You do know what’s going to happen to you, right danceswithcats?
In the next day or so, you’ll find yourself compromising your ideals and failing your sense of your own perfection, your ability to maintain absolutes.
Karma will get you, it always does.
Chotti, I think what he is saying, and I agree, is that we pick our risks. Kids ride bikes. Kids skateboard. Kids are going to go over to a friends house for an overnight, and while you’ve met the parents, you never really can be SURE Dad isn’t a pedophile. Most of us aren’t feeding our kids ideally every single meal. We let them swim, even though kids drown every year.
Unless your kids live their lives in a box, we put them at risk. Then we scream and yell and judge other people who make different choices about which risks they want to take. Look at the anti-vaxers - who think people who vaccinate their kids are putting them at huge risk - then look at the pro-vaxers - who think that anti-vaxers are putting their kids at huge risk. Both sets of parents are making decisions based on perceived risk.
Wait, when did fessie say she parked in a handicapped spot? I think I missed that. In any case, yeah, I think that’s wrong. Kids or no kids.
ETA: Okay, I saw–on the first page.
Hm. Usually, right or wrong, analytically acute or full of chaff, woefully misinformed, missing the boat or smack-dab on top of things, I can at least be counted on for clarity. But not always, I guess. I was trying for delicacy of expression, which is never, for me, a good idea.
But friend Dangerosa was right: one of the things I was trying to say was that all parents work to create an environment for their children in which some risks are eradicated, some are minimized, some are prepared for, some are avoided, some are accepted, some are even welcomed. But risk isn’t the only thing in the environment. There are opportunities too, after all, for experience and growth and all of the things other than an intact mature body that are necessary to create a functional individual. The decisions involved are not derived from charts and graphs and rigorous universal principles, so except in extreme cases, criticizing our fellow beings’ parenting is bootless.
A sleeping child secured in a locked nearby car with the alarm set on a temperate day underwent, all unknowing, a certain amount of risk that a parent thought small enough to be worth exchanging for the opportunity of allowing her other children to experience the satisfaction of completing a charitable act. Because the mere phrase “child left in car” pushes such a disproportionately large emotional button compared to the real danger, some are still willing to label her choice irresponsible. Of this group, some may merely be ignorant of the choices parenting requires; I suggest the rest are either omnipotent or hypocritical.
As to the other issue, a loving mother might be better served by thanking the officers for their vigilance and zeal, even if occasionally overdone, with respect to childrens’ safety, rather than demanding compensation for a perceived insult. “Best of intentions and no harm done” is a philosophy just as well applied to the authorities’ treatment of her as to her treatment of her child.
Cram your karma, you mindless bint.
My statements have nothing to do with a sense of my own “perfection”, as I am admittedly not perfect, nor have I ever claimed to be.
Although flawed, there are some things that I just don’t do, including, but not limited to: parking in handicapped spots or fire lanes, pissing on electric fences, participating in pederasty, and visiting Detroit.
You, like the lady who parked in a loading zone while not loading anything, have an overgrown sense of entitlement such that you break rules when it suits you.
No.
I have sufficient honesty that, when discussing someone else’s mistakes (real or concocted by overzealous law enforcement officials), I do so within the context of my own errors.
No argument for entitlement was made.
And I certainly didn’t wander into this thread in order to wave the flag of my own maternal virtues. I can’t claim to have never done so, as I know I do have occasional bouts of pride and have probably declared them loudly.
What I said in this thread, however, is more along the lines of FUCK, this motherhood gig is DIFFICULT. For me, anyway.
You just go ahead and be angry at me, though, if it makes you feel better.