My mom took me to law school. Yes, law school. I was about 3 or 4 and I sat at a table in the very back eating M&Ms. I was never disruptive, but I do remember it and remember being soooo bored. All through my childhood I had to sit through meetings and conferences and stuff, either in the meeting itself or out in the hall. I remember the agonizing ennui and as a result I really try to never drag Dominic along to anything where he’ll just be sitting there bored out of his skull.
My mom does have an excuse, by the way. She was a single parent on welfare and lived 2500 miles away from her closest relative.
You just said everything that was bottled up inside me too…GOD DAMN IT! Its not even just bad parenting in some cases, but complete disregard for those around them. Kid is screaming like an idiot in Kmart because you didn’t get him another GI Joe? Home, immediately, and punishment. Why is this allowed to continue? If they kid can not/will not behave in public take him home until he can.
I would like to add weddings to list of places not to automatcially assume your child is welcome. Many invitations are addressed to “The Smith Family” or “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smith and Family” or something that indicates that the whole family is welcome. But if you receive an invitation that does not include your child, he or she is not welcome.
I did not invite children to my wedding, but 5 showed up anyway. Not only did I have to pay to feed these unexpected guests, but I had a lot of explaining to do to friends and family members who left their children at home, while random nimrod acquaintances of my spouse brought kids. I don’t bring my child to weddings unless he is invited, even though he’s well behaved. It doesn’t matter. If the bride and groom don’t want kids there, don’t take it personally, just get a sitter or don’t come.
About bedtimes, my sons isn’t til 10-10:30 on school nights so he has gone out with me at night sometimes.
He has always behaved well in public (not always in private though!)
When I was working in a movie theater, I once had a customer buy a bunch of tickets to Scary Movie, including several children’s tickets, while holding an infant. But I think the worst parent I encountered was the asshole who took his young daughter to see The Cell. Exiting the theater, the poor girl was shaking.
I like kids. I hope to have some within the next three years or so. However, as time goes on, I am stunned more and more by the mentality of many parents. And although I manage to avoid many badly-behaved kids right now, living in NYC, I’m moving back to Virginia on Saturday, and right smack in the middle of Suburban Hell. I’m dreading it. It’s as if some kids are encouraged to run amok by their parents. I helped raise my two young cousins, who are now sixteen and thirteen, and when I took them out, not even their mother, they knew to behave or else. I took them to the movies once when they were about nine and six, and when the movie started, they wouldn’t stop talking. I warned them several times, but they continued. So, finally, I took them both out of the movie and took them home. They were warned and they lost their opportunity to see that movie. What made it even worse was that the movie was supposed to be my treat. But, as I explained to them, they didn’t appreciate that I spent my own money on them, so they had to pay me back out of their allowance. So they essentially paid for a movie that they didn’t see - their own fault. But they never misbehaved in a movie again.
Although, the worst kid experience I’ve ever had was in a Broadway show—the Seussical. First of all, I half blame the producers for it. They hired teenybopper Aaron Carter to play one of the parts, so the entire theater was filled with obnoxious pre-teen girls. Now, I don’t care how old these girls were, I don’t care how many of them there were. But their parents should have told them how to behave in a Broadway show before bringing them. They were loud, obnoxious, unruly, and they TALKED and screamed for Aaron through the entire show. I was there with my parents and my eleven-year-old female cousin (who behaved perfectly because I told her in advance how one behaves in a show), and I was extremely pissed. We’d paid $50 a ticket and could barely hear the show. I went to an usher during intermission and complained, and basically got “well, they’re all just kids. We can’t really do anything about it.” In hindsight, I wish I had gone to the manager of the theater and gotten our money back.
Look, I know we’re all thinking it so I’ll just say it: Let’s get rid of kids.
Can you believe its the TWENTY-FIRST century and we’re still reproducing the old boring way? We should have tranferred all our consciousnesses into computers by now, reproducing by using robots to make new computers and implanting the seeds of consiousness into them!
ProtesilausThe Cell is pretty bad, but here’s my top three bad parenting experiences:
LotR: The Two Towers – My wife and I had to move three times to avoid parents with screaming, scared kids. The last time we moved, the parents were saying “I thought this would be more like Harry Potter.” Why, why in gawd’s name would you possibily think this movie would be like Harry freakin’ Potter? Who brings five year olds to a three hour movie? At the 10:00pm showing? On a school night?
Red Dragon – Once again, three families with scared children. At least two of the families left after about 30 minutes. Were these people misled by the title? Did they think it was a Disney flick, like a sequel to Pete’s Dragon? Sweet dreams, little 8 year olds.
Hannibal – Opening night, 11:15pm showing, movie about a serial killer, described in the local paper as “disturbingly graphic”. Hey kids, wanna see a movie? Don’t forget the BABY! If she fusses, throw that blanket over her. That’ll be good enough to muffle the THX surround sound. You know who would be perfect to carry the blanket? The “big” brother, in his PAJAMAS WITH FEET! He’ll have lots of company, what with the SEVEN other kids in the theater. This is one of the very few times I ever asked for the manager. Of course, there was nothing she could do. All the kids were there with parental supervision. How could the parents have decided that this was appropriate entertainment for the kids. They must have know about the content of the movie. It was a sequel, named for one of the most gruesome cinematic serial killers of all time.