An Introduction and a Question
As a new Parenting blogger, I'd like to first say hello: "Hello." And I'd also like to warn you that I may not be your 'typical' parent. I am a 40ish father of two, married over 13 years to my best friend, whom, by the way, I have been in lust with for nearly 3 decades. My kids are 3 and 5, both boys. Both took tremendous blood, sweat and tears to conceive and bring to life, and I don't expect them to grow up any differently. So far they have not disappointed.
They have taken me on tremendous highs and unintended lows. They have pushed my tolerance for pain both physically and emotionally, and at 5 years old, the oldest has quickly learned to affect me mentally as well. He's sharp as a tack and continues to amaze me every day when it comes to life's little lessons. His little brother is already on his way to being all that and then some, and God help us when he puts it all together.
Which brings me to my question… How do you, as parents, feel when you see other parents letting their kids do things you wouldn't let your kids do? Not just little things like watching TV that might be inappropriate, but things that could potentially be physically dangerous? For me, some times it's hard not to intervene, but I know as a parent, I would not want someone else telling me what to do.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
That is such a quandary isn’t it.
In my experience most of the time, it relates to parents just not paying much attention. So you’ve got to get their or their kids attention.
Most of the time, I’ll try to make the parent aware of the situation – sometimes with an exaggerated fib (hey you know a kid slipped on that last week and broke his arm.) I know it is lying but anything to at least get their attention.
But if I’m on safe ground, I’ll just open up my mouth. We have a community pool and community swim team, so most of us know the kids around. If they are out of line, I will tell the children to stop what they are doing – and if needed, haul them over to their parents.
Maybe one of them will get pissed at me at some point but at least their child will be safe.