For a child to be bad enough to make it on to one of my posts, he must be pretty damn bad. I really have no other title for this post then it truly is an example of bad parenting.
But first, I want to tell you about our “lovely” hotel. As many of you know, we stay several weekends a year in hotels for soccer tournaments. For my youngest, my husband is the admin thus allowing me to choose our hotels. I go to extreme measures, ensuring our hotels are:
- new
- affordable
- close to the fields
- tastefully decorated
- free breakfast
- and if at all possible, two-room suites
But occasionally, you’re playing in a tournament where the newest hotel was built in 1997 and your options are limited. This was the current case. Our hotel smells like a nursing home. The halls reek of bleach. When you go into your room, the smell goes away but the rooms are painted yellow and are small. The “queen beds”, I’m convinced are full-size beds. To confirm my suspicion, I downloaded a ruler app and measured the bed….twice. A normal queen is 60″, I was measuring 46″. To confirm I was right, I pulled up the sheet, grabbed the tag (don’t worry, I didn’t rip it off as I don’t want to go to prison) and snapped a photo to research the item code. Twenty minutes later, my search proved fruitless so I slammed the laptop closed and went to dinner.
Mexican Restaurant
There’s a wonderful Mexican restaurant we’ve eaten at before and it’s within walking distance of our hotel. I was hangry at that point and couldn’t wait to make the tortilla chips my bitch. We had another father and son join us and we were immediately seated. Allow me to clarify; we were seated next to Satan himself. Satan was with his mother, father, baby sister and what looked to be another couple. 3 pitchers of margaritas were on the table and I deduced the baby would be the designated driver this evening.
10 minutes into our meal, Satan decided he was a fog horn and began to “honk” loudly every 20 seconds. This continued for about a minute and would randomly occur during the entire evening. I looked over at the mother, willing her to catch my gaze and realized she was really sucking as a parent right now. She was completely oblivious that her wonderful angel was making my Mexican dining experience a nightmare.
Between appetizers, Satan decided to slide his little sister’s high-chair across the floor, two feet into the middle of the aisle. By now, the little baby turned around and looked at us as if to say, “get me away from this psycho.” Of course, none of the 4 adults drinking margaritas took notice that the baby was now in the middle of the aisle.
‘Blink twice little baby if you need us to call social services,’ I thought.
Satan and the Ninja-Knives
Satan and the Ninja-KnivesThe final straw was when Satan decided it was ninja-knife time. He picked up 2 knives and swung them around like a Marvel character. Again, no parental interception and I was seconds away from losing it. I would say, “if my children acted like this…” but the thing is, I would never let it get to this point. If my children were ever annoying, I would always apologize to those around me. If I knew my kids weren’t going to do well in a restaurant, guess what? We wouldn’t go.
I snapped the picture on the left. If the parents weren’t paying attention to Satan and noticing lil’ sis was in the middle of the aisle, they weren’t going to notice me snapping a picture. For their privacy, I hid their faces but if I hadn’t, you’d notice the kid was starring right at me; and I at him.
We finally left and all I wanted was a dark room to decompress. Those parents…..wth? The father that joined us for dinner commented that was literally the loudest restaurant he had ever been in.
Public Service Announcement: If you can’t control your children, don’t take them to public places. That is all.
I have been blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with “the look”. Nine times out of ten I’m able to look at the little darling acting out and they’ll settle down.
They’ll look away and slowly settle into their seat. They will keep peeking to see if I’m still watching and like a Ninja, I feel their peeking and look back.
Once in a while Mom will see me watching and I’ll get a “what you lookin at” with some snarl.
“Nothing” I’ll answer, “absolutely nothing”.
Mom doesn’t understand but Junior does.
I laughed immediately when I read you’ve been blessed or cursed with “the look”. I know that look b/c my parents use to give it to us when we were growing up. I think I’ve been blessed with the look with my children. When the look doesn’t register immediately, I simply shake my head slowly (with the look) which is really their last warning till we settle things privately.
Oh dude, I half expected this to be a regaling of one of the stories I have told you LOL thankfully, when we go out to eat or to get a snack or something, my kids are usually pretty well behaved. One time, we were shopping for secret Santa and before I even left the car I was like “this is NOT a fun shopping trip. We are getting one thing for 2nd’s secret Santa, and one thing for 3rd’s and one thing for 2nd’s school project. There will be no toys or candy or fun things to buy for ourselves. Does everyone understand?” And 2nd/3rd/4th all said yes. And then 4th almost had a crying fit and wouldn’t leave the store because I wouldn’t let her buy candy. But her brother put his arm around her and got her to leave quietly without any tears. After that she’s ok with the leaving with not getting anything. I think it was the first that that had ever happened for them: going into a store and NOT getting a treat of some sort. I almost gave in but I’m glad I didn’t!
I’m glad you didn’t give in too! Well you are very lucky that normally they are pretty good! If I have to go shopping with my kids you know what I say? I say “If you see something you like and you are thinking about asking me, what’s the answer going to be?” “No!” they announce together.
HAHA! that’s good! Kids don’t need something EVERY SINGLE TIME they go out. Sometimes a trip to the dollar store is just for poster board and that’s it. Or a trip to the grocery store is just for a bag of milk. Not pop and chips and gum and candy. lol
Exactly!
Ugh. I hate it when we go somewhere and the parents won’t discipline their kids, especially when they do something to one of mine that I don’t allow them to do. They say you shouldn’t discipline someone else’s kids, but I do if it’s the only way to keep mine safe. I’m kind of a mama bear when things like that happen. 🙂
You know what? Your preventing that kid from beginning a psycho when he/she grows up. Kids need discipline and if the parents aren’t going to do it….At the very least, telling a kid what they are doing is wrong has a positive impact on that kid. Good job mama bear. I get that way too, often times.
🙂 Thanks!
That is bad parenting. Many moons ago we were feeding the children before a big family show, so the restaurant was packed. On one table was such a child, young enough to produce a high pitched scream, old enough to know better. Our young daughter said in a loud voice ‘Why don’t they just hit him or something?’ Everyone ( except the family from hell ) laughed, though what they thought we were like as parents is another matter!
Your daughter was on the right track. It’s one thing to be patient with your kids but when you’re missing the chromosome that triggers you to stop your kids from acting like asses, that’s when it’s a problem. Love that your daughter said that.