Where I Totally Fail At Being Non-Judgmental

I thought I should take advantage of the fact that's it's not snowing or freezing (technically, anyway) to take the kids to the park.  Naturally they requested the playground in the next town over, with its two sections that make it difficult to see all of them and few things that Hugmonkey can do independently. But I agreed to it, hopeful that the last 6 months would make the place easier to manage.

It wasn't.

Hugmonkey is no longer much of a climber, quite possibly because he is the youngest and used to having Mommy there to push him up. Which I did. Ironflower ran off and joined up with a girl her age. Lovebug wandered rather aimlessly until 3 small boys arrived with their mothers. He asked to play with them and one boy totally shot him down. As Lovebug tried to follow them up the slide, the same boy had a huge tantrum, climbed down and then screamed that Lovebug had cut in front of him. I had been just watching while pushing Hugmonkey in the swing, hoping that the one boy would accept Lovebug and let him play. But even after Lovebug climbed down and let the boy go in front of him (which I complimented loudly enough for his mother to hear), the boy still wouldn't let him play.

As more boys and moms joined the clique, Lovebug tried a few more times to play. But the boy rejected him each time. I then eavesdropped on some of the other boys and was horrified that a bunch of 4 year olds could be so nasty to each other while their parents were nearby, totally ignoring them. I encouraged Lovebug to play with Ironflower, but there's only so much pretending to be a boy fairy he can take.

I shouldn't be surprised, given that all the moms were unfriendly too. I should be over it - Lovebug is. I shouldn't be judgmental, because I'm trying to see the good in people.

But.

Not only did those brats hurt my kid's feelings, they tried to tell him it was THEIR park. I said something about that too, but once again the mothers totally ignored me and their children's bratty behavior.

Ironflower asked me, after we'd left, why those parents let their kids act that way. Before thinking about it, I responded, "Because they just don't care." I don't know if it's that they don't care to make the effort into making their kids good people of if they just don't care if their kids turn out to be good people, but I didn't go into it with Ironflower. She just commented that it was "too bad".

It's really no wonder those kids are little assholes.

Oops, that sounded kind of judgmental, didn't it?

Maybe It's Good That I Don't Usually Watch The News

This morning I actually turned on the news. The children, perhaps sated with the pound of candy they must have eaten yesterday, did not ask for breakfast the second we came down the stairs. Of course, it might not have been the chocolate at all - it might have been the fact that there were NEW TOYS. Some of which were still in their boxes.

I tackled the cars quickly enough. But then Ironflower brought me her Barbie Vacation House. As I pulled out the many pieces, I was very glad that Santa did not blow most of Ironflower's present budget on the Barbie Townhouse. If he had, I would have had to watch a movie while I put it together. Or maybe the entire Lord of the Rings series. As it was, I got to watch a rather large chunk of Headline News' morning cycle.

I didn't pay close attention, so I don't know why they were showing the video of a little boy on Christmas morning. But I know I dropped the itty bitty margarita pitcher (okay, the guide called it a lemonade pitcher, but it's pretty obvious to me that Barbie is more likely to drink margaritas while she's on vacation from being a pilot and a beauty queen and a ballerina and her 18 other jobs) when the little boy started his tantrum about getting books for Christmas.

Now, I'm not saying that my kids jumped up and down over everything they got. Lovebug MAY have opened a box of clothes, said, "New clothes!" and then tossed the box to the side without even noticing his new Lightning McQueen hat. Hugmonkey may have refused to open any presents after finding his first box of cars. Ironflower may have already forgotten about the Squinkies she had to have after seeing countless commercials for them (thanks, Hub!). But.

My kids do not throw tantrums when given any kind of gift.

And they actually like books. Not that you would have noticed this yesterday.

Though, honestly, it's not the kid's reaction to the books that upsets me ( Much. 3 year olds who hate picture books sometimes turn into 7 year olds who can't read and 18 year olds who vote for Sarah Palin). It's the parents laughing and putting it on YouTube. Sure, I've laughed about my kids' bad behavior before. But not in front of them. And I certainly haven't posted it on YouTube so the entire world can see my child act like a brat.

And then there's the fact that CNN thought this would be a great holiday segment.

You know what would be a great holiday segment, CNN? The kid in the ghetto who gets a book as his only Christmas present and is THRILLED. Or any of the people who volunteer with Toys for Tots and the other organizations that give to kids who will appreciate it.