One attributed the joyful noise of a rambunctious two year old to “lackadaisical parenting”. Another complained about the horror of watching a young father entertain his babe with a balancing act involving a “tippy cup” and his head. I was offended as a parent. How dare these young singletons question my parenting skills? Don’t they have any idea how hard it is to keep a two year old from jumping out of her chair at every opportunity.
Then I realized. No, they didn’t. And I hadn’t either. I remember life before babygirl when I would seethe in resentment at the toddler on the other side of my booth banquette who just wouldn’t sit still. I would judge with much prejudice the parents that dared to bring their baby to my local beer garden. I would imagine my future kids, sitting quietly with their coloring books, reacting immediately to my firm but loving instructions.
But then I had a kid of my own and realized that it’s not the parents fault. It’s just kids.
If the truth were know then no one would have children. So please continue singletons. Give me the dirty looks when babygirl has a tantrum over “a tiny bit chocolate” in the check out lane. Judge away at the pure and loud delight babygirl displays when eating a bright blue lollipop. But blame me, please. The future of the species depends on it.
You’re right. They have no clue. And until they have one (or more) of their own, they’ll continue to throw those disdainful looks across the way. I know. Oh..yes..how I know.
You’ll have the last laugh one day. Trust me.
S
Not all of us single people have NO clue.
It’s true that I used to, and I may still occassionally throw out a sarcastic comment about you fucking breeders (as if what the world needs is more people, geez), but I can point to several times when I’ve gone out of my way to cater my social time towards the needs of the proletariet (which means breeder, in Latin.)
When I gave birth I stopped judging ASAP. Babies and toddlers scream and do whatever it is that makes them happy (when and if you even go down that path again and have a boy) you will come to see that testosterone surging through a toddler is awe inspiring. Ronin now has a special “I am about to whine and have a meltdown dance” as well as repeating everything he hears. So when Sean says “you are walking like a retard.” Ronin says “retard” over and over again. Now when the “singletons” stare at me I say “go ahead and judge – you are clueless to my world.” And then I think – they will die alone. But I’ll have my babies!!
Candi – anyone else and I would not believe that you actually do say something. However I know you and I know you do!