“Where hacks come to spew nonsense” – B2B
My son had a birthday yesterday.
He’s three years old.
He is growing up too fast. I feel like I don’t get to spend enough time with him.
Sometimes I feel like I am missing it.
He can be an annoying 3 year old at times, but he’s also one of the most interesting people that I have ever met. Maybe I’m biased.
Ummmm…when does track season start again?
(sent via mobile)
Yesterday at a New York Wal-Mart:
Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
“This crowd was out of control,” Fleming said. He described the scene as “utter chaos,” and said the store didn’t have enough security.
Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store.
So much for that bad economy.
We took two flights this morning with the kids. Our little girl is 18 months old, our son is 3 years. As we deboarded both flights we had numerous people remark how well behaved our kids were on the airplane. A few even mentioned that they did not know that kids were even on the flight.
It was not to last however.
By the time we got down to baggage claim both kids had been awake for 7 consecutive hours without a nap. They were hungry and tired and were not at all interested in hanging around waiting for bags to show up. Unfortunately we had no other options.
My daughter was inconsolable and my son was running around the baggage claim area in a manic state, getting in everyone’s way and endangering himself. I finally said enough, picked him up and put him in the stroller next to his sister for his own good. My wife wheeled the stroller over to one of the exit doors to keep him away form the crowds, for the crowds own good.
My son then proceeded to go absolutely bad shit insane crazy. Screaming in frustration, wailing in sadness, shrieking in fury, typical toddler behavior when they are in this state, but annoying none the less. Until the bags showed up however, we were stuck with him.
I was waiting by the bag carousel while my wife was with the kids. Despite her attempts to calm Toddler Smithers he continued with his tantrum. Apparently it was too much for one woman standing nearby who finally exclaimed: “THAT’S ENOUGH, FUCK!” and stormed out of the terminal to the sidewalk outside. While she did not solicit her comments directly to my son or my wife, it was clear what her issue was.
After a few minutes outside in the cold she returned to the inside of the terminal and, as she walked past my wife, made a comment to the effect of “You need to control that kid.” She made the same comment to my wife one more time before we were finally ready to leave the terminal.
Control that kid? Anyone who has had children knows that “controlling” the temper tantrum of a 3 year old sounds great in theory but you have a better chance of holding back the tide. The only thing you can do is try and figure out how to distract the child out of the tantrum and, failing that, isolating the child away from other people as best you can.
Anyone who has not had children probably feels that there is something else that a parent can do to stop the child from behaving in that way.
I can assure you that, as parents, there is nothing that would have pleased us more than to get Toddler Smithers to stop his screaming. But in the scenario we were in it was simply not possible. I guarantee that as annoying as his screaming was, it was worse for us than it was for the rest of the crowd hanging around waiting for their bags. There is nothing more painful for a parent, nothing that elicits a stronger response to solve the problem, nothing that causes the same spike in stress and anxiety than your own child crying. It’s a built in panic button that only your child knows how to press. And they do press it hard.
I’ve written about this before, and I know that it is hard for non-parents to understand. But when you are out in public and encounter children who are in the same condition that my children were in this afternoon please understand what is going on and take a small amount of pity on the parents. If you can’t muster the strength to be compassionate then just walk out of earshot.
Resisting the urge to make comments to the parents will help prevent an already stressful situation from getting worse.
You have my thanks and gratitude.
Those who have read my blog for a while know that I am a fairly negative person.
I work out a lot of my negativity online (I apologize that you end up having to read it) which helps me mitigate the amount of negativity that I share with my wife, friends and family. Mitigate, but not eliminate. My wife tells me that she enjoys my cynicism, but I know that she despises my “down days” where I hardly speak a word to anyone for days at a time.
I pretty much assume the worst about most people and situations and in a crisis I instantly believe that the worst case scenario will always come to pass. It sucks having this kind of outlook on life but there it is. I could work on it I suppose but then I would be acting like one of those phony “happy” type people that I assume do unspeakable things in the privacy of their home. I would rather people just think that I am a jerk instead of a happy creep.
A healthy does of cynicism can be a help on occasion. It keeps me from getting my hopes up too high which also prevents the inevitable let down later. I guess that’s the silver lining on a dark cloud.
I work hard to spare my children my negative attitude. I am sure that they will pick up on it eventually but I am not bothered that they will be dramatically affected by it.
What does bother me is that I tend to take my negative attitude to bed each night. More often then not I spend the first hour on my pillow laying awake thinking of all the horrible things that could happen to my family. It’s interesting that I am not bothered in the slightest by the thought that something could happen to me, but the possibilities of danger to my wife and children that run through my mind most nights are far too gastly to describe. Most nights I am able to finally put these thoughts out of my mind and fall asleep relaxed and at peace. But sometimes these awful thoughts follow me into sleep and my wife is forced to wake me from a sobbing nightmare that I can’t bring myself to detail to her.
What I am thankful for this Thanksgiving?
I am thankful that life is in no way as bad as I tend to think it is and that none of the things that I think about before falling asleep at night have ever come true.
Positivity? I envy you Skibby.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you and yours.
75 degrees and sunny. The water is freezing cold however. Life ain’t perfect I guess.
(sent via mobile)
2nd largest river delta in the United States. No aligators spotted so far.
(sent via mobile)
