Childish parents

[saintbryan]

The other day I was in the public library to access the internet on my laptop. I was sitting at a table and a mother with two young children came along. The mother was accessing the library database and the children were rolling around on the floor, climbing on the couches and giggling to each other. The mother, of course, tried to tell

Comments

seriously?

[anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

It's not your egocentric view of not wanting their child to "bother you", it's probably that they don't want some creepy neonazi looking young male to have anything to do with their child.

If I saw someone like you smiling at my two playing children, I would probably be overcome with anger. Working with abused children is a tragic eye opener and parents need to wise up. It seems like the only fear these parents foolishly exhibit is their inability to tell you to piss off.

Re: seriously?

[dead_eye_dallas]

TROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL

Re: seriously?

[anonymous]

Not really. If you Brian gets a rise out of my response, that's his business. I present a fair fucking view from personal insight, however.

Re: seriously?

[saintbryan]

Your view is about as fair and insightful as Bill O'Reilly's bulging neck veins.

Minus the totally unnecessary hostile tone of your comment, what it sounds like you're trying to say is something like "it's possible that those parents were under the impression that your enjoyment of the presence of their children was sexual in nature. I think this because if I were a parent, I would be very quick to judge other people by their appearances. I would be hostile to strangers and restrictive to my children because my experience with children who have been abused has led me into a position of general distrust."

However you wish to say it, I would not disagree with you. I don't doubt that whoever you are might see me as an evil bald shining devil come to rape your children. I also wouldn't doubt that many of the horrible things that you see in the world (such as evil bald shining devils come to rape your children) aren't actually real.

[rainer_rilke]

It sounds like there was some misunderstanding between you and the parents, because you were personally refreshed by the childrens playfulness, although you felt that the parents could appreciate it more themselves. But parents are deeply and personally acquainted with their childrens playful nature, and delight in them alot. For this reason, parents also have a strong sense of what behavior for their children is appropriate. Children are not yet complete in a sense, because they lack discipline, which is something crucial that the parents provide, even if it is not perfect discipline. In short, if you really want to appreciate children, in all their innocence and playfulness, don't despise their parents, who in every sense make the childrens existence possible and maintain them through their loving stewardship.

[saintbryan]

Don't mistake my comments for meaning that I despise the parents. I have as much reason to despise parents as I have for despising children: none. My observation was more along the lines of concern that many people who have children are themselves still children on an emotional level.That is, many people, as they grow up, remain incomplete in a sense, and lack emotional discipline. Then they have children themselves and their emotional childishness is perpetuated. By "they" I don't mean all parents, and it might not even apply directly to the specific examples that I provided in this post, but I know that it applies to many parents. For this reason, I believe you are wrong to make the generalization that "(all) parents have a strong sense of what behaviour for their children is appropriate." Our sense of what is appropriate is given to us largely by our emotional reactions. The "feeling for what is right". However, unlike simpler animals, human emotional reactions can be influenced to a very, very great degree by our imaginations (