Parenting

I understand that for parents, their kids are the most important thing in the world. I understand this because of the 9,000 photos people upload to Facebook every time their son or daughter blinks/does something cute. What I don’t understand is some people’s attitude towards parenting.

Of course some children scream and yell a lot, and their mothers and fathers might even have learned how to tune it out. Sadly that is a skill I, and many others, have not been able to master.

I was in a supermarket the other month and there was an infant screaming its head off. “I wanna go home” or some such statement was being yelled at a volume which would have made a jet engine seem quiet. The kid’s parents meandered around the frozen, bread-crumbed, orange products section blissfully unaware of the annoyance being caused. I bet they would have been the first to complain if I’d started shouting in there.

The child, who could barely walk (not sure if it was because of its age or if the parents had introduced it to WKD earlier in the day), was allowed to lurch around the shop unaided. It crashed into people and knocked items off the shelves. Saying “sorry!” to people as they’re charged into, followed by a theatrical laugh doesn’t excuse it. Perhaps if someone punched the parents in the face and offered a similarly flippant apology they’d understand, although I doubt it.

The supermarket looked like a warzone when they’d left and people rolled their eyes loudly and sighed to illustrate how they disapproved of the parents’ casual attitude to the raising of their child.

They aren’t the worst culprits though.

Pubs were once smoke-filled dens full of men drinking pints of mild and swearing like sailors. They were no place for children. Then one day some genius decided that pubs were for the whole family and started serving food for 14 hours a day. Yes, Mr Wetherspoon, I’m looking at you.

Ok, take your kids for a meal in the pub if you like, but please make sure they sit at the table and behave themselves for the duration.

I was in my local Spoon’s one Friday evening and a couple were in there with two young children. The father was wearing a shell suit, so I assumed he was a time traveller from 1989. Neither child was quiet and after eating they were allowed to run around the place, causing a nuisance while the parents set about getting royally pissed.

It was after 9 when they staggered out of the pub, in no fit state to look after their bored offspring. The kids looked knackered as it was clearly way past their bedtime, but I’m sure it wasn’t the first time it had happened.

I hope at the very least that they had the decency to smash up their Best Mum and Dad In The World mugs as soon as they got home.