I had a delightful day off. First of all, I shopped for school clothes for my 8-year old son (who responded to this news: “Why can’t I just wear my old clothes?”). Then, I saw “Little Miss Sunshine.” I am not sure if my hormones influenced my reaction, but I laughed and I cried and then I laughed again and then I cried some more.
Afterwards, I went to Value Village and Goodwill. At Goodwill, I scored my best buy of the day, a brand new Pampered Chef stoneware deep-dish baker for $1.99.
My boys are suffering from colds, so when I got home, I took my daughter to the park by the beach, which was mobbed with people attending a 10-year high school reunion. My daughter threw rocks and sticks in the water for awhile, but then she wanted to play on the playground.
We immediately encountered three children, two wild-eyed boys and a sneering girl, who went up the slide and tried to climb down the bars while my daughter was climbing up, so I said to them in my firm, mother’s voice, “Slides are for going down.” They looked at me with that annoying, “You’re not the boss of me!” look and I wanted to pinch them in that spot under their arms and make them sorry for being belligerent and snotty and unsupervised.
Instead, I said to my daughter in a voice loud enough for the hooligans to hear, “Let’s go to another park where there aren’t so many naughty children.” (Which we did.)
Yes, I am exactly six years old and I will not share a playground with rule-breakers and brats. And please, tell me where were the parents of these children who have no respect for adults? Probably peeing in the bushes and throwing beer bottles into the Puget Sound.
Signed,
PMSing near Seattle
Actual Unretouched Photo 
I almost saw Little Miss Sunshine today. Hubby took the kdis to see Monster House. I have no desire to waste money seeing it so I decided to see Little miss Sunshine. At the last minute I decided to see Step Up instead. I loved the movie but now I wanna see Little Miss Sunshine too.
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I wonder about kids like that too. There’s one across the street that makes me want to slap that sneer off her face (I restrain myself of course).
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P. S.
Your post is on here twice.
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Oooooh, I can’t stand kids like that. Parents? Evidently they didn’t have any, or they wouldn’t have acted that way.
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Try working for the public schools. When I worked as a lunch lady I got along great with the kids but my boss was manic depressive and on her bad days she could really bring out the raunchy behavior in our middle schoolers. Many was the time they’d look at her and say “F— you!” and there isn’t ANYTHING you can do about it. So many teachers were burnt out but kept going…they said it’d take 20 minutes out of a 40 minute class period to get the kids to settle down enough just to get role taken…and there was nothing the teachers could do about it, either. The basic decency ethics are woefully neglected in homes, but then again — when are parents home long enough to teach them??? This society’s going to pay more and more with each generation that comes along. Scary thought.
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Again, though — Goodwill and Pampered Chef for $1.99??? You, are nutty, nutty, awesome shopper!! I am impressed!
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okay i feel like i got really old after my sunday afternoon nap because the print on your blog got VERY, VERY tiny.
i can’t see!!!!!!!!!!!
these bifocals just aren’t working.
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GAH!! You got a PC Deep-dish baker for $1.99?!? Holy cats, woman! I grovel at your feet.
I would’ve said the same thing to those ratty, bratty prats. I might’ve even gone a step further and offered to find their parents for them and find out just why they seem to have forgotten their manners. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have, because I am also aware that many parents encourage this sort of “freedom” and “out-of-the-box” thinking in their children by refusing to impose discipline on them. BLEAH!!
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Just where are you shopping to find the Pampered Chef dealio? Bellevue? I think I need to hit up our Value Village – HELLO!!
As per the snotty kids, I often want to slap the haughty looks off their faces, but what can you do? I mean, legally, NOTHING! Just forgetaboutit! Good for you for taking your kids elsewhere…..I would have done the exact same thing!
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To Miss Kris –
While I agree that indeed basic manners are being neglected in homes, it isn’t necessarily because parents work, which is what I assume you meant when you said “when are parents home lone enough to teach them”.
It is possible to work and raise decent, respectful children. Happens all the time. Being home does not always equate to spending time with the kids, not in all families.
(Pardon my prickle, I get tired of the working parent bashing. I had an at-home mom and I did serious drugs and a various assortment of other naughty things. Fat lot of good it did me to have mom home.)
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Mel, I can so relate. I had a day like that yesterday and it’s effects have carried over. And I agree about the children at the park.
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I’ve seen Little Miss Sunshine too and it provoked the same mood swings in me.
About the kids I agree with you that there are too many bad parents who don’t care.
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