Get a baby harness. It might well save his life…and your sanity. The one I had had some straps that could restrain the child in a stroller or shopping cart or high chair, too. I found the harness straps to be far more effective than the straps that were on the carts.
You will have some people sneer at you for having a harnessed baby. Other people will silently approve, knowing that your child is safe…and won’t be running in front of them, possibly tripping and injuring one or more people.
If your child objects, then you can tell him that he can go without wearing the harness as long as he minds and doesn’t run off from you. Let him try going without. If he acts up, he goes in the harness again. This teaches him that you WILL restrain him if he acts up, which is a valuable thing for him to learn.
Of course, you should give him time and space to run around like the tiny madman that he is, in appropriate spots. Running around at a park or playground is good. Running around in the grocery store or restaurant is not good.
I can’t stand anyone under about 17 years old. No, I don’t want to hold your baby. No, he isn’t cute, he’s disgusting. No, I won’t babysit next weekend. No, not even if you pay me. No, I’m never having my own. And no, I won’t change my mind later. When I run the cash register at work I get weird looks from folks when I don’t immediately comment on how precious their spawn is. People get offended when I tell them they can’t sit their child’s nasty diaper-covered butt down on my clean counter. I have to set people’s food there! Christ people, common sense! My family is shocked that I want nothing to do with my newborn niece. No, it doesn’t make a difference that she’s related to me. No, it doesn’t matter that she’s my brother’s only child. Does. Not. Matter. Keep her away from me. Do not bring her to my house. Do not invite me over if she is there. Don’t want to see it, don’t want to hear it, and don’t want to hear about it. Period, end of story.
A local satanist/songwriter said it well when he commented that one needs kids to have someone around with rage and turmoil once your own development inevitably grinds to a halt (a poor translation). I strongly suspect being childless and middle-aged is on average harder than being 25 and without 'em (I’m 32 and can’t imagine what my life would be without my daughter - at age 25, couldn’t care less).
Children under the age of 8 or so, when IMHO they begin to be capable of interesting conversations, bore me to tears, although I am much better about being around them now than I was before I had a child of my own. I’ve always envied people who like small children - it must make life easier. But even though whenever I’m around small children I repeat to myself “you like kittens, don’t you? Pretend they are kittens!” it doesn’t work.
The funny thing is that my son, almost 11, is pretty much the same way. He loved adult company but had limited interest in most of his peers until he was about 8, when he began socializing normally (narrowly dodging a diagnosis of Asperger’s thanks to this quirk).
Not at all. I don’t want children and I avoid them when I can.
I find even the ‘happy fun’ noises kids make, as described by the OP, to be irritating on the best of days, let alone the noises that everybody finds grating.
Even on the incredibly rare occasion I have seen a little kid and thought ‘that one’s kinda cute’ he or she has proceeded immediately to do something that makes me think ‘but not cute enough’, like scream himself silly or vomit on her father’s shoes.
I do not like small children or children of any size, really, though I will tolerate a well behaved 6+ year old if I must.
To be honest I pretty much don’t want to hang around anyone under, roughly, 17.
Is it my imagination, or do little kids today seem to have a screech that can curl your toes?
My biggest problem with little kids is THEIR PARENTS!
Why the fuck are you taking them to places where little kids should not be?
Movie theaters for adult films
Restaurants.
If you can afford to go there, you can afford a fuckin’ babysitter.
Stop annoying me with a screaming brat when I am paying to go somewhere where I expect to be able to watch a movie, or eat, in peace.
I can handle kids in small doses. Babies I have no use for, but once they start talking they can be pretty entertaining.
What I really hate is being expected to love children just because I’m female, or because everyone else in the room is going gaga over a baby. That’s why I can’t stand it when people bring their kids to work. I work in a cubicle farm where there is very little privacy. So when someone’s baby starts screaming or their toddler is running around like a banshee, there’s nowhere to escape. Show off your rugrat somewhere else please.
Oh, as soon as he can walk well enough to be walking when we’re out (rather than strapped down in a stroller or being carried), we’re getting a harness. Right now he’s too small and intimidated to disappear, and rarely free to run except at home. As soon as he shows the slightest inclination to let go of my leg when we’re out in public, he gets a leash.
The backpack ones are awesome - the ones that look like a monkey or a puppy dog. I put one on my kid at 18 months in an airport (he did, and still likes to do, a runner whenever possible), and expected to get dirty looks and evil eyes, but found myself getting comments like “I wish they’d had something like that when my kid was little!”, and a security guard telling me they had the exact same backpack for his son at that age. It rocked, and he felt like a ‘big boy’. (He also hated strollers from day one, pretty much. I wore him almost any time we went out. As soon as he could walk, he was all over that, and wouldn’t let me wear him much anymore.)
I don’t like little kids. I don’t find them cute or endearing, and I generally just prefer to stay away from them. Every once in awhile I’ll notice one that I think is cute (quiet is part of this–I don’t care how cute they are, if they’re shrieking or acting up, they’re not cute) but not very often.
I could never be a parent, because I don’t have the patience for it and I’m bored silly by little-kid activities and interests. On the rare occasions I have to interact with small children, I treat them like little adults. But mostly I just do my best to stay out of their way. Small children are tiny chaos generators.
Kittens…now there’s another matter. I get all ridiculous over kittens.
I adore small children. They’re fun to be around. They’re funny to listen to. I like playing with them and teaching them things; I like showing them the world and seeing the light in their eyes when they come to understand something they did not even realize they were ignorant about 5 minutes before.
I love kids for the precise reason that everyone in the Pit thread seems to hate them. They’re just being themselves. There is nothing more fun than watching kids playing, running around, screaming, laughing, making total fools of themselves and not caring.
I don’t like chldren. I was always the babysitter, always the trustworthy one, people handed their kids to me all the time. I took good care of them, too. Now I just don’t know what I saw in it. They talk inane shit, they babble, you can’t sit still for two minutes. I love my privacy. I want to be left alone. They smell. They make messes that I have to clean up. The same thing entertains them over, and over, and over, and over…until suddenly it doesn’t anymore.
That doesn’t mean I hate children. They’re cute…for a few minutes. Honestly, I have never seen what people see in them. I’d rather spend time with adults any moment.
I’m not overly fond of small children. They’re okay in small doses. I chose not to have children, and I don’t like to spend wads of time with them, but I do coo over babies and toddlers that I see in public or at family functions. So I don’t hate them…
I had a hard time connecting to my kids when they were babies. It got easier as they got older, and I love them and find them interesting, but the feeling hasn’t widened to include anyone else’s kids.
The most I can say is that I don’t hate them. Sometimes when I see a kid having a meltdown in a store, I want to go over and do something to help out, but it’s more out of compassion for the mom than the kid.
Oh, I think caning is appropriate…for the parents. I think that if a parent could be caned for allowing his/her hellspawn to run loose in a restaurant, then Mommy and Daddy would suddenly find a babysitter, or actually teach the child to sit still and be quiet in appropriate places.
I hear the same thing. Some people find this to be enchanting childhood laughter. I find it headache-inducing.
