Tonight I took the kiddo to a birthday party. The main event was a magic show, but before it started we had pizza and cake. It was a pretty big crowd of kids, several adults stayed but we were definitely outnumbered. A couple things that happened during the the dinner hour bothered me...
First, when did 9 year olds start carrying purses and cell phones?! My daughter will be 8 this year and I'm still not sure she's ready to get her ears pierced and some of these little girls were yappin away on their phones during the party! I am so not OK with this. Along with that, not 2 minutes after the party goers were told that they were not allowed outside the building (several kids had been awanderin without an adult) one of these little divas just trotted her little self right out the front door to talk on her phone. Well, this rule follower/former teacher trotted herself out the door to haul the diva back inside, I don't care if your parent is at the party or not.
Second, and maybe this is just a sign that I'm getting old, but could they have been any louder? After they had finished eating, (it doesn't take an hour to eat a slice of pizza and piece of cake) the kids got up to play since no other activities were planned. These kids were literally screaming and running around like maniacs. I've worked with children for more than half my life and I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it. I felt like I should have had my ear plugs that I use when I go to concerts in small venues. I had to strongly resist the urge to flip the light switch and make everyone put their heads on their desk, uh the tables, and be quiet for 5 minutes. I mean, it's a party after all, I gotta lighten up.
OK, so onto the magic show... if I had been the parent of some of these kids I would've been embarrassed. I can say that because, toward the end of the show I did go over to my own child and the little girl next to her and threatened them with the "Do both of you need to come sit with me because you are being rude to Mr. Magician?" Not that my kiddo is perfectly behaved all the time, but she is a bit of a follower and saw that everyone around her was acting up so she gave in to temptation. I guess I'm just cut from a different cloth, even when I was in school growing up and we had substitute teachers I never gave them a hard time and was always irritated with my classmates for being disrespectful. I have always felt that if someone has the courage to stand in front of you to speak, ESPECIALLY if it's their job and livelihood, you should listen. Whether it's to educate, entertain or some other purpose you should shut your hole and listen when someone stands up to speak. It's frustrating because I know I'm unique in my thinking, especially when I see that people aren't teaching their children to have respect for people in that way.
And just when I was losing hope for the future of showing respect to others... we go to the grocery store after the party to get a couple of things. Close to the check out is this great model train set up and the kiddo always likes to go over and look at it. Tonight was no different and I let her go over to look while I scan our groceries. I look up as she gets to it and the train is gone, the case is still there, but it's completely empty. And here's where my hope is renewed... there was another little girl standing at the empty case, too and when she saw the babydoll's disappointment she reached over and put her arm around my daughter and said "it's OK". It was so sweet and made me smile. I walked over to the girl's mother and told her how nice it was to see a child who cared for others around her. She laughed and said, "Well that's unusual!" Whether or not is was, I don't care. It was nice to see and I sure needed to see it!
Night :)
P.S. Just for fun, I'm going to title my posts like episodes from FRIENDS, my favorite tv show of all time!
