Tag Archives: frustrations

It Takes a Village and All That

17 Jun

Warning: This post is all about me venting. No sunshine or happiness here. Nope. Just complaining.

If you’re still reading, let me start my soapboxing by saying, I understand no one is perfect. We all make mistakes, have temporary lapses in judgment, forget things – sure, I know that  – from personal experience. What I’m having a hard time understanding is intentional situations involving parents not paying proper attention to their children in public. Not correcting their behavior when needed. Not making sure their little ones are safe.

One situation involved our family outing to a college baseball game. The game was great. It was the rowdy, unwatched crowd of young children that encircled our fam that raised my anxiety level.

They fought with each other. They hit us from time to time. They stared and even pushed on Nia and Nate as they enjoyed their dinner of stadium food. They ran into other members of the audience around us. They almost fell through the railing. They wandered away from their parents without being noticed for minutes. In fact, the 3-year-old stood next to me for so long, you might have thought he was my child. (If not for my look of concern aimed at the child’s parent who was sitting a section away from us.)

Another situation starred a child in the  middle of the street. The main street to our neighborhood. A busy street. There he was, sitting on a skateboard. He was one house away from that main entrance, where drivers come around the bend at a good clip. I stopped and then drove by the child with dramatic caution as he waited for me to pass. The mom? Oh, she was in the garage. The child immediately went right back to the danger zone after I passed. The mom? Well, she stayed in the garage. I was so tempted to turn around and ask her why she thinks that’s ok. Why is it ok to let your 4/5-year-old play in the middle of a busy street? The way the world works sometimes, it wouldn’t surprise me if that mom sues the driver who hits her child – and wins.

I guess my main thing with all this is, I don’t know what’s ok anymore. Is it ok for me to correct a stranger’s child? Should I confront parents I see doing something that could endanger their child? Is it my place? Also, when it comes down to it, I guess I’m pretty territorial to my own. I have two precious sweeties of my own, thanks. I’m really trying to make sure they grow up safely and responsibly.

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It’s Just Sad to Me

17 Sep

Let me start by saying, I really do not like to judge/question other parents.  I mean, who am I to say someone is a bad parent?   For the most part, as long as you love your child, do the best you can to provide for them and genuinely care about their well-being than who am I to criticize you for not washing their crib sheets enough or for letting them drink a soda?  I do things wrong all the time when it comes to this parenting thing but I want to believe that as long as I keep trying to do my best to keep them secure, happy and healthy that I’m doing ok.

That being said – here’s what’s “just sad to me.”  Last week, I went to the urgent care because I thought I caught what the kids had.  As I was waiting, two women came in and they had four children with them.  One was around Nate’s age and was dressed in her nightgown (she was the sicky one), another two little girls seemed to be around 3 or 4 years old and they each were wearing a t-shirt and their britches.  Nothing else.  No pants, no shoes, no socks.  Just their shirts and their underwear.

I try to think why the women would bring them in like that.  Maybe they spilled their juice in the car on the way here and it soaked their pants, socks and shoes.  Maybe they can’t afford pants, socks, shoes.  (But the other child – an older boy – has pants, socks and shoes on – why don’t they?)  I try to think of all the practical reasons I could as to what would ever make me take Nia out in public like that.  I really couldn’t.  Because if I was in the exact situation, I would have one of the women stay in the car with the girls.

Ok fine – so I questioned them on that but that actually wasn’t the worst of it.  As I was going to leave, the little girls were running willy-nilly across the busy parking lot.  Oh yeah – did I mention it was raining too?  No shoes, no pants, rain and cars.  How could I ever find a reason this would be acceptable/understandable?  I know kids will be kids but it wasn’t like the woman with them was even trying to keep them safe.

I did say to myself – at least they brought the sick little girl to the doctor.  That shows they care, right?

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One More Try

22 Dec

After another aggravating issue with our DSL phone internet service, we are now surfing hi-speed with the cable company.  This just better work!  I can’t even begin to describe how incredibly frustrating it’s been not having a reliable internet service – especially since I was counting on the internet to do most of my Christmas shopping!  Really, the only problems we’ve had since we’ve moved have involved two of the pastimes we love the most – this and TV watching.

It’s funny because before the move we were talking up DIRECTV – saying it’s so awesome and we always get great service.  Since the move, we’ve been through 3 different High Def DVR receivers (something that made us miss the last episode of Heroes before the new year!) and now the access card on another new one could be going bad!  And every time Andrew would call to try and get help they would put him on hold where he would eventually be disconnected!  Hopefully, we’re through with our TV/Internet issues.  The phone company problems made us so angry that we’re completely canceling service (even though we had a great phone number!).  All of you friends and family reading this – please bear with us – I’ll let you know the new house phone number as soon as we know it.  🙂

One other ridiculous thing that’s happened to us since the move – I tried to order pizza from Pizza Hut (which is like less than a mile away from us) the first week we were here.  We didn’t have a house phone number yet and when they asked for a number I told them I had to use my cell.  The girl then tells me my cell is not registering in their system and because it’s not registering I can’t order pizza from them!  WHAT?!?!  What about the days before everything was computerized and they had to take down my order on a notepad and drivers had to have maps in their cars?  I mean, all I wanted was two medium original pan crust pizzas with Italian sausage!  Of course, Andrew’s response to all this didn’t really help my disbelief – he simply said “Well, we won’t be ordering from Pizza Hut anymore.”  NO!  I LOVE FREAKING PIZZA HUT!  Although I’m annoyed they wouldn’t deliver me pizza I don’t want to write them off altogether.  Every once in awhile I need that grease fix that only Pizza Hut can give me!  I just thought it was a riot.  NO NUMBER?!?! NO PIZZA!

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