Parent of The Year, Right Here!

When it comes to parenting, there’s definitely not a clear-cut right or wrong way.  Every family has its own way of doing things that works best for them.  Now I know that I am certainly not the poster mom for parenthood, but compared to some of the shady characters that I’ve run into lately, I’d say that I’m doing pretty alright.

I’m sure that most of you would agree with me that caffeine and toddlers do not really go together.  That would be like giving the Tazmanian Devil a truckload of crack, right?!  So when I saw this one particular woman recently feeding her two-year-old son Mountain Dew by the Big Gulp, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.  I mean, honestly, what possesses a person to think that ramping up an already jacked-up bundle of energy is ok?  And did I mention that these caffeine blasts were taking place at the beginning of a 6-hour school day?  Yeah and lucky Grouch just so happened to be sitting right next to this major parenting failure in preschool.

I also recently came across a mom at the park who was so enthralled with her own conversation that she completely blew off the fact that her kid was totally bleeding all over the place.  The poor child approached her mom for help, blood streaming from her arm and tears flowing down her face, while the mom repeatedly shushed her away so that she could finish her ever-so-important chitter chatter.  I had to purposely bite my tongue to keep from offering to take care of the boo-boo myself while her self-absorbed mother continued to shoot the breeze out of absolutely nothing at all.

Then there was the parent I ran into who had apparently taught her kid that rude is definitely the best way to go in life.  This little weenie of a kid felt it necessary to talk smack to anyone and everyone who happened to make any kind of eye contact whatsoever with him.  My poor toddler made the mistake of looking back in his general direction, and you would have thought that he’d stabbed him in the gut with a kitchen knife.  He immediately began LOUDLY griping to his mom that he “didn’t like that boy looking at him like that.“  And wouldn’t ya know that his clueless excuse for a parent just laughed it off as if it was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.  Manners CLEARLY were not her strong suit, so she didn’t even attempt to teach him the right way to behave.  I have a feeling he’ll end up being the next Charlie Sheen.

So if it really is true that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, then we are in a world of hurt here, people.  There are one too many a-holes in this world who are breeding even more a-holes like it’s their job.  Common decency should really not be a thing of the past.  I guess at the very least, though, the a-holes sure are making the rest of us look like we’re candidates for Parent of the Year, right?