I’m about to be very, very brave here. I try to avoid doling out advice in areas that I have no experience in. Like parenthood. However, I have one massive gripe on that topic that I need to talk about. Here goes.
When people take their children to a public place, say a museum or a food show, most of the people there are going to be okay with their kid doing normal kid things. I get that sometimes I’ll cop a sticky hand print on my dress, or I’m going to be held up by a pram stuck in a narrow corridor, or a kid will just randomly scream bloody murder for three hours. All of this is fine because it’s out of the parents’ control. I once sat behind a couple on a flight to New York and their baby SCREAMED for 22 hours. It just did not stop. This poor woman looked like she was going to cry and kept apologising to everyone. I just kept reassuring her that it’s fine, that she was doing a fantastic job and that no one minded. Obviously it wasn’t an ideal situation but short of sedating the kid what options did she have? None. Therefore I’m logically quite okay with that scenario.
What I’m not okay with is parents allowing their children to push in. On the weekend my man and I went to a science museum with friends of ours. It was a very hands on experience with buttons to press and games and all that stuff that kids love. Twice while we were there I had a child push in front of our group. Both times the parent of the pushy child just awkwardly ignored the fact that we were standing there, clearly in line. I got an apologetic smile from one parent and a total snub from the other. We had been waiting in the line for 15 minutes. We PAID to get in to the museum while the pushy children were admitted for free. Perhaps these parents thought that adults like us should let kids skip the line, because apparently that’s what adults do.
That’s not what this adult does. This childless adult is not going to stand for that kind of bullshit. It’s not that I don’t like children. I have a niece who is the greatest human being alive and I even teach kids sometimes. I’m not a wicked witch. I’ll happily stand in line behind a six-year-old for 20 minutes while they choose what ice cream flavour to have, it’s a big decision when you’re six, but I will not tolerate kids that push in and parents who allow it. Not okay. If someone’s kid chucks a tanty and the parent gives in and buys what ever the kid wants, go for it. It doesn’t affect me at all. If a parent allows their child to treat me and other people badly they are basically grooming an adult arsehole and that does affect me.