Back in the park again over the weekend I had the pleasure of overhearing these conversations. To set the scene, there were 2 girls, probably about 17 or 18 at a guess. One, let's call her Tracey, had 2 kids, one new baby about 3 months wedged into a swing in full view of the sun, another older kid asleep in a buggy. Her mate, let's say Britney, had a toddler, who for most of the time was running around being totally ignored by her mother.
Tracey, when first encountered is on the phone: "Alright babes, how's it goin? Yeah? Sweet. Listen, it's a luvverly day 'ere, 'ow about we meet up tomorrow, have a day of it like a real family? No? You're real busy? Alright, no worries....erm....do you fink you will want to stay over tonight? ...No? No worries, see ya".
Then Britney comes over. Tracey says to her: "ow's about we meet up again tomorrow? Be nice for the kids, 'eh?". Britney pauses and says, "Oh I dunno. I've never spent a whole day wiv me boyfriend before and he says he can see me tomorrow."
Poor Tracey looks crestfallen. Those poor kids have no chance. No chance at all. And I really wanted to turn round to them and say "your boyfriends are just using you for sex whenever they want, and you keep getting bloody pregnant, what is wrong with you?!?!".
Maybe it's me who is wrong? This world is going mad. We went to a different park yesterday and I had to intervene three times with kids who kept pushing in and wouldn't let Littl'un take his turn on things when he was patiently queuing up. And there was no sign of the parents, probably a good thing or I would have got in an argument probably :)
I just wish that parents would start acting like parents, you know? It looks like you know what you're doing, but everyone else has their heads in the clouds. They seem to think places like the park are ample excuses to let everyone else babysit their children for them :(
ReplyDeleteGlad you didn't get involved with any angry parents; that could have been bad!
Ha yeah the prime example of this was a while ago. I was in the park with the kids and we were the only ones there. Then a woman turned up with her son, she stayed outside the gates on her mobile and when the kid got stuck on top of the climbing frame and was crying for her she turned round and said to him "oh that lady will get you off" and carried on talking! "That lady" did no such thing, imagine if I'd dropped him!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog. Delightful!
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