Took baby boy for his 6-month checkup today (he’s doing fine…90th percentile for length! He’s so long his feet are already hanging off the end of the car seat, and he’s supposed to be in that thing for 6 more months!)
Anyway…when we were waiting, there were two guys also waiting who both looked to be in the 16-17 year old range. One was with his mom, one was with his girlfriend (at least, I’m assuming that’s who she was, based on the shoulder-rub she was giving him). I know that peds will see kids up until about college age, so that’s not what I thought was strange. What I though was strange was that the one with his mom was wearing flannel pants with the Guinness beer logo all over them, and the other one was wearing a t-shirt with a big pot leaf on it (he smelled like smoke, too, but not the “funny” kind as my dad would say).
Now, call me old-fashioned, but if I was taking my kid to the doc, I would have him change his pants to the non-beer-advertising variety.
And as far as the kid with the pot leaf, I hope that the doc at least mentioned to him that smoking is really not too good for your health.
That is pretty sad. Honestly, it amazes me how little some parents care. Some of the fringe friends of my daughter (friends of a friend, people she knows but doesn’t actively hang out with kind of people) have actually lit up cigarettes in front of me or asked my husband for a smoke (before he quit). I will stop them and say, “you know, I am not your mom, and maybe your mom allows that crap, but I don’t.” It’s not a request, it’s the way it is. They get the hint. Well, most of them – one tried to argue that she was 18 and therefore it was ok, I just smiled and said “not in front of me it isn’t.”
Now, I won’t say my kids have never worn anything inappropriate, but I will say never somewhere that it matters – like school or the doctor. Dirty clothes? Yes, that has happened when an emergency (my son’s lips turning blue, my daughter putting a paint scraper in her face) happened – I wouldn’t have given a flying rat’s ass if they had been wearing a shirt advertising cocaine for sale on those occasions, but otherwise, yeh, I tend to make sure my kids are presentable.
Seriously, some parents just don’t care – especially when it comes to teenagers. These parents just don’t want to have to go to the police department and bail the kids out – that’s the only thing they care about it seems. It really is sad to think that my teenaged daughter stands out in a crowd mainly because she actually likes her mom.
I think the parents would have given up the battle a long time before.
Reminds me of my Grandma–my brother wore a tshirt with a ripped pocket for his formal college graduation photo. She refused to display it and kept his HS one up forever!
You would think that their parents would at least explain to their children that such attire would make them an unwitting an obvious target. for predatory law enforcement personnel.
I guess the thing I don’t get is that, even as a teenager, I was aware of what was appropriate in different situations. What I wore hanging out with my friends is not necessarily what I would wear for, you know, dinner out with grandma. I mean, didn’t the kid have any other t-shirt besides the pot leaf one he could have worn? Strange.
Beer pajama pants are available at Target. My step-daughter wears them all the time, even to school. I think wearing pajama pants to class is a bit on the tacky side, but nobody asks my opinion.
That’s another thing, too…I am going to assume that the kid in the Guinness pajama pants was actually sick, and that’s why he was dressed that way (may be a huge assumption, but his mom seemed like a nice lady, so I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt!
