Obnoxious Breeds Obnoxious

I realize that this might be a controversial title, but it's only one mother's tongue in cheek opinion based on observation, and not fact. My friends all have great kids. Sure, there are toddler squabbles and no one quite understands how to share yet, but they're all good kids. Maybe it's cause they have good parents?

When I meet asshole kids at the park, you want to give the parents the benefit of the doubt, because children do go through a phase where they act like selfish jerks, and that doesn't mean it's necessarily learned behaviour from the parents. Mostly.

Yesterday was a scorcher of a day at 96 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius), so we spent a good two hours in the wading pool to stay cool. It was a winning formula really, because it kept us comfortable, Small Human was ecstatically happy in the water, and being in public made me less likely to cry over being so far away from my family who were all mourning together in Toronto.

Being a child, Small Human thinks everyone else's toys are the coolest thing EVAR, and being a toddler means he doesn't understand that he can't just take any toy he sees whenever he wants. All the parents know this and behave accordingly.

A really cool pink princess life preserver just outside the pool, caught my Small Human's eye, and he went for it. The mommy who was sitting next to it basically completely ignored my toddler and his pleading looks to use it, so he just grabbed it. It should be said that she ignored me too, weirdo. The little 6 year old who owned it though was quick to shriek, "Give it to me!" while the mother said nothing at all about her bratty older child's behaviour. Instead the mother decided to much too loudly and obnoxiously cheer on her 4 year old for "swimming" in the wading pool.

That lady got a look from me that made her shrink, and funnily Small Human gave the life preserver back to the little girl shrieking for it, cause he's a baby gentleman. Then the obnoxious lady's kids both hurt themselves in the pool simultaneously and were overly dramatic about it for bigger kids, and I silently thought, "Karma's a bitch, lady."

I'm glad I encountered that woman and her children though, because now I know that I want to make it a priority for Small Human to be considerate to others. You don't live life alone, you have to share it with a world full of people, so you might as well get used to it at a young age.