Who will parent when they won't?
Today Corey went to another birthday party. Last week was a pizza place, and this week was at an indoor swim park. The birthday boy is a sweet and fun kid in Corey's class, and I had never met his parents. They were just as nice, and very down to earth.
There were 12 kids there and they went straight to the water. I casually moved my way around to keep an eye on Corey, even though he had his life vest on. It was a very busy place, and they have a tidal wave pool with waves up to 5 feet high.
As I look around, I realized that only about 1/2 the parents stuck around. Many of them just came in, dropped the kid off, and left.
Now when this happened at last weeks party I thought it was a little rude, but none of my business. But at this party I thought it was down right disgraceful.
We are talking 6 and 7 year olds here. In a crowded WATER PARK.
Don't you think you ought to stick around? That is a great deal of responsibility to put on the birthday boy's parents. Anything can happen. Not to mention that the two boys who needed the most supervision (very reckless and unruly) were the two mothers who dumped and dashed their little hell-yins.
I bet these would have been the first two to sue both the park and the birthday boy's parents if something had happened to their kids!
I sat there amazed as no one seemed to mind. The birthday dad stayed in the water and "wrestled" with the kids the whole hour before cake. Three moms, a dad, and myself watched from a distance.
It wasn't until later that I realized that I was not the only one who found this all to be rude and alarming. The birthday dad (who reminds me of a NY cop) thanked me for sticking around for the party and said a couple of other things that reinforced how I felt. He also thanked me for trying to keep the two unruly kids under some control.
I was thinking of having Corey's party here, but seeing what I saw today, uh, no. There will be no parties with large bodies of water involved.
There were 12 kids there and they went straight to the water. I casually moved my way around to keep an eye on Corey, even though he had his life vest on. It was a very busy place, and they have a tidal wave pool with waves up to 5 feet high.
As I look around, I realized that only about 1/2 the parents stuck around. Many of them just came in, dropped the kid off, and left.
Now when this happened at last weeks party I thought it was a little rude, but none of my business. But at this party I thought it was down right disgraceful.
We are talking 6 and 7 year olds here. In a crowded WATER PARK.
Don't you think you ought to stick around? That is a great deal of responsibility to put on the birthday boy's parents. Anything can happen. Not to mention that the two boys who needed the most supervision (very reckless and unruly) were the two mothers who dumped and dashed their little hell-yins.
I bet these would have been the first two to sue both the park and the birthday boy's parents if something had happened to their kids!
I sat there amazed as no one seemed to mind. The birthday dad stayed in the water and "wrestled" with the kids the whole hour before cake. Three moms, a dad, and myself watched from a distance.
It wasn't until later that I realized that I was not the only one who found this all to be rude and alarming. The birthday dad (who reminds me of a NY cop) thanked me for sticking around for the party and said a couple of other things that reinforced how I felt. He also thanked me for trying to keep the two unruly kids under some control.
I was thinking of having Corey's party here, but seeing what I saw today, uh, no. There will be no parties with large bodies of water involved.
posted by Cindy at 5:38 PM
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