We have been having so much fun at our new ballet class! I took photos yesterday and they're not very good because I had to take them from behind the glass. But she really loves it and all of the kids are sooooo cute! It's my favorite thing to do!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Veronica the Ballerina!
We have been having so much fun at our new ballet class! I took photos yesterday and they're not very good because I had to take them from behind the glass. But she really loves it and all of the kids are sooooo cute! It's my favorite thing to do!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Winter Blues
So Christmas is over and now the only thing to look forward to is a long stretch of cold, barren, miserable winter. It's too bad Christmas isn't in February. I hate February. But here we are and we're bored and cold. We've been going to the McDonald's playland a lot but that has it's own problems too. One specific problem is WHAT IS GOING ON WITH PARENTS WHO DON'T WATCH THEIR CHILDREN? I'm sorry but it's driving me NUTS. Every time I'm at the playland, I am watching my child intently while other parents simply are not. Some of them even drop off their kids and then go sit in the restaurant where they can't see their kids! And, inevitably, these are the kids who go all Lord of the Flies and start terrorizing the other kids. And why aren't parents teaching their older children to watch out for and be considerate of little ones? I can't tell you how many times Veronica has been mowed down by 8-year-olds who should know better.
Look, if you are one of these parents, I'm just going to say it...STOP BEING LAZY. One day, your child is going to seriously hurt another child and you're going to get sued and wish you had been doing your job. Paying someone else's medical bills sucks. Not only was I saving my own child from the Ritalin-riddled rioters, but I ended up saving a 1 1/2 year old who started to climb the wrong way up a fast moving slide where big boys were flying down feet first (some of whom were wearing shoes when they weren't supposed to be). The mother of the baby I saved, barely acknowledged me when I told her what almost happened to her little one, after I had to find her on the other side of the playland far away from where her little one almost got kicked in the teeth. Then, the same mother gave me the stink eye when I asked her older son to stop blocking the slide so the other children could come down. She was standing there watching him do this and didn't say anything.
I'm speaking to parents who do these sorts of things. I want you to know that I am not going to stop policing "the village". Hillary is right. It does take a village...not because it's the ideal way to raise kids, but because some of YOU won't raise your own darn kids! I don't want anyone's children to get hurt. And there's something wrong with you if you think it's okay to just let your kids run wild. There are rules of etiquette and consideration that need to be taught to your children or they will end up luring helpless classmates to a beat-down session to be broadcast online for fun. Is that what you want? To create criminals? That's what you're doing. Your negligence is creating a generation of inconsiderate a**holes.
This reminds me of a "Dad story." My dad has some terrific stories. One time, he and my mom were out to dinner and at a table next to them was a teenage boy and his date. The boy was swearing loudly and acting like a jerk. Everyone was uncomfortable but no one said anything. Except my dad. He got up and walked over and leaned over the table into the boys face (if anyone knows my dad, you know how scary he is. He's a big guy) and said something like, "Son, you are in public, and you are on a date. Your behavior is disrespectful to your date and to everyone in this restaurant. If you don't stop it immediately, I will take you outside and kick the ?!@! out of you." (I'm not sure if he actually threatened violence...although that sounds like something he'd say. I mean, this is the same man who was escorted out of the Social Security office by a police officer and overturned an entire display of oil and then took a door off its hinges on the way out of a store that ripped him off. Overreaction? Maybe. Effective? Definitly.) Okay, so he might have some anger issues. But overall my dad is a very considerate and generous person. But disrespect and rudeness turns him into a high-blood-pressure-fueled force. And why shouldn't that kind of behavior make him angry? Sometimes, anger is exactly what we need to feel and act on when truly outrageous things are happening to us. That's why we call it righteous anger!
Needless to say, the kid stopped. And I believe there was applause. So I would like to encourage those of you out there to stop being terrorized by this kind of public rudeness and do something about it. You aren't alone. 90% of the people around you want to say something but are too scared. Public humiliation and shame can go a long way to keeping some people in check. My New Year's Resolution (which I never make) is going to be to stand up for what is right regardless of what people think of me. I'm not going to sit quietly by and watch children be endangered by unruly, unsupervised children. Next time, I'm going to go further and escort the offending child to his/her parents and tell them they need supervising. Maybe the humiliation of having a perfect stranger point out they are slacking will be enough to make them shape up or leave.
Dad, I think I've inherited your angry gene....
Look, if you are one of these parents, I'm just going to say it...STOP BEING LAZY. One day, your child is going to seriously hurt another child and you're going to get sued and wish you had been doing your job. Paying someone else's medical bills sucks. Not only was I saving my own child from the Ritalin-riddled rioters, but I ended up saving a 1 1/2 year old who started to climb the wrong way up a fast moving slide where big boys were flying down feet first (some of whom were wearing shoes when they weren't supposed to be). The mother of the baby I saved, barely acknowledged me when I told her what almost happened to her little one, after I had to find her on the other side of the playland far away from where her little one almost got kicked in the teeth. Then, the same mother gave me the stink eye when I asked her older son to stop blocking the slide so the other children could come down. She was standing there watching him do this and didn't say anything.
I'm speaking to parents who do these sorts of things. I want you to know that I am not going to stop policing "the village". Hillary is right. It does take a village...not because it's the ideal way to raise kids, but because some of YOU won't raise your own darn kids! I don't want anyone's children to get hurt. And there's something wrong with you if you think it's okay to just let your kids run wild. There are rules of etiquette and consideration that need to be taught to your children or they will end up luring helpless classmates to a beat-down session to be broadcast online for fun. Is that what you want? To create criminals? That's what you're doing. Your negligence is creating a generation of inconsiderate a**holes.
This reminds me of a "Dad story." My dad has some terrific stories. One time, he and my mom were out to dinner and at a table next to them was a teenage boy and his date. The boy was swearing loudly and acting like a jerk. Everyone was uncomfortable but no one said anything. Except my dad. He got up and walked over and leaned over the table into the boys face (if anyone knows my dad, you know how scary he is. He's a big guy) and said something like, "Son, you are in public, and you are on a date. Your behavior is disrespectful to your date and to everyone in this restaurant. If you don't stop it immediately, I will take you outside and kick the ?!@! out of you." (I'm not sure if he actually threatened violence...although that sounds like something he'd say. I mean, this is the same man who was escorted out of the Social Security office by a police officer and overturned an entire display of oil and then took a door off its hinges on the way out of a store that ripped him off. Overreaction? Maybe. Effective? Definitly.) Okay, so he might have some anger issues. But overall my dad is a very considerate and generous person. But disrespect and rudeness turns him into a high-blood-pressure-fueled force. And why shouldn't that kind of behavior make him angry? Sometimes, anger is exactly what we need to feel and act on when truly outrageous things are happening to us. That's why we call it righteous anger!
Needless to say, the kid stopped. And I believe there was applause. So I would like to encourage those of you out there to stop being terrorized by this kind of public rudeness and do something about it. You aren't alone. 90% of the people around you want to say something but are too scared. Public humiliation and shame can go a long way to keeping some people in check. My New Year's Resolution (which I never make) is going to be to stand up for what is right regardless of what people think of me. I'm not going to sit quietly by and watch children be endangered by unruly, unsupervised children. Next time, I'm going to go further and escort the offending child to his/her parents and tell them they need supervising. Maybe the humiliation of having a perfect stranger point out they are slacking will be enough to make them shape up or leave.
Dad, I think I've inherited your angry gene....
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