OK, so this blog has mostly been about my Faith, but today, I will be taking a (slight?) detour on this road. Be forewarned, there is a signifcant amount of judging in this blog, perhaps warranted, perhaps not. (However, on the God note, is judging ever warranted? Besides from the big Man upstairs?) Anywhos, regardless, it's in here, so you have been warned. Proceed with caution.
Let's rewind about 6 hours. The hubs has been a boo hooin' allll weekend to go see this dang movie, "Thor." I can't watch movies in the theater, I just don't care to be there, it's a rough go for me and I usually manage to wiggle my way out of it. However, he has been in the field all week and only gets a few days at home this month, so he guilted me in to going. In exchange for sitting in this (not so bad in the end) movie, I made him take me to dinner first.
Scene: Parking lot of Famous Daves. We get out of the car and first thing I see a is gentelman yelling at his baby. He was holding his baby (yes, BABY) and yelling in it's ear "STOP IT! BE QUIET...NOW!" Once he saw us he stopped. (Shocker) I motioned Jeremy to peek his head back into the car, and I proceeded to say, "DID YOU SEE THAT GUY?! HE'S SCREAMING AT HIS BABY!" Then I acted out, all tough like, what I was going to say to said guy about being a social worker and a mandated reporter. He begged me not to say anything and I settled for a big long glare. (Let me state, for the record, that child protection (and maybe most people) would not consider what I just watched abuse, and I may be a little more sensitive to these situations, so I did not report.)
We went inside, sat at out table, when the guy brought his baby back inside and lucky me, sat right in front of us. So, I had a front row seat to the upcoming shit show (pardon me) while Jeremy had his back to whole thing. Commence an hour or so of Sara saying "Turn around and look at this!" "I can't stop looking!" "This is infuriating!!" And Jeremy of course, not turning around and telling me to stop staring.
What I watched, was a very very oh so very ignorant mother and father "parent" their child. By this time, dad had taken a back seat and mama was driving this thing. Their son, who could not be more than 12 months old, if that, was sitting in a high chair, "eating" a whole meal that looked to be for an adult. He had a fork and was trying to mess with his food. Mommy rolled her eyes and told him to STOP very sturnly when this BABY could not eat his ADULT meal properly. When the BABY looked over at a near by table, mommy started snapping her fingers in front of his face and yelled at him to quite looking at them. *Sighhhh*
I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I was very angry. A classic case of of an ignorant parent, who knows nothing about being a parent, expecting their child to act a way that, developmentally, that child can NOT act or does not know HOW to act. When the baby doens't act the way mommy and daddy THINKS it should, baby is punished.
Mommy went on to "cry" at the table. Now I know I am being harsh, I don't know these people, but I've just watch them be completely inappropriate parents for 30 minutes. So mom was "crying." I call it "crying" because he face did get really red but no tears or anything, and she NOT so subtly kept looking around to see if anyone could see her crying.
After her woes of being a crappy ass parent brought her to "tears" her baby got up in his high chair. Mommy started in on him which made him cry. Mommy then forced him to sit back down and belted him in...then gave baby a "take that you piece of shit" (sorry I'm rawled up) nasty horrible glare. (Seriously, it was hurtful for me to even watch it.) Now I'm ok with strapping your baby in the high chair, but they were done eating, getting ready to leave. Presumbably baby just wanted to be held, a little love. Nope. In the hour I sat there and watched this, baby received no love. No touch. No smiles. He got glared at, and yelled at, and ignored.
Yes, I may be a overly sensitive social worker. Yes, babies can sometimes be extremelyyyy unrulely and drive you to tears out of shear frustration. But this really wasn't the case. I promise.
To top it all off! Yes, there is more! At the end of their meal their waiter brings them out a "comlimentary dessert." I'm guessing to comfort poor mommy of her horrible dinner experience with PSYCHO BABY! (Yes, I was listening as well as watching, sue me.)
Great. So now we are rewarding ignorant witless parents. Lovely.
Judgment Over.
