Okay, so I wanted to toss this topic out there…
Today we took the kids to the mall and let them play in the play area for a while. Ofcourse, it was relatively crowded. First annoying incident occurred when a mom changed her son’s diaper on the ground in front of my husband who was sitting along the perimeter of the play area. That is so wrong, rude and disgusting on many dimensions, but most importantly, LITTLE KIDS PLAY ON THAT CARPETED AREA…and run around everywhere. What if one of them fell down and their face landed on that dirty diaper or something? Okay, the chances of that happening are slim, but it there is still a slight possibility. At any rate..it was just wrong.
Another thing that annoys me is when the parents leave their kids to run around and don’t pay a lick of attention to them….as they run into, push, hit and kick other kids. Those other kids end up being my kids. I’d say more often than not, I have to tell at least one kid to stop kicking M or don’t push J while their parents are nowhere to be found. I’ll be the first to admit that my kids aren’t perfect angels, but I do my best to make sure they aren’t mean to the other kids playing there.
And those times where my reactions aren’t that quick and M pulls or pushes another child (usually smaller than him), I usually apologize to the kid and the parent (if he/she is around) in addition to telling M or J that it isn’t nice to hit, push, pull etc. I’ve noticed that a lot of other moms don’t apologize for their children…they will tell their kids to be gentle or stop hitting but they don’t really acknowledge the victim or his/her parent. And that bothers me?
Am I overreacting? I know a lot of parents will think “kids will be kids”, and I agree, but it doesn’t hurt to apologize for your child, does it?
I totally agree on the diaper thing. It reminds me of when I lived in Florida, and at this dive crabshack place, a guy changed his baby’s diaper on the table next to us. We looked at him, and he said, “It’s only number two.”
As for the apology thing, I bet it’s because people are embarrassed. I know that might keep me from acknowledging my kid’s bad behavior. But I will try to be the bigger person (when my daughter is old enough to be bad).