O/T - What the heck is wrong with some parents!!

Now that Walmart's in Hamilton are open 24 hrs/day until Xmas Eve, I popped in on my way home from work on Friday night.  It's 1:00 am.

I'm barely through the doors, and a guy comes in behind me .... with 2 boys under the age of 5.  WTF?  Why aren't those kids in bed?  Where is your common sense?  I didn't see a mom around, just dad.

This, and those parents who don't bundle up a baby because they (the parent) is hot, so the kid must be, too, really **** me off.  You're 200 lbs., the baby is 10 lbs.  Put a damn coat on that kid!!  (Or they're just "running from the car to the building, so the baby won't be outside very long".  GRRRRR.)

Just goes to show ... anyone can be a parent, but not everyone SHOULD be.

Funny you should comment on this as I was chatting with my best friend about this this morning and she was going on about seeings kids at the Walmart when she went shopping last night at 9pm. I guess I should tell her it could be worse.

I live downtown, sometimes on the weekends if Rog and I have been to a movie or late dinner, we'll be walking home and it might be 11pm or midnight. I see parents with babies, toddlers, little kids, all over the place. What are they thinking? Do children not have bedtimes anymore? I worry about the health and development of these kids who are clearly not getting the 10-12 hours of sleep they need.

A lot of people raise their children to not have a strict bedtime so that their sleep schedule doesn't intefere with their parent's social lives. You can include your children in more things if you can be more flexible about when people are getting up and going to sleep. My napping was adjusted to the daily schedule. I used to have friends who ate dinner at 5pm or earlier every night when I was little but I ate at 8 most nights from the time I was in a high chair until now. It meant I went to sleep at 9 and didn't wake up until a reasonable time in the morning. In middle school I routinely babysat for a family that did the same thing with their twins.

I definitely agree on the cold front. Brrrr. Poor things.

Guess its better than leaving them home alone to shop or in a freezing car.....or better yet a running car all alone.

Ugh, sometimes I wish I was legal to slap some of these parents upside the head .....

On the cold front I definitely agree.

But, on the other point, try not to be so judgemental.  I was a single parent from the time my daughter was two and there were plenty of times that I had to take my daughter places that would have been much easier to leave her with "dad".  I made several trips to the drug store in the middle of the night looking for medicine because my daugter (or I) woke up sick in the middle of the night.  I have dragged my daughter to the ER with me when I have had an asthma attack and she has had to sit there all night and most of the day until someone (usually my mom) got off work and could take her for a couple of hours.  I am sure I have had her in places that people have said or thought, "why would she bring a child here" but I had no choice.

Also, maybe it was a special treat.  Last week my daughter and I stayed in a hotel in Barrie.  She was doing homework and didn't finish until after 11.  As she was about to get ready for bed I asked if she wanted to go shopping at the 24 hour Walmart.  She thought that was awesome.  She didn't have school the next day and I thought it would be something cool we could do together.  She is 17 now, so I doubt anyone thought anything bad about her being out that late, but maybe the dad in this situation promised his kids that if they were good all week he would take them Christmas shopping when he got off work Friday night.

Just my thoughts....

I agree, sometimes you just don't know what is happening, and yet we are very quick to judge..well all do it, including me.

But working in a school I do say to myself many times throughout the day ''what the heck were these parents thinking'' lol

You're very right, Tracy. We can't judge them. Maybe he is a single dad, and had no one at home to look after them.

the kids in my neighbourhood, tho, i've seen enough to know its just bad parenting.

Thanks for posting this.  It's a good reminder to step back and really look, rather than to jump in automatically with critism.  We've all jumped to conclusions when we really have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes before we do it.

 
Yep. Agreed.  Maybe it was just an emergency type thing.  I think I've had to do that once or twice, go to the only 24 hour Shopper's in Ottawa because my daughter got sick in the middle of the night. Of course, then she stayed home the next day. Single parenthood isn't the easiest job in the world and least forgiven.

I also think part of it may be cultural. I see some parents with their kids up until 10pm out in the park or walking.