Kids

This kid in the bus had a Canucks jersey and a Canadiens cap on, so I was looking at him, the marriage of my two last cities' hockey teams. The kid who was maybe about a year old was blabbering baby-talk, and at one point took off his cap and hit his mom with it. The mom, of course being a mature adult, snatched the cap back and hit him with it, from the side of the visor (I knew, because I heard it!).

It made me gasp... I don't even like kids, I mean I don't detest them (hence I don't want to beat them!) And I don't mean to pass judgement on parenthood of which I know nothing and plan to remain so with some luck, but I couldn't help but wonder why people had kids, if it might try their patience so much that they would stoop down to the kids level of immaturity. Somehow I would like to think parenting had come a long way since the times of my parents' and grandparents'.

The kid began to cry and the mom said "does it hurt?" and when the kid nodded yes, she said "well that's how I felt too"... The kid stopped crying and pondered these word of wisdom for a bit and with his limited attention span, quickly switched his attention elsewhere. Ah kids! I know when kids cry it is more a plea for attention than a manifestation of the pain, but I wonder what lesson engraves in his little personality, from his mom hitting him back.

At work, I told this story, to my two office mates, one a new dad of a 6 month old girl and the other a soon to be dad of a girl. One of them agreed with the mom 'below a certain age, you can not use words to reason with them'... the other jokingly added, 'if I have a boy, I would so be beating him and kicking him like that'. I wondered out loud if I should call child protection services on my two office mates, to which one responded 'note to self: don't mention the baby dungeon in front of her'!