Reply #64: Parents don't always have a choice!

[tblue37]

Sometimes you have to get where you have to get, and our society has not exactly provided a lot of other options, like decent ground transportation to most destinations.

I have two (now adult) kids of my own, and I ran a home daycare for 18 years, raising over 30 children total. I know a little about handling kids, and I know a little about what you can reasonably expect from kids of varying ages.

Yes, you are right, many parents won't socialize or control their kids at all. I have many articles on my Who's Minding the Children website about such parents and their holy terror kids. But it is also true that people who have no experience with kids don't know what the hell they’re talking about much of the time when they tsk-tsk at parents because a baby or small child is acting like a baby or small child.

I might also point out that these were obviously parents with their first child, and they hadn't had that one for very long. I am something of a "baby whisperer." If necessary, I probably could have found a way to get that baby to stop saying "Bye, plane," though why the child couldn't be allowed to say "Bye, plane" as much as he wanted really is beyond me. But when I had my first child, I had no experience, and I couldn't get him at age 19-months to stop excitedly saying "Bus!" all the time when he saw anything with wheels. These parents were new at the job--as I was then--and didn't have the skills I developed after handling so many babies and toddlers over so many years

I often have helped young parents whose babies or toddlers are screaming on the plane. One thing I have always found is that they are desperate to help their babies be happy, and that they are desperate to do something to prevent their babies from bothering the other passengers. I have never once found a parent who didn’t care that their little one was screaming or bothering others—and in every case, they have been pathetically grateful, not t all resentful, for my help in calming their child.

If you want to read about obnoxious kids and parents, go ahead and visit my Who's Minding the Children site:
http://www.childrensneeds.homestead.com/index.html
You will find that I agree that kids need to be socialized and taught to behave, and that I have little patience with parents who won’t bother to take responsibility for doing that essential job. But be reasonable. You can’t push the tide back with your hand, and there are some things that you just cannot demand of babies and toddlers!