"I am not a babysitter!"

[Jester]

If you ask me nicely, I'll even tell you the difference between a steer and a bull!

Back in Phoenix, there is a local car lot chain that runs way too many locally produced commercials. The punchline of virtually all of them is the founder, Tex Earnhardt, sitting on a steer and saying "I'm here to tell you, this ain't no bull!" Explaining that (very bad) joke to visiting Easterners is amusing, to say the least.

[chainedbarista]

we're still having that issue of those kids coming in (they're around eight) by themselves, at night. school just started; shouldn't mom and dad keep junior at home, rather than letting him/them roam free without supervision?

you'd think so, but apparently, we're daycare for these brats, as well as coffeehawkers.

i basically try to get them to leave; something tells me that if they were hurt in the store, mom and dad would try to sue us, because we weren't 'paying attention' to their child. um, no...but i'm sure that cps would like to know about your 'parenting' issues.

[XCashier]

Back in Phoenix, there is a local car lot chain that runs way too many locally produced commercials. The punchline of virtually all of them is the founder, Tex Earnhardt, sitting on a steer and saying "I'm here to tell you, this ain't no bull!"

As Bob Boze Bell of the Phoenix New Times wrote, "This ain't no bull, it's a bum steer, just like all our deals here!"

[MystyGlyttyr]

I admit that even as late as my early 20's my mother STILL has problems with letting me go off by myself. It's not that she's overprotective (so much), it's that she knows I have a tendency to get sidetracked easily and wander off in some direction I'm not supposed to go. (I have a bad habit of saying "I'll be home by seven" and not even walking out of the store until 7:01...) On my "bad" days (when I'm having some trouble with my self-control), she makes me tell her where I'm going and what direction I'll be coming home by, so she knows where to come look for me if I'm going to be really late.

Now, I'll admit that she did do some dropping-off when I was younger...but we're talking an 11-year-old that she gave $10 and dropped in the quarter kid's arcade...not to mention an 11-year-old she had raised well enough that she knew I WOULDN'T leave if she said not to. And for maybe half an hour, an hour, tops. NOT all day.

My gym offers lots of children's programs that are all for free and I'm always happy to see the little pack of elementary school kids running around. They have a trainer who specifically is there for them to keep an eye on them so they don't run off somewhere dangerous, they're being taught to do something healthy on machines that are scaled down for little kids (I think the heaviest weight is 50 pounds, heh), they get taught basic martial arts so they know how to protect themselves, there's video games, TV, and air hockey if their parents are late, healthy snacks, and best of all, they're SAFE because they are in a place designed for them to stay.

I don't see one thing on that list that a craft store or McDonalds has...

[South Texan]

I somewhat agree w/ the "these people should be sterilized".....

Although my wife and I now are labeled in our neighborhood as being the most left-wing of liberals since we once put up a sign for a Democratic candidate in our yard (normally we never show who we support) I am becoming more in favor of madatory birth control for teens just to prevent the crap these kids who are not ready to become parents will do to the innocent kids they produce - even from a one night stand between two kids who just lost control of the moment. I know that is an unpopular and very non-PC thing to say, but it is how I feel. Norplant anyone?

[BunnyJas]

There are thousands of children of all ages who desperately need a home but don't have one. Talk to any person who was adopted, and they refer to their adopted parents as their TRUE parents. Adoption is one of the truly wonderful things we can do for children AND for ourselves. If you want children and are unable to have them biologically, this is something you should definitely consider. Not going off on you here, so please do not take this personally, but I am sick to death of people saying they want their own children and going through all kinds of fertility procedures when there are so many children out there desperate for the loving home that those people could provide them. True parents are not necessarily those people who provide the egg and the sperm, but the people who provide the love and the care and the parenting and the nurturing and the teaching that parenting calls for. I wish more people, both who cannot give birth and even those who can, would consider adoption as a viable alternative for making a family.

*Sigh* Maybe I should have been clearer before I said something so personal. I have a condition called cystic fibrosis which already takes a large part in my daily life (i.e. treatments, low endurance, etc.). Every so often I have to go to the hospital for a few days to get a boost on meds. This condition I have only gets worse as I get older because there is no cure in sight. Now I could have children or adopt them if my husband were healthy, but I have happened to fall in love with my fiance' who also has cystic fibrosis. It would be completely irresponsible for us to have a child, adopted or otherwise, when we cannot give our full attention to raising them. I'm not usually a pesimistic person, but there is also a strong possiblity that I and my fiance' will not live past our forties. I DO NOT want to leave my child without a mother or a father before he or she is an adult and in our situation there would be no one to take care of them when we are gone. I think adoption is a beautiful, wonderful thing to do and I would not hesitate to do it if my situation were different. However, in my current situation it just wouldn't be a smart thing to and it would not be fair to the child. Kapeesh??

You may now return to your regularly scheduled topic

[Jester]

Completely understood.

See, I thought you meant that medically or biologically you could not have children, not that it would be irresponsible or unpragmatic on your part.

I do hope you understood that my adoption rant was in no way leveled at you personally, and obviously now it couldn't be, and that I was just running my mouth/keyboard on something that has bothered me for some time.

That being said, being an uncle/aunt (as I am) is a great thing that allows you to have much time with children without having to be responsible for them full-time, like a parent. And the beautiful thing is, you don't have to even have siblings you have kids. Most of my nieces/nephews are friends' kids! Other suggestions I might make for someone in your situation is babysitting or, better yet, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, a very worthy organization that does wonderful work.

Hopefully I am not getting too personal, and this is not coming off as preachy--just trying to suggest things that would work with your particular situation and still get you close to parenting without it actually being parenting. If I have said anything that has crossed the line or offended you, feel free to tell me to stuff it...and then consider it stuffed.

[Mango]

When I worked in retail, I once had a customer running in telling me someone had left a baby locked in an SUV. I went out and checked (it was parked right outside my door) and sure enough, it was just as she said, with the windows only down an inch. And it was a HOT day.

You can bet I called security. Not sure exactly what came of it, but I do know that (predictably) when the baby's mother finally showed up, she had the nerve to give the security officer a bad time.

I don't even have kids and I know enough not to leave a baby (this one couldn't have been more than six months old) unattended, and ESPECIALLY not in a hot car.

Unbelievable.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh, dear God.

Stuff like this really, really disturbs me. I have a confession to make: I quit keeping up with the news...too many stories about harm to children. I think it's making me neurotic and depressed, hearing stuff like this. I mean, it used to bother me before, but now I have a little one, and every story like this creates in me a yawning, vertigo-like horror where I envision my own daughter in the situation.

Is this normal? Sometimes I feel like I'm developing some sort of mental problem.

I just can't even IMAGINE what kind of IDIOT would leave her precious baby in a fing CAR on ANY sort of day, much less a hot one. I take my child out I don't even let my hand off her stroller, lest she roll away or some wierdo takes her while my back is turned. And I am obsessively concerned with the welfare of other people's kids, too. I think I might have smashed out the idiot's windows on the spot in a panic. Seriously, I think I'm losing it.

I got to enjoy my life up to this point absolutely fearless. I was a risk taker. Now that I am a mom, it's payback time. I told my own mother to enjoy her revenge.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I'm one of those types that would pick up a rock and bust out the window of a hot car with a baby in it. If they want to sue me about it later, and I know they will, they can feel free. I'll tell the judge to his face that I'd rather these irresponsible parents have a LIVE child to sue me over than a dead child to sue someone else over. Probably won't win the lawsuit but I'll know those parents will walk around forever branded as "the parents who sued the girl who saved their baby."

I've only seen this once, though...the mother started to walk into the store and I could see her baby in the car. So when I heard that "blip blip" noise of a car alarm, I walked over and started tapping on the car so it screeched.

Her: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Me: "You forgot your baby."

I fully expected her to argue with me over it, but she just opened the car and took the baby out. Rather pissily, too. I guess she knew she really didn't have an argument to stand on...

[XCashier]

Stuff like this really, really disturbs me. I have a confession to make: I quit keeping up with the news...too many stories about harm to children. I think it's making me neurotic and depressed, hearing stuff like this. I mean, it used to bother me before, but now I have a little one, and every story like this creates in me a yawning, vertigo-like horror where I envision my own daughter in the situation.

Is this normal? Sometimes I feel like I'm developing some sort of mental problem.

If you are, so am I. Maybe it's something that comes with parenthood?

And for leaving a child in the car: I live in Phoenix, probably the hottest major city in the USA. The real temperature is usually at least 10-15º higher than the "official" temperature (if they told the real temperature on the news, it would not be good for tourism!). A car parked in the sun for a few hours can get up to 200ºF. Every year, there are news stories about some moron leaving their small child, a feeble elderly relative or a pet in the car to slowly bake to death. EVERY DAMNED YEAR! You would think people would have figured things out by now, but no, everyone believes that "it can't happen to me".

[hawkchick11]

I don't understand how parents can leave their children in the car... most infant seats just snap right into a base you can leave in the car so you don't even have to take the kid out of the car seat. Stuff like that always pissed me off, but it does even more now since I had my son. Its insane how stupid people are.

[Pagan]

And for leaving a child in the car: I live in Phoenix, probably the hottest major city in the USA....Every year, there are news stories about some moron leaving their small child, a feeble elderly relative or a pet in the car to slowly bake to death. EVERY DAMNED YEAR!

Same here in Albuquerque. It doesn't get as hot as Phoenix, but it does go over 100. It's usually about 10-15 degrees hotter in Las Cruces and El Paso. And every summer there's at least one story from each city about this. Of course, these are the same yobbos that can't figure out to stay out of the irrigation ditches and arroyos (except this summer, the arroyos have had a tendency to come up to your front door!)!

We've gotten the problem with ditched kids pretty much stopped at our store, especially on Saturday mornings since there's no more Yu-Gi-Oh type thing. These stories just break your heart! I freely admit that I don't have the patience for kids, but I absolutely cannot stand to see kids hurt in any way! They did not ask to be born. If you don't want them, fine, there's plenty of people that do. Why not give your child to them?

[beercashier]

I had someone do that to me recently...

she spent 10 minutes in the cooler looking for her beer while her kids ran wild around the store. Then when she finally came out she couldn't find them. I was busy and had no clue. She found them out playing in the parking lot and was pissed off. Why in the world would you think a store clerk cares more about your kids that you do?
Some people should be sterilized.

[Mighty Girl]

How on earth can these "parents" (and I use that term VERY loosely) do this so confidently? I'm so paranoid about anyone taking off with my daughter, she NEVER EVER leaves my sight when we're out.

How do they know that the sales clerk they just entrusted their little darling to isn't a child molester?

On a side note- at my salon they have a sign up that says "Unattended children will be given espresso and a puppy".