Jezebel 
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New York, 2:22 AM
Fri Nov 27
3 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/24/09
Guess which library had by far the worst-behaved kids and parents?
Ah, how I miss them all -- the ones who were always bitching about 10-cent fines and "the principle of the thing" when their jewels returned 1/3rd of a 3-piece audio-visual item they'd checked out (doesn't that count as having returned it?) and the ones who actually did all their childrens' homework because the snowflakes were too busy with important things like soccer. The ones in such a hurry they would complain loudly about the speed bumps that were put in after one of them ran down a kid in the parking lot.
I don't hate mommies, parents, or kids, but this lot will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes if I have my way.
11/24/09
It's a question of appropriate settings and appropriate behavior (from adults and kids!). I recognize that the majority of parents are doing the best they can on the latter, but many are falling off on the former. Some places are not appropriate for kids to be, both from their perspective (they're probably bored to tears at your hip, happening bar, sorry hipster douchebag parents) or from that of the other patrons.
The worst are the ones who get both wrong - badly behaved children in a place kids shouldn't even be (I live in Utah, and nearly every PG13 and R rated movie experience has involved children running feral in the theater), and they aren't a majority, but they sure are a significant minority, and they sure are irritating.
11/24/09
But as much as I hate parents who bring their children to evening movies and resturants with items costing more than $30, I'm amazing by the kid-hate out there.
When one of my co-workers was pregnant, she was very non-baby obsessed, but another co-worker still felt the need to tell the pregnant lady he didn't like kids and didn't want to be around hers. For no reason.
Just on this thread, there are people complaining about a baby being born near their wedding (couldn't they plan better?) and comparing a baby to a Tomagoshi (I can soothe my Tomagoshi, why can't they soothe their kid?). I hope these are jokes, but I doubt they are. Entitled people exist whether they have kids or not.
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I have to admit that I laughed really hard at this and think that is sums up my opinion on the matter pretty well.
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i had imagined something a bit more absurd like jester, minstrel, scribe and knight.
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11/23/09
No. Everything has to be, "I hate mommies/parents/certain types of people." How lovely. And how lovely that now we're all encouraged to foster this kind of environment, where we hate on anyone who's not exactly like us, or how we would be. I'm sure this totally won't bite us in the ass.
11/23/09
For instance, I got pretty effing annoyed at a family who brought their SUV stroller onto the subway the other day; that's why the umbrella-type models were invented. Taking up the space of three-four adults with one teeny baby? Rude.
Do I hate those people? Hell no! I have to get to know them before I can hate them in the way they deserve! But I can find them rude, for sure.
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#tips
11/24/09
And with his weight and the approximately thirty pounds of breast tissue I have when I'm nursing I didn't feel equipped to carry him around much. Fortunately he enjoyed his umbrella stroller... as long as it was always moving.
11/24/09
It was fine and good when he was an infant, but the reality is he belongs in a stroller and I should not have to effectively cripple myself.
11/24/09
So 4 is when they start to behave, right? 'Cuz BuckyJr. just turned 4 this week. I have good reason to hope because he held a heavy subway station door for an elderly lady on his birthday. He also holds the door for me and says "After you, Milady."
#tips
11/24/09
#tips
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11/23/09
And it goes without saying that this extends across the class and racial aisle, from parents who actually like their kids (like them enough to make them bearable, instead of oblivious, noisy brats and/or bullies once they're old enough to get to school), to Sarah Palin self-righteous "hockey moms", to Park Slope stereotypes, and finally to parents to treat their kids like crap or raise them to be angry, violent basket cases and/or assholes.
I guess there's a overlap between someone who is self-absorbed because they're parents, and people who were assholes BEFORE they created life....
11/23/09
The mind boggles. People negatively steretype white urban professional mothers. Not black mothers, single black mothers, single young black mothers, or single young black fathers.
Maybe people don't hatemothers, lady, they just hate you.
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11/23/09
Holy Small World. If the child in question has two names and is a girl, I do believe I know who you're talking about.
11/23/09
Ironically, I have a flaxen haired girl child named after jazz musicians, but she's older and well behaved, so I'm going to guess I'm not the awful parent in question.
Probably.
11/24/09
#tips
11/24/09
My husband said this morning that he was all paranoid that he might be that dad, but then realized that we bake our own bread, so he wouldn't have been hanging out at an artiseanal bread stand anyway.
#tips
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#tips
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#tips
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#tips
11/23/09
Not to mention the overly precious tone taken by some SAHM - not my best friend of course. She's perfect.
11/23/09
In my neighbourhood, it is not uncommon to see children crawling on the floors of cafes (I recently nearly tripped on one), playing with merchandise in expensive stores, and generally being cared for by WoC nannies who are sometimes reprimanded, publicly, by their employers for being insufficiently attendant to little Darcy or whatever made-up name is currently en-vogue. It is not uncommon for these children to have miniature burberry raincoats. It is further not uncommon for these children to play in the motherfucking hallway of my motherfucking building so the mothers can motherfucking gab with each other about how motherfucking awesome their kids are.
That said, I get the impression that few of the moms commenting here are of this set. I mean, I assume suburban assholes of this variety exist, but one isn't forced into such close quarters with them as one is in the city. I, for example, cannot get away from these people. If I go to a bar, or to the store, they are there. It is not simply a matter of my being accommodating; there are parents here who think of the world as their oyster, and why not? They're rich, white, overeducated. And, they'd like you to know, THEY voted for Obama so they are most certainly NOT racist/classist/sexist and that doesn't inflect their thinking AT ALL about whether little Baxter van Houden-Moray is entitled to the very very best.
That said, when I leave my negihbourhood, I never see this kind of insane behaviour. Because I live in a New York bubble when I'm there.
So I think people need to take a good huge dose of, "if it's not about you, it's NOT ABOUT YOU." If you do not do any of the above, if you are not an asshole, then in fact, people hating assholes is not "persecution." It's insulting to the ACTUALLY PERSECUTED that you would even call it that. Calm down. If I'm supposed to accommodate kids' tantrums in public - and I do, because if I didn't I'd be in jail right now - then for the love of God, calm down when someone complains about a social phenomenon you are not actually a part of. God.
/rant
11/23/09
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*goes and sits in naughty corner for existing and throwing a tantrum 47 years ago.*
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Otherwise, you rock.
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11/23/09
If moms on this thread are annoyed at these generalizations, its because these are generalizations about mothers. And if people are free to fling comments about 'those awful mothers' and say things like 'moms need to stay at home so their children don't impinge on my lifestyle' I don't think its overly defensive to pipe up about it.
I mean, come on guys. This is a feminist oriented blog. Part of the feminist revolution was liberating women from the bounds of house-bound, housefrau-ism. But a good portion of the commenters on these types of threads are perfectly happy to toss women (and lets be honest, we're always talking about women) back in the home if it means they don't have to be momentarily inconvenienced by a child crying while they're trying to get a latte.
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I actually kind of want to adopt a 5-6 year old. By then, they have a personality and they've got their own shit going on.
11/23/09
whenever i was asked this question i found that giving a very direct, un-ambivalent and slightly amused answer to the effect of "kids aren't for me. i've never had an interest in having them. no desire." it seems to stop the conversation. i don't know if it's the words or the tone of my voice, though, that does the trick!
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@BytheSea: Ha, their heads might explode! Because their way is the natural/right/only way, you know. We rebellious ones will surely be assimilated.
11/23/09
Not only this, but there seem to be parents who want to have children but continue living their lives as they had in their younger days. I hate to tell you, people, but having children means giving up many leisures. That's the sacrifice of parenthood; if you're not willing to do it, don't have children.
11/23/09
This is definitely not new. That has been happening since the class system was invented several thousand years ago. See also: medieval lords, Early Modern aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the rich people in The Great Gatsby, the people who opposed the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the people who paid to ban gay marriage in California, upper-middle class white men who talk about how racism and sexism and classism are like so not a big deal anymore because we're living in a post-racial post-feminist america.
11/23/09
Ok, but I must say my wife (who's from Europe) got a good laugh out of the commentators who feel children don't belong in bars and restaurants. That's strictly a North American attitude.
11/23/09
But not every young adult today is like that. Obviously this generational structure I just narrated is restricted to middle class, privileged people problems. So, we fight about who's got a right to bring a giant stroller where.
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I'd always thought the Catholic church was at least aware of social justice issues. I hope you can persuade them (or at least survive social interactions with your sanity intact - I probably couldn't)
11/23/09
Though, to be fair, since Sarah Palin my mother has noticed sexism. She now hates david letterman for making a joke about Palin's daughter, and she actually said to me the other day "they wouldn't treat a man like that!" I felt it was a victory.
11/24/09
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11/23/09
Yes! Finally I can admit it:
Quite Simply I Ate Your Baby.
Baby-eaters of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your appetite!
Wait, I just read the headline again.
Never mind.