Poolside Parenting
Ok, I can't stand it anymore. I simply MUST vent! I know I'm on vacation, and so are these other parents sitting around the pool. But for heaven sake, vacation should NOT completely obliterate any parental common sense or responsibility! I see several problems here...not just problems TODAY but future problems brewing with the future of our nation all because of some parenting lessons some of these folks need to learn today!
1. A screaming 6 month old, not crying mind you, SCREAMING at the top of her precious little lungs, poolside on a sunny morning that is already greater than 95 degrees, should be taken inside. She is not just cranky. She is hot, dehydrating and miserable. The mother keeps patting her back with one hand and applying sun tan lotion to her own legs with the other. I'd like to go snatch the mother up and smack her upside the head. But instead, opting not to be hauled away to jail for assault and battery, I sit here glaring at her, shaking my head and praying under my breath that the mother gets sun poisoning.
2. On the other side of the pool is a mother trying to get her toddler out of the pool for another coat of sunblock. The toddler keeps screaming "NO!" and refuses to get out of the pool. Rather than going into the pool and picking the toddler up, she threatens with "I'm going to tell your father!" The father comes out and asks what the problem is; and the mother explains that the toddler needs sunblock and refuses to get out of the pool. The father, in his ultimate wisdom, (NOT!) sternly tells the boy, "Son, get out of that pool right now so Mommy can put sunblock on you." The toddler again yells "NO!" to which the father threatens, "Fine! Then just get a sunburn!" and walks away. (OK, somebody slap both these parents upside the head before I push them both into the pool!)
3. Mother #3 is yelling at her 5-6 year old who continues to run around the pool. She has asked him, told him and even ordered him to stop running around the pool. She finally gets up and grabs him as he rounds the corner again for the 10th time. He screams at the top of his lungs, kicks and hits until she puts him down and again yells, "But I told you to STOP running!" The kid runs away screaming "NO, YOU STOP!" The mother plopped down on the side of the pool, growling in a temper tantrum and yelled for Dad, who looked up over his newspaper and said, "Do what your mother said." The kid continues to run around the pool.
Is it just ME? Am I the only one that thinks the chanllenge is NOT with the children, but rather with the parents?!? My two are in the pool, both of which are teenagers, one of which is now taller than me. But even as big as they are, let me tell ya, if either of them hestitates when I tell them to get out of the pool, I'll go into the pool, yank them out and sit them in their room until after lunch. And that will be the end of the pool for them today! No questions asked. No threats. No tattling to Dad. And God help a kid of any age who would tell me NO, kick or swing at ME! But then again, I didn't have them at the pool when they were infants, screaming at the top of their lungs on a 95 degree day. Nor did I ever tell them more than once to stop running around the pool when they were small enough for me to scarf them up and bench them to watch the rest of the world go by while they moped and thought about why they should listen the next time.
I guess I could just brag that I have good kids. But that's not it. I am a parent, even on vacation. And I take that responsibility seriously. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go round up my own girl before I'm tempted beyond control to show some of these nimwits parents how it's done! ~sigh~
1. A screaming 6 month old, not crying mind you, SCREAMING at the top of her precious little lungs, poolside on a sunny morning that is already greater than 95 degrees, should be taken inside. She is not just cranky. She is hot, dehydrating and miserable. The mother keeps patting her back with one hand and applying sun tan lotion to her own legs with the other. I'd like to go snatch the mother up and smack her upside the head. But instead, opting not to be hauled away to jail for assault and battery, I sit here glaring at her, shaking my head and praying under my breath that the mother gets sun poisoning.
2. On the other side of the pool is a mother trying to get her toddler out of the pool for another coat of sunblock. The toddler keeps screaming "NO!" and refuses to get out of the pool. Rather than going into the pool and picking the toddler up, she threatens with "I'm going to tell your father!" The father comes out and asks what the problem is; and the mother explains that the toddler needs sunblock and refuses to get out of the pool. The father, in his ultimate wisdom, (NOT!) sternly tells the boy, "Son, get out of that pool right now so Mommy can put sunblock on you." The toddler again yells "NO!" to which the father threatens, "Fine! Then just get a sunburn!" and walks away. (OK, somebody slap both these parents upside the head before I push them both into the pool!)
3. Mother #3 is yelling at her 5-6 year old who continues to run around the pool. She has asked him, told him and even ordered him to stop running around the pool. She finally gets up and grabs him as he rounds the corner again for the 10th time. He screams at the top of his lungs, kicks and hits until she puts him down and again yells, "But I told you to STOP running!" The kid runs away screaming "NO, YOU STOP!" The mother plopped down on the side of the pool, growling in a temper tantrum and yelled for Dad, who looked up over his newspaper and said, "Do what your mother said." The kid continues to run around the pool.
Is it just ME? Am I the only one that thinks the chanllenge is NOT with the children, but rather with the parents?!? My two are in the pool, both of which are teenagers, one of which is now taller than me. But even as big as they are, let me tell ya, if either of them hestitates when I tell them to get out of the pool, I'll go into the pool, yank them out and sit them in their room until after lunch. And that will be the end of the pool for them today! No questions asked. No threats. No tattling to Dad. And God help a kid of any age who would tell me NO, kick or swing at ME! But then again, I didn't have them at the pool when they were infants, screaming at the top of their lungs on a 95 degree day. Nor did I ever tell them more than once to stop running around the pool when they were small enough for me to scarf them up and bench them to watch the rest of the world go by while they moped and thought about why they should listen the next time.
I guess I could just brag that I have good kids. But that's not it. I am a parent, even on vacation. And I take that responsibility seriously. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go round up my own girl before I'm tempted beyond control to show some of these nimwits parents how it's done! ~sigh~
posted by Senati | 10:40 AM
2 Comments:
AMEN to that! I see the same crap everywhere I go too! My kids know that when we go out to eat or into a store, they had best stay right there with me, quiet, and without touching anything. If they ask for something and I say no...they politely say ok. I dont think the parents of these children are stupid, well...maybe. I think that the biggest problem is that these parents are too lazy to take time for their children; for discipline or otherwise.
You are soooooo right! What's wrong with parents these days? It's like they're afraid to hurt Johnny or Susie's feelings. Forget that nonsense! I agree with Kimberly above, but would also add that these kinds of parents are too selfish to take into account their kids' needs and address them (Like the screaming baby in 95 degree weather). Just makes me want to scream!!
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