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Taking Young Children Out in Public
As most of you know, I raised my son alone from the time before he was a year old. I really had no idea on how to go about it, except to do things the way I remember my parents did with me, and to ask my father for advice, when I couldn't remember.
The other day, I was waiting in line at the grocery store. In the little seat of the grocery cart in front of me, was a little boy, somewhere between one and two years old, with his mother. The boy was wearing nothing at all, except for a disposable diaper: no shirt, no pants, no socks, no shoes; nothing. While we stood waiting for our respective turns at the register, the mother opened a pack of Juicy Fruit gum she'd had yet to pay for and gave a stick to the child to chew.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing -- didn't the woman know better than to give gum to such a young child, just barely old enough to walk? Didn't she realize he could choke on that?
I'd already been looking at the mother askance because she'd brought him out in public with nothing more on than a diaper. I can remember well my father making comments about people who let their kids run around barefoot in stores, and other places in public. He pointed out that he and my mother had never done that with us, as they worried about things we could step in that would hurt our feet while out in public; glass, hot tar, sharp objects, etc. I remember being allowed to run around barefoot at home in the yard when I was a kid, but when we went out, I had to have something on my feet, even if just a pair of flip flops.
And even though it was a hot day, the kid should have had some shorts on over his diaper and a tshirt -- it had to be hot sitting in his car seat with no shirt to protect his back from the hot vinyl of the seat.
I looked closely at the mother, who looked like an extra from the movie Deliverance and figured she just didn't know any better.
Thoughts?
You do have to feel sorry for some kids you see in public, it's not like
they can pick out their parents.
Gum? I didn't let my daughter have any until she was at least three maybe
even older than that.
I always dressed my kid when we went out in public, at home she could wear
just a diaper around the house, but out in public was a different matter.
Ya know One thing I try really hard on NOT doing is knocking other people's
parenting tactics. However some people you cannot help but wonder WTF ~ and
think to yourself that is just straight up getto.
Declining standards of behavior. The unacceptable has become the
acceptable to some people. You and Chrys see it. How we behave in our
homes is different than how we behave in public. That is how our parents
taught us. This is what we teach our children.
It's too bad there are not more people on the net like you.
Thanks for the great tips.
the worst I ever saw? The trash who lived downstairs from D. and I in our
early days were unbelievable - I came down the stairs one day to see her
feeding the baby (6 MONTHS old) with a bottle - something DARK in it .. I'm
like, WHAT are you giving him? She is like, oh, it's COKE - he LOVES it!!!
I worked in a grocery store as a cashier and saw a lot of people come in
with very young children. I could not believe how many of them would come
thru the check out with open packages of food. The usual comment made was
“junior was hungry and couldn’t wait”. I often wondered how many of these
kids grew up to be shop lifters because their parents let them take things
before they were paid for!
The only time I ever say anything to a parent I don’t know, is when I see a
child left unattended in a shopping cart. I watched in horror as a little
boy about 1 years old fell head first out of a shopping cart onto the hard
tile floor. The mother had forgotten some item she wanted to buy and before
I could say anything she bolted away and left me with her baby. Before I
could get around to the cart, the little guy leaned forward and fell right
out. I don’t know what sounded worse, the hollow thud his head made as it
hit the tile floor or the lack of crying when he was lying there
motionless. Another cashier came running over and started CPR on the little
boy wile I tried to find his mother. The last time I saw the little boy or
his mother was when the ambulance took them away. I never heard how the
little guy did, but I know he was still not breathing on his own when the
paramedics took over the CPR.
OMG, Lisapoo. That story makes me feel ill. The worst I watched was a
child who was balancing on the "motorcyle" attached to a video game. He
was maybe 3, and his mom and a group of adults was standing there watching
him. While I tried to decide whether I should say something, he fell,
split his head open, and they rushed him out to the hospital.
I'm sure in your years as a police officer you saw much worse. I have
ceased wondering at how people live and behave.
Lisa and Paula, what sickening stories! The coke in the bottle story
reminds me of my sister who had a kid in her kindergarten class a few years
back who had rotten teeth from being allowed to sleep with her bottle of
milk. Later they found it even affected her adult teeth which all came in
black. Thinking about this topic too much depresses the hell out of me.
