Monday 30 May 2016

Teach your kid not to be an A$$hole

It's feeling hot, hot, hot out these days. We've got a taste of summer in late spring. I love it, a bit humid but I'm not going to complain, just over 2 weeks ago there were flurries in the air. So sweaty is better than snow!

We spent most of the weekend in the hospital, well, I guess we were not in the hospital, but we were staying close enough to the hospital to go and see Big C's dad. 

He is doing much better now after his surgery. They moved him to the rehab ward late last week, but then told him he couldn't do anything because he hadn't been properly assessed. WTF? They want him up and going and strengthening everything, but now they are not going to let him move. He hadn't been assessed they said. I call B.S., everyone covering their collective ass so that no one gets in trouble. 

But the politics of healthcare are not a subject I even want to get into. Big C raised a bit of a stink on Saturday morning and at least his dad got a walker so he could get himself to the bathroom and get up to eat his meals and things so that was good. But I ask why you would move him to a rehab facility and then not offer any sort of rehab for almost 3 days, stupid system if you ask me.

Aside from that it was a good visit. Miss K enjoyed taking care of her poppa and generally found the hospital experience fascinating. We did some swimming at the hotel, some shopping for the hospital bound and kind of got away from it all while not really getting away from it all at the same time.

I did spot some stellar parenting while away as well. And by stellar, I mean not at all exemplary.

I've ranted before about the negligence and disregard a lot of people have for their kids and their behaviour but I've got 2 excellent examples of "why have kids if you aren't going to pay attention to them?"

The first was kind of a passive disregard. We were at the pool, and there was a lady dozing in a chair poolside. I give her credit for snoozing as the noise in the pool area was deafening. I thought nothing of it until I noticed a boy in the pool that could only be her son. He was not a great swimmer, but adequate and in all likelihood tall enough to touch bottom every where in the pool but would you not think you should keep an eye on them?

He did have a guardian over 16 years of age at the pool, but I guess the rules did not state they needed to stay awake. Very odd in my books.

The second annoyance was a larger group of children, I'm assuming 2 or 3 families staying together, were playing at the pool and by playing I mean being general idiots.

Every pool rule was pretty much broken by them and the general lack of consideration by the kids was a direct result of the lack of interest from the parental figures present. 

From what I could tell, the mom's were by the pool area sitting on lounge chairs and the dad's were outside, chatting and smoking with each other.

Again the parental figure of someone over 16 years of age was there, but there was not one of them really paying any attention to the kids.

We had kids playing in the shower that is supposed to be for all guests, spraying one another and basically using it as a splash pad. Two others were playing with a football that was disintegrating and causing all sorts of floating scum in the pool itself. The whole bunch of them were running, trying to throw one another in the pool and jumping into water that was at most 4 feet deep, in some instances only 3 feet deep.

The first couple things are basically just allowing your kids to be douche bags. And for that I'm sorry for society that you're letting them grow up that way. The latter is a safety issue. Any 4 year old who takes swimming lessons can tell you, no running by the pool, no horseplay, no jumping into water that is not a safe depth and so on.

But, my conclusion is some parents don't care. They don't care if their kid is an asshole, they don't care if they're doing something most would consider unsafe or inappropriate behaviour. They don't care enough to even get in the pool with the kid and show them what would be acceptable actions in a public situation.

I will say the kids were not total assholes, but their disregard of all the other patrons in the pool, told me their parents sure as hell didn't give a shit either.

There were 2 threats issued by one dad and one mom when the play got particularly boisterous, but they were largely ignored. The moms went back to chatting and drinking and the dads went back to being outside and smoking.

I just don't get it. Being an impolite moron as a kid is one thing, you don't have much of a chance if your parents teach you nothing. But being a negligent parent is another. I guess they don't care if their kid gets hurt or hurts someone else, its better to just sit back and let things happen.

At least none of the kids was stupid enough to be going in head first to the relatively shallow pool, but how long before one of the wrestling matches beside the pool dumped someone in the pool in the wrong way?

Thankfully it didn't happen, but it bothers the hell out of me. I'm not a perfect parent, I probably yell at my kid and lose my patience way too often. But I do teach her to be kind, considerate, follow the rules and most of all not be a douche bag.

Maybe its that sense of entitlement again. The kids think they're entitled to do whatever the hell they want and the parents think they can sit back and have adult time without having to take responsibility for their kids or teaching their kids appropriate behaviour.

But what do I know? 

Until next time…please teach your kids not to be assholes


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