Piss-Poor Parent at the Public Park

The BBQ Pit
1

Yesterday was the first reasonably nice weather we’d seen in these parts so far this spring, so I took the kidlets to the park on the way home from daycare yesterday. Unfortunately, I was not the only parent in town who had the same idea–the place was crowded. But Lil’Guy loved it–running up and down the ramps, shooting down the slides, jumping on the springboards and generally enjoying the hell out of himself while I followed him around with the baby.

Now, a public park–by definition–plays host to any number of objectionable persons. I could live with the creepy older guy sitting off to the side chainsmoking while he watched the kids for questionable reasons (he wasn’t a parent, I watched him leave alone). I could deal with the older kid–too big for the playset really–who stepped right on my kid’s head without so much as an “oops”. I can even deal with the trashy-looking 13-14 year old who was there with her two kids and spent the entire time screeching at them in unreasonably loud tones. **DESTINY, PUT THAT STICK DOWN! EWWWWW! SAPPHIRE, GO DOWN THIS SLIDE. DESTINY, JUST PUSH HIM AWAY IT’S YOUR TURN." ** and on and on.

You however, ma’am, I could not deal with. I noticed as you sat on the bench braiding your friend’s hair that you were paying only the most cursory attention to your toddler as he climbed on structures much too big for him, went flying off the ends of slides into other children, and generally acted like an unsupervised two-year-old. Being a friendly type, I semi-adopted him and kept an eye on him so he wouldn’t hurt himself or someone else. I pulled him down off one of the towers twice when he got stuck and started crying. (Way to be observant of the stranger touching your kid there, by the way. You’re lucky it was me and not the creepo chainsmoker.) So when he wet his pants I noticed, as you would have too if you had bothered to look at him—the dark dripping stain all down the legs of his pants was a pretty good clue.

After a few minutes, when it was obvious you didn’t notice or at least didn’t plan on dealing with it, I approached you.
“I think your little guy wet himself, I’ve got some extra pull-ups in my car if you’d like one.”
Reasonable statement, right?
You’d never think so from this harpy’s reaction.

BIG eye roll, loud sigh “He’s FINE. He knows better than to piss hisself. Being uncomfortable will teach him”

Yeah, and in the meantime he’s scooting over the playmats and going down slides and just generally smearing his piss all over the structure that three dozen other kids are trying to play on.

Vile nasty bitch.

2

God, I wish these people wouldn’t spawn.
BTW, that was nice of you, belladonna.

3

Sapphire? Destiny? Egad.

4

:eek: Ugh, people like that just make me so angry. Karmic destiny (or some such) would find them decades later, in an old folks home with an overflowed Depends, and a callous nurse saying “You should get up in the night and go pee, maybe the rash will teach you to do so!” Poor little guy :frowning:

5

Back where I used to live there was this family who had recently moved into our street. They had a boy who was about 4. They let him roam about on the street (a street prone to ASSHOLES speeding along it at toofast mph) any passer by or me would stop him when he roamed into the road which was too often.

One day I was out with my nieces looking after them while they rode their bikes. Innocently the boy got onto one of the bikes and started riding about on it. I didn’t mind this but after a while my niece (amy) did, and kept pestering me to get him off.

I asked him nicely several times and he just stared at me or occasionally uttered some nonsensical syllable. So eventually I had to lift him off myself. It was then that I realized that his clothes didn’t appear to have been washed, ever.

A few nights later his family were having a party (or just getting royally pissed). Some of the local teenagers started to hang around. Then it transpired that they beat up one of the family, an old guy, because he had ‘showed off’ by swinging the kid around by his arms in the living room. For once I was glad of the presence of those teenagers. The police were called and I spoke to one of them. It turns out there is little to nothing they can do about an abused kid. I hope that kid is ok now, and still alive.

6

Hey!

The stripper population doesn’t replace itself, bucko.

7

Yes, this is a trait I’ve found in a LOT of two year olds. They really know what’s best for themselves and others. I’m often impressed with their coginitive skills in this regard.

8

jarbabyj I guess I’m confused today, must be the medicine they gave me for my UTI. (I’m misspelling simple words everywhere in threads today too.) Are you stating a pro, or con opinion regarding the OP’s behaivior? Are you being facetious? Please clarify your statements, I truly don’t fully comprehend. Thank you.

9

That sounds like cut-and-dried (well, clear-cut, anyway) neglect to me.

[Crystal Ball]
I see a CPS intervention in the near future…

…the next time she says something like that in the hearing of someone who knows where she lives…
[/Crystal Ball]

Zabali_Clawbane, I’m pretty sure that’s straightforward sarcasm.

10

Sorry. I was being sarcastic. I’ve never known a two year old to know better than to do anything. When I was two I ate a handful of gravel and went back for more.

The mother cited in the OP is an idiot. But I’m surprised someone hasn’t come in here to tell us not to judge her.

11

jarbabyj can be subtle, but I think you need a new Sarcast-O-Meter. :wink:

12

Somewhat off the actual topic, but…

Actually, a public park–by definition–is a public park.

Well, it’s nice to know that you could “live with” this person exercising his right to relax in a public space. For all you know, the “creepy older guy” just decided to take exactly the same advantage of the beautiful weather that you and all those other people did.

Last time i looked chainsmoking was still not banned in most outdoor areas. In fact, given all the places that smoking is banned nowdays, perhaps the public park is one of the few places this guy can have a quiet cigarette or twenty without some anti-smoking activist jackbooting him for lighting up.

(FTR, i’m not a smoker, and i hate smoking, but i also realize that smokers don’t smoke for the sole purpose of looking “creepy” or pissing me off.)

“Questionable reasons”? Well, if he’s sitting on a park bench, in a public park, and there is a horde of snotty-nosed infants and their variously responsible and irresponsible parents swarming all over the place, what the fuck else is he supposed to look at? Would you have him hunch over and face the ground, or stare straight up into the sky, just so that you don’t suspect that he’s eyeing your offspring?

A-ha! Now we know he’s evil. This is the definitive proof. Who, except a parent, would think to celebrate a warm spring day by spending some time at the local park?

Seriously, i know that pedophilia and molestation and kidnapping are things that we as a society need to be concerned about, but some of you parents need to get the fuck over yourself.

13

mhendo People have a right to be suspicious too.

14

sigh…

I knew the comraderie would end…

15

Ugh. Whenever I go to the park I always hope the fun my kid gets out of it will outweigh the feelings I get when I see some of the other kids.
Both my boyfriend and I are magnets for the unwanted children. They aren’t getting any attention from their parents and latch onto one of us. It goes from sweet to a little annoying to really pathetic.
One time my boyfriend and I were there playing with my kid and we keep noticing a kid with no parents. The kid’s clothes were dirty, but hey, it’s a park. When he gets closer we notice that the clothes have gone beyond normal stinky kid dirty and straight into ‘I feel sorry for you/please don’t touch me’ mode. His legs and arms are covered in what looks like bites all over. It all looks infected. His bare feet are the color of coal (and this is a white kid). The kid makes eye contact with my boyfriend and latches onto him. Boyfriend dutifully makes sure the kid gets safely up the ladder, responds to all the “Hey, watch this!” and other pleas for attention and eventually says “So, where are your parents?” because by this point so much time has elapsed that we are starting to think he was abandoned.
He says “Momma’s over there. I don’t have a dad.” OK. Mom accounted for (at least physically if not mentally) and the dad thing - well, sad but not unheard of, or even uncommon. Then he goes on “Daddy has to get a new attitude. He smashed in momma’s glass door last night. So I don’t have a daddy anymore.”
Then the momma’s boyfriend wanders over to get the boy (younger brother now in tow) to take them home.
I’ve been wondering if daddy ever got that new attitude.

16

And public means open to any and all people, some of whom may be objectionable. How is what I said incorrect?

And I complained about his smoking where? Chainsmoking was used as an adjective. You know, a word used to make a description more detailed and interesting?

Hmmmm, the newly budding flowers? The beautiful river, which is lined with benches? The various grown women in their skintights making the circuit on the jogging trail?
The play area is very self-contained and only a small part of a large park. This guy was right on the edge of it, staring at the kids. Of course, I have no way of knowing if he is just perhaps a lonely man who enjoys kids but doesn’t have any of his own. Thats why I said his reasons were “questionable” and not “lecherous”. You quoted me exactly, so I know you read it.

Seriously, I know the urge to respond to a thread, even when your comments are ridiculous and overblown, can be overwhelming. But some people just need to get the fuck over themselves.

17

And, in this case, in a rather pejorative manner, given the content of the rest of the sentence, in which the guy is described as “creepy.”

I did indeed read it, and your explanation leads me to suspect that it may be your facility for English usage that is the problem. You see, when i hear the term “questionable,” it suggests to me a pejorative or negative connotation.

The Shorter OED definition offers some support for this, defining the word thus:

Merriam Webster online is also supportive of this usage, giving two non-obsolete definitions, thus:

The Bartleby online edition of the Columbia Guide to Standard American English also says:

On the other hand, your use of the word “questionable” was apparently intended to imply “unknown” or “undetermined.” These terms are much more neutral, and do not carry the pejorative association that “questionable” does.

Semantics aside, however, your own most recent post states my position for me. You said: “I have no way of knowing if he is just perhaps a lonely man who enjoys kids but doesn’t have any of his own.” Exactly. And there could be a dozen other reasons he decided to go there. Yet you were happy enough to question why he was there, to call him “creepy” on the basis of his being alone and in the vicinity of a childs’ play area, and to imply that he must have dubious motives for being there.

18

Ya know, I’m going to give in, and say what I’m thinking as I’m reading this.

/Soapbox
For Pity’s Sake mhendo quit hijacking this thread! If you find her attitude offensive, make a seperate thread, and gripe in it. If you are going to post in this thread, post on the pitted behavior, don’t pick a fight with the OP on petty semantics. She’s got a valid point, in that there are far too many kids left on their own, to fend as best they can, with only a bare minimum of an appearance of adult supervision! Stick to the actual topic, not a petty tangent.
Soapbox/

Ok, I feel better now. Carry on.

19

Never let it be said that i’m not accommodating. You want my absence from this thread? Fine, after this post, you got it. I’ve made my feelings on the matter clear.

The main reason i didn’t start a new thread is that i didn’t think there was any point, especially when we’re already in the Pit. Gotta think of the hamsters, ya know. And the reason i didn’t just ignore it and respond to the main point of the OP is that this would imply that i had no porblem with the sentences in question.

There you go. See you around.

20

mhendo Let me state, my previous post was made in exasperation. My point still stands however. The thread was being pulled of topic badly. I can see you’re not a bad person, and that you wanted to make your thoughts known. However, it was disrupting the topic of discussion, instead of helping it flow. I did not mean to bite your head off like that, and I apologize for being so gruff. I did not mean to offend, I was just exasperated. I will try not to distress you in the future. I wish you well.