Parenting

First off I'd like to say that I know I'm probably the last person who should be giving parenting advice. I'm not a parent, my youngest sibling is now 18, and I grew up in a pretty healthy household. With that said, even though I do not have children of my own, it sickens me to see some of the parenting I witness around town and when I'm working at a "family" restaurant.

I don't care how old your kid is, they are human beings and not dogs. If you just point and yell at them, they're not going to get it. There was this one guy who had two kids with him about the ages of 2 and 4. The 2 year old was upset about something, started crying, and this guy just starts yelling at the boy to be quiet. Yelling, mind you, louder than the kid was crying! That doesn't solve anything, if the kid's crying in a restaurant/theater/public place of any sort, you should remove them from the situation. What you do at that point, I don't care, I'm not here to discuss that. This goes beyond parenting, it's just polite. Let those around you enjoy what they went there to do!

Another thing I've seen are parents who issue out threats to their children, but not even good threats. A girl came in with her son once, and she couldn't have been older than 18 and the boy was definitely under 2 years old. They sat at a table and he started putting a spoon in his mouth. I've seen some parents let their kids put the forks and butter knives in their mouths before, so I was just glad it was a spoon this time. The mother pulled the spoon out of his mouth, placed it on the table, and said "Knock it off!" Sure enough, the boy grabs the spoon again to put it in his mouth. The same result, she took the spoon away and told him to stop. Because she still put the spoon within his reach, he still was able to grab it. Finally she yelled "Do you want me to put Orajel in your mouth? Put that in your mouth and I'm gonna put Orajel in your mouth!" Here's what I don't get, is it really that bad that there's a spoon in this boy's mouth? It's too big to swallow and isn't sharp enough to cut. And Orajel? Really? That's what's going to happen? Turns out this boy knew what Orajel was and started banging the table with the spoon instead, and that seemed to be better. I'd rather have a kid gnaw on a spoon quietly than make a drum out of a table in an already noisy environment.

There are so many other examples I could shell out, but at this point I'd rather not share anymore. And again, I'm no parent, so this is more observation than advice.

If you say "Jump," I'll say...

... what's the point? I mean seriously, there are some phrases and expressions that I can understand. "Sleep tight." "Rule of thumb." "Raining cats and dogs." I get that the origins of these have a significance to cultural habits of the time. But to say something along the lines of "If you say 'jump,' I'll say 'how high?'" just seems to make no sense. What would the point be of jumping? Amusement? I don't know about you, but it takes a lot for me to WANT someone to jump. If I'm bored, watching someone jump is not at the top of my list. Sure, if there's a chance that someone might jump off of something (and survive of course, I'm not that mean) then it would be more of a question of what they were jumping off of. Also, if the person were to do more than jump I'm sure it would be more amusing. If they were to do a backflip or put some kind of neat spin onto it, then yes I may ask someone to jump. So it is not "how high" that should be asked. Rather, if I say "jump," you should respond with "from where and would you like it to be more than a jump?" I highly doubt that will catch on as the norm, but it's a lot more accurate.

Fear

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." ~FDR

What an interesting concept. We only really have to fear fear... if that makes sense. I find it interesting that there are sites with all of these lists of phobias where someone can find the proper name for what they're afraid of. They range from fear of spiders, needles, death, balloons, and even string. One of my favorites happens to be "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words." In all seriousness though, there are people who say that they are fearless: one without fear. Wouldn't it be fair to say that it is these sort of people that have a fear of fear itself?

Let's face it, someone who says they have no fears are almost invincible. There's nothing that can break their spirit. But, if a person who said they had no fear suddenly experienced the feeling of fear... what would happen? They could suddenly be tortured, exploited, or blackmailed. It's like any good superhero movie. Even the good guys have that weakness where the bad guy can get ahead. What makes them good is their ability to overcome that fear. But again, someone who didn't have any fears couldn't be touched, so I would assume that even the fearless have the fear of being afraid... if that makes sense.

The Importance of "And a Half"

I am often surprised at how much I underestimate my younger cousins. Whenever I see them, I know that I'll have fun no matter what, but the things they teach me is incredible. One of my cousins is 5 1/2, and she stresses the "and a half" as if it were a matter of life and death. She was telling me about one of her new friends who was five, but as she said: "I'm five and a half so I'm older than her. I have so much to teach her!" At first I just thought it was cute, but it did get me thinking. We take half a year for granted so much right now.

You don't hear many adults following their age with "and a half" (if they bother to tell you how old they REALLY are) because as you get older, it doesn't seem to matter. To a little girl who is five, half a year really can make a difference. When you're young, half a year can mean new bits of knowledge from school or general life lessons. In babies, half a year can be the difference between holding your head up and crawling. There is so much that can happen, and as you get older it doesn't seem as incredible. In the past half year, I personally have made a lot of changes to who I am: the lessons I've learned, the facts I've learned, and the wisdom I gain and share. Whether or not that makes me a better person doesn't seem to matter as much as the fact that it has made me who I am today.

Children are wonderful. Never take them for granted. They can teach you so much if you open your mind to them.