Why are children so unwelcome at times? We all know the drill.She ends by quoting Mt. 19:14, which I suppose is so commonplace a sentiment as to be a cliché. Or, is it revolutionary again?
They are noisy. They are messy. They are naughty. They are expensive. They get in the way. They are inconvenient. But hey, guess what? They are a part of life. Without children, we have no adults, we have no future, we have no human race. Yet there seem to be some who, if they could, prefer to segregate out this entirely necessary segment of the population and put them all in neat little boxes where they won’t inconvenience anyone in the adults-only world.
Further, as we are reminded by the recent Roe v. Wade anniversary, there are those who believe that children are inconvenient to the point of being expendable at will. Remember when the pro-choice slogan was, “Keep abortion safe, legal, and rare?” Yeah, neither do I....
Forty-two years ago last month, the law of the land ruled that certain reproductive “rights” were of greater value than the lives of the tiny human beings we all once were. And rather than supporting the couples who choose to use their reproductive capabilities to bring life into the world, our culture tends to ridicule and shun them for causing public inconvenience[.]
The Enemy Among Us
I wish I'd been able to have more children, myself, but not everyone feels that way.
White people problems. I don't know if you've ever shopped at a Trader Joes, but the place is basically made for upper middle class baby-boomer singles.
ReplyDeleteSingle serving convenience foods, you can buy single pieces of fruit, etc... I don't think I've ever actually seen a child in any Trader Joe's I've ever been in.
I've only been in one. I had heard they sold cheap but decent beer. It turns out it's mostly cheap beer.
ReplyDeleteI went one time to a Trader Joe's. The large quantity of what used to be called TV dinners, a.k.a. single serving convenience foods, is what struck me about the place.
ReplyDeleteI like Trader Joe's, but yeah, it's not someplace we go much anymore since having kids. Every now and then for a package of pot-stickers.
ReplyDeleteIt was an odd article, and it's funny how polarized the comments were given the article, and how it was virtually impossible to make a determination of whether or not the kids were a problem that trip from it.
I don't remember the comedian, but I remember this joke about shopping with kids-
When I was single, and I saw some kid crying and fussing in a store aisle and the parent sternly talking to them, I felt bad for the child and wondered why that parent wasn't comforting them.
Then I had kids, and now when I see a scene like that, I wonder 'what did that little monster do to that parent to get this reaction!
I just don't understand what's so hard to teach kids about being considerate of others in your actions, particularly in the shared space of the public realm. Stay out of others way, be polite and friendly, apologize when necessary. It's the parents that have kids running wild with no boundaries (and there are LOTS in our neck of the woods), and their attitude is that 'kids will be kids' or if you're bothered, you're a grinch or something. I once almost got in a fistfight over a child run amok while the parent did nothing. We've become an entitlement nation...
There are people who are amazingly intolerant of the presence of children, even well-behaved ones.
ReplyDeleteI was in a restaurant once, and a family nearby had a toddler at the table, and some man was working hard to keep the kid happy. This took the form of hide-and-seek, where he would put a napkin over the kid's head, and then pull it off. The little one would then bubble with laughter.
A group seated nearby got very huffy, and demanded, overly loudly, in my opinion, to be moved, and they were. The manager asked us if we wanted to be moved, and we said no. The child was well-behaved the entire time.
Another time, I met my secretary for lunch at a restaurant, and we sat outside. A family group came in with a little boy, who asked to be allowed to get up. He then played around in the general area a little removed from the tables, making no noise, and never coming near enough to touch us or our chairs.
She cringed, and muttered a little too loudly the whole time, saying that people had no business bringing kids to an adult setting.
I later learned that her son had been an uncontrollable terror, who threw temper tantrums. She was reacting to her own expectations about her own son.
Kids have to be trained to be in public, and some of the dirty work of parenting is to get them to behave. I don't mind a little bad behavior and noise, provided always the parent takes steps to correct it or remove the kid.
Valerie
"Kids have to be trained to be in public, and some of the dirty work of parenting is to get them to behave. I don't mind a little bad behavior and noise, provided always the parent takes steps to correct it or remove the kid."
ReplyDeleteThis exactly. A little understanding from both sides goes a long way.