Anyone have time for a rant? Good, here we go.
Owen and I wandered down to the neighborhood pool today. Olivia was at camp, dancing away, so we had some time to kill. At first we were the only ones there, then came trouble.
For an hour I listened to a mom bark "Don't" at her two girls. Don't run, don't jump in the deep end, don't take your sister's floaty, on and on and on. Here's the thing though, the girls, ages 4-6 and 7-8 respectively, didn't listen once, not one fing time! Mom (possibly step mom to one of the kids, couldn't really tell) didn't do a damn thing about it, just went on with her day. These girls weren't doing anything really bad, just annoying. But I feel like if there's a place to enforce rules, it's in the pool when you're with a kid or two that can't swim.
All I could think about was Seinfeld. "So you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation, and that's really the most important part."
The worst thing about this post is that Lindsay would tell you I'm the soft one when it comes to enforcing the crap that I tell my kids. Sometimes I understand you have to pick your battles. But to not enforce any of the dozens of annoying "Don't!" or "Stop!" commands you're screaming out constantly, why even bother?
I asked Owen if he thought the girls were good listeners, "No, they didn't listen at all," Owen said. "I'd probably lose my Legos for a long time if I acted like that."
-Justin
