Just A Day in the Park

Have you ever been to the park with your son or daughter and you see a crazy lady yelling at other people's kids? That crazy lady happens to be me! But I have a declaration to make: I am DONE..DONE parenting other people's children!

It is completely beyond my comprehension why people bring their children to public places and then don't bother to watch them? Granted when a kid reaches a certain age, it is not necessary to stand over them. But your eyes should always be on them. The park is for sharing. If you don't want to share or behave appropriately...stay home.

Incident number one happened when my daughter had her eye on the tire swing the moment we got the park. It was always in use. As my daughter was walking towards another activity, she saw that the tire swing had become free. She started running towards it and was an arm length's away when a boy saw her, looked back at where she was running to and hauled ass to the swing and got on it. Just to get a better mental picture, he was walking with two other boys in the opposite direction of this swing. He had already passed it, knowing it was unoccupied. Upon seeing my daughter run towards it, he decided he had to get on it at that moment. So when he did that, I made it a point to let him know that it was a very mean thing to do. I waited for a parent to come and say "hey, why don't you give the girl a turn" but no one showed up. So my daughter walked away holding back the tears. I really had an urge to push the kid off the swing. Hopefully my verbal abuse was enough to scar him.

Incident number two was with a girl sitting at the edge of the slide. I don't know who the girl was and it wasn't my kid going down at the time. But, I thought I would be a good Samaritan and warn the girl that someone was coming down and that she might want to stop loitering at the end of the slide. She got up, the kid came down..but THEN SHE SAT BACK DOWN ON THE SLIDE! What a dumb kid! I mean, while she was sitting on the slide, she was looking at a bench. Wouldn't that be a better place to take a rest? So, she is sitting back down on the slide and it's my daughter's turn to go down. I give the girl another chance. Hey, not all kids are as bright as mine. :) I let her know that she is about to get kicked in the back. Ok, so I wasn't saving a life here, and maybe she would get just a little hurt..but where's her fucking mother telling her to move?? And, just because I happen to be the responsible adult standing there, is it MY responsibility to teach this child cause and effect?

The last incident was another kid using the slide inappropriately. He was walking up it as my daughter was trying to go down. This time I just said "fuck it" and I didn't say a word. If his idiotic parent doesn't care if his teeth get knocked out than neither do I. My three year old had the decency to get up and move out of the way. I secretly wish she hadn't. I wish she went down and knocked this boy on his ass. But then again, here is my three year old who is in the 3rd percentile weight wise and the 50th percentile for height up against a boy who looks like a monster compared to her.

When she was done with the slide, I had HAD it with the park and idiotic kids and their ignorant parents. I bribed my girls with Dairy Queen and got the hell out of Dodge.

I am also very glad I invested in my backyard swing set.