Monday, May 4, 2009

The kind of Parents that I wanna kick in the junk

I want to love and respect all parents. Because seriously? We all have a very important and difficult job to do and I want to believe we're all doing the very best we can.

I want to operate under a I won't critize you if you don't criticize me mode. I want us all to realize the perfect parent doesn't exist and accept and embrace one another- imperfections and all.

But a few weeks ago on a wonderfully sunny weekend day when my family and I went out to fly a model rocket I couldn't keep to that motto.

Hubby mentioned that we needed a large open space in order to safely fly the rocket. So we settled on the grassy part of a track at a local school. We were the only ones on this field. The nearest person was literally a mile or more away.

Hubby again issued the appropriate safety precautions then the twins and I stood back as he launched the rocket.

It was truly awesome seeing the excitement on my kids faces as they watched the rocket float high in to the sky and then running with them to the spot where we anticipated the rocket would land. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing then enjoying it with my family.

Then some fucker wrecked it.

After launching one more time we saw him. The rent-a-cop. He'd pulled up in the school parking lot several hundred feet away. Hubby and I looked at one another with an "are you kidding me?" expression and then slowly began to put away our stuff as the rent-a-cop walked towards us.

"Blah,Blah,Blah several calls from parents. Blah, Blah, Blah fireworks" he said. We briefly explained that we were not setting off fireworks but in the end needed to leave.

I get that it was a school. I get that fireworks are not allowed. But I was still irritated that rather than finding out what we were doing some fun-wrecking-mother-humper called the cops.

Uggh...that parent can bite me. I mean really do they think I'd put my own kids safety in jeopardy ? Save for a freak accident that can happen anywhere anytime I don't believe we were doing anything wrong.

It took me a while to get over that one.

As if that incident wasn't enough a few days later, I'd called a classmates mother to get her snail mail address to send out an invitation to the twins birthday party.

I told her that I would have emailed but worried about the invitation going in to spam folders. To which she responded, "yeah awhile back Rochelle (another mom) forwarded me the class list you sent her and it had a Halloween party invitation or something like that on it. You had a Halloween party right?"

"Uh yeah" I stumbled

Brief silence...then

"leave it to Rochelle not to delete those kinds of things"

"Uh yeah" I stumbled again. "It was uh preschool and some new kindergarten friends and uh the kids just threw out names and I uh, uh..."

WTF I thought?! I was talking about Spam and she randomly pulls a forwarded class list and invitation to a party months ago out of the sky.

But I knew what I was supposed to get from her statement. She wanted me to know that she knew that her kid had not been invited to that party.

I was at a loss. I mean sure as ridiculous as it may sound, I kind of get being offended by your kid not being invited to a party. But I would never, in a million years bring it up to the other parent.

What the hell is the point in that?

And although we had a nice conversation after that, I felt awkward and maybe even a little bad. All I wanted to do was call and invite her kid to this party. But I left that conversation feeling like I'd done something wrong.

Uggh, she can bite me too.

This parent thing is hard enough without contending with all this drama.

So tell me something, if you're a parent: are you all kumbaya and love everyone or is there someone or some type of parent that irritates you. I gotta believe I'm not the only one.

16 comments:

Life As I Know It said...

Nope, you are definitely not the only one.

Cid said...

Oh don't get me started. The ones that drive me crazy are those who say they are "all about their kids." As in, "I would never go away for a week without my kids or I don't have time to do much because I want to be there for my kids."Infering, none too subtly, that the rest of us who take a bit of much needed time for ourselves or for our marriages are bad mothers/parents. It makes my blood boil.

Debbie said...

Oh honey. Most parents annoy the fool out of me. Mostly the clueless ones, the negligent ones, the My-kid-is-better-than-yours ones, etc. You are not alone.

ML said...

The one currently making my toenails curl is a mom I overheard in the waiting room at dance class talking about how she was going to cry her eyse out (or something) when her youngest started kindergarten. Somehow, her reference to "youngest" hadn't struck before I attempted to console her with how fast they adapt, etc, etc...When she sighed and said, "I know...but we just stopped breastfeeding like 6 months ago.." Who's needy, clingy & needs to grow up (yet is parenting the children my kids are at school with????)??

Unknown said...

I could go on for days...but the ones that really get my knickers in a twist are the judgemental-holier-than-thou asshat parents that look down their noses at me because of the choices I make as a parent. For example, my children did not attend pre-school. With my oldest, it was logistically impossible. We had only one vehicle that my husband had to use to commute and we could not afford it. With my daughter, it just felt like an unnecessary expense. But whenever I would mention that I did not enroll my kids in preschool, I would get the most condescending looks from some moms...Oh man it chapped my arse. My kids are just fine thankyouverymuch without preschool exposure. Is the stink-eye really necessary?

Ann(ie) said...

Well, I for one never like to make it a habit to be all kumbaya and love everyone b/c that behavior usually just nauseates me. ;)

The kind that irritate me is the lazy and negligent ones. If I were accused of being negligent I'd be pissed, too ... because I'm not and I have officer safety as a husband so I can totally empathize with how you must have felt while trying to have some good ol' family fun!

The parents that bake all the times and sew buttons on their kids clothes and do crafts with their kids chap my hide, too since you can usually find me cruising by safeway having less than 3 seconds to spare. feh.

I really miss wine. June needs to get here quickly, dude!! This working mama-preggo thing with no wine is a KILLER!!!!

John D. said...

I can only comment, "no commet," as I am unqualified to speak to parental issues. I suspect, though, that they resemble other "people" issues. : )

John D. said...

Sorry, that's "no commeNt" ...and no comets either, else I will call the rent-a-cop on you. ; )

Lollie said...

Can I vent for a moment about asshats extraordinaire? New moms are just as bad, in a different way, as parents with older kids in school.
We found out on Friday our IVF didn't take and a woman at my child's play gym asked "So are you?" when she saw me today. (Maybe my mistake for mentioning we were doing it at all.) I said "No, it didn't take, but it's okay, we kind of already knew before the official phone call that we weren't pregnant. I just wasn't feeling it." She shoots back with, "Well, I'm feeling it! I think I'm pregnant again!! I'll let you know for sure in ten days!"

Thanks lady.

To top it all off, she looked over her shoulder at me before heading into the can to wipe her kids butt and throws me a, "Oh yeah, and too bad you had to stop breast feeding for nothing."

Nice, right? Do people just not realize the crap that's coming out of their mouths?

Thanks for the semi-private forum to spew forth.

BiPolar Wife said...

I actually had the parent of a girl my daughter has always butted heads with tell me that she did not like my daughter. Who says that about a 6 year old girl? I know she's not perfect, I never pretend my kids are, but c'mon....for an adult to say they don't like your child is just plain hurtful.

Virtualsprite said...

I so know what you mean. I had a parent call my stepdaughter and yell at her for not inviting the daughter to a party that my stepdaughter didn't even host!

What the hell? I had to suffer disappointments, not getting invited to some parties, people not wanting to be friends with me. I turned out okay. Why do parents think they need to shelter their kids so much? Man!

In other words, I'm so with you on this one.

Unknown said...

First let me say....hahahahahaaha! I'm not laughing at your pain but the title of that post almost ruined my monitor (coffee down the front and all)

And yeah, the rest of the post. priceless....

And no. I would never bring up something like that. Not all kids get invited to everything... and it is supreme bad manners to bring it up. Could be an over sight, could be lack of room...could be that her kid is lice-ridden ...

Its your party. Rock on.
tracy

GL'sD said...

Ok girl, on this one you cracked me up. Been there done that.

j.sterling said...

you can't love all parents cause really.. some just suck. lol

MommyLisa said...

Ugh. I agree on this totally. I don't want to judge, but then people do things that are just mean or unfair to the rest of us.

Nauntie Lush said...

Dear Lord...that woman needs to get a J-O-B stat. She has too much time on her hands. She is much like the lady down the road who asked me what I was thinking going back to work because Bacon was still so little....um, HELLO?!? it is called money, and you need it to pay the bills, not to mention the ADULT interaction that is needed not to lose your ever loving mind! I will kick her arse for you!