As I have mentioned earlier, we have been busy. Lots of fun happenings and lots of summer busyness. Last week, Clover and the kids were up all week. And then on Sunday, we had David and Rachel over for the day and then yesterday we went to Mary's for the afternoon. All three visits were lots of fun and the kids had a blast, with all their friends/cousins. So today, I am just going to post kid sort of pictures from the past couple days.
I was reading an article this morning about a no-kids movement, with several restaurants, as well as first class cabins on some airlines and even Whole Foods in Missouri creating kid free areas, times, or simply banning children under 6 all together. I have divided feelings on this. I understand that people who are eating in a restaurant, watching a movie in a theater, or flying on a 6 hour flight all feel that they have the right to enjoy what they paid for without a child kicking and screaming at them. And back in the day, kid free restaurants, movie theaters, and airplanes, were simply a matter of course, since parents didn't take their kids out as much. So we can't really blame this on our selfish, egocentric society. But the other part of me thinks this is a.... what is the phrase I am looking for? It is taking society and trying to remove the unpleasant or unsettling parts, simply to make life more pleasant for some. This is loosely tied in to what I was mentioning awhile ago about Down Syndrome--90% of pregnancies with positive Downs diagnoses are terminated. Partly because parents feel unable to deal with something like that. An understandable feeling taken to a.... well almost playing God level. It is simply making society more homogonized and less unsettling. Will they be banning old people next, since listening to repeated stories is so tedious and watching what we might ourselves become is too much like considering our own mortality? Life is life. It includes all kind of things. Then another part of me thought of me doing a couple transactions at Walgreens the other day and Orianna and Lily running back and forth down the aisle while they waited for me. And I realized this is exactly what these people are trying to prevent, out of control kids making life difficult for everyone else. Like society is disciplining you AND your kid because you can't keep your kids under control. Sigh. I feel like a bad mother and a social pariah.When I discipline, I am being terrible, and if I don't discipline, I will soon be banned.
Anyway, I was going to put up pictures wasn't I? That is all to say that this is not a kid free post, so be warned.
There is a little train at the Moira Historical Society
Elliott was a fan.
Walking to get ice cream from Leroux's
Posing for Cheyenne
Cheyenne was using my little camera and there was a lot of posing going on
He looks like he is making a serious point that can't be taken seriously because he has an ice cream goatee.
Gilbert was trying to beg as many licks as he could...
...even though he had his own ice cream (well shared with Mum)
Ice cream facial features run in the family
My cute boys on a hot hot day
Laura Lundell let the kids take movies on her ipod touch, so Laura was fabulously cool.
Gilbert loves playing with 16 penny nails. I know, I am a bad mother. I did take them away from him after this picture.
I never check what setting my camera is on. As you can see in the next bunch of pictures.
On her way here, Laura ran into a deer. Or the deer ran in to her. Either way, her car was squashed. It meant we saw Laura longer than we thought we would. Yay! But not yay for the squashed car.
Gilbert practicing hanging around cars.
Gilbert and Ethan were dressed by their sisters.
I think this is Orianna.
Nate and Jay Jay the jet plane.
Ethan going somewhere with a basket and a horse
Sweet!!!
A cake picnic on the front steps
Looking in the basement window
Picking black raspberries
Looking for the baby bunny that Mary saved by chasing away the alpha male cat. Seriously, some cats are cruel. If they were people, they would be sociopaths. I haven't seen a cat killing something in a long time and it was freshly shocking. The cat just sat there and let the rabbit hop around, while keeping within a jump of it in case it decided to make a break for it. Poor cats. It must be rotten to be heartless all the time. Oh wait. They don't care. :-)
Isn't this a cute birdhouse? Andrew made it.
Gilbert found some rainwater
And then we decided to go see the river and wade a bit
This is right at the back of Mary's place. Isn't it awesome?
And there is Lily in the water.
Gilbert was already wet from the rainwater tent puddle, so he just got in the water
Towing Lily along
His excitement at the water
Trying to chase a leaf
It quickly went from wading to swimming in their clothes
Lily shivering
Mary went to bring her back. Gilbert wanted to go.
Mary is so patient
Holly being a something or other
Hayden was walking along the rock punching his fist in the air. Obviously he won.
Flower pots I got the other day.
Then they fell over
He was a lot more concerned with falling than Lily was
5 comments:
Well, that article was interesting! I have to say, when Matt and I went to see the 9:45 pm showing of Harry Potter the other weekend, there was a couple w/ a ~2 year old in front of us who yelled "DADDY, MOMMY, GOGGY, CANDY!" over and over and over and over throughout the whole thing. And her parents thought it was amusing. And I wanted to lean forward and hiss something about how children that young should be in bed, let alone not at a PG-13 movie. But Matt didn't even notice, so maybe I'm turning into a grouch. I think a lot of this stems from bad parents, though. Like, most people know not to bring their 5 year olds to a posh restaurant. It's kind of an unspoken rule that posh places are boring adult places. No sane child would want to be there in a million years. Yet parents will stop at nothing, not even a lack of babysitters, to have their filet mignon and fancy wines. Then children get bored and start to entertain themselves, which is not what other adults are there to experience. I think your kids running around Rite-Aid is perfectly acceptable. And I like the idea of Wegman's offering child care while you shop. Even I, childless as I am, know that kids will harangue you into buying something (or in my case, just bat their cute eyes at me and the next thing I know, I'm walking out of the store w/ a 24 pack of some strange flavor of soda and world's largest box of Air-Heads) (although, I rarely get to see the buggers so I kind of enjoy spoiling them rotten). But I think Wegman's meant it more as a special favor to overworked mothers as opposed to hating on children.
I do agree there is a certain push to be a parent and kid-free but I also don't think this desire to get kids out of view is a new thing. For thousands of years, humans have pawned their children off to wet nurses, nannies, boarding schools, etc. I think it has something to do w/ the class system. Richer people don't like their lifestyle cramped by kids. I mean, my dad's parents and their peers all thought it was normal to drug their babies on heavy duty tranquilizers and then go out to Dodo and Buzzy's country home. On the other hand, plenty of poorer people are less than stellar parents, they just don't have the money to afford nannies or heavy duty tranquilizers. So who knows. I think not letting little kids into the movie theater after a certain time, especially for movies that aren't rated G, is not a bad thing and having a childcare option at the grocery store is handy. Beyond that, I agree that people need to live w/ a little children-sourced disturbance.
As for your pictures of your super cute children, I love 'em! Hayden out on the rock being impressed w/ himself really cracked me up. And you are a hairdresser extraordinaire.
Nina, I am sad you think Gramere and Pop hopped dad up on tranquilizers to go out to Dodo and Buzzy's country home. I seriously hope this is not true.
Bet, loved you blog! I'm glad you got pictures at our house, but it's too bad you missed the tiny bunny! You'll have to come again I guess. Loved all your hilaaaaarious comments and cool pictures!
I agree with Nina on the parenting comments, especially the one about not letting kids into rather violent movies in the middle of the night. When Mom and Dad and I went to see the new Harry Potter, I saw a guy outside rocking his newborn to sleep. First of all, even though this as a very quite newborn that I didn't hear in the theater, why on earth would you bring her to a loud, violent movie in the middle of the night? Second, clearly he had to leave and miss some of it, so what exactly was he gaining by bringing her with? He paid for the movie and didn't even get to see it. But anyway, that example is bad, but I don't think a 2-year-old should be awake at 9:45 to see a very, if I do say so myself, adult movie.
Some of these people in the article are real jerks. "Brat ban?" And pushing to have no kids at the pool? Who's even going to go IN the pool, if not the kids? Anyway, I also agree with Nina that this isn't a new thing, and that people need to be a little more tolerant. I don't mind kids in stores. Yeah, they run, but they're kids. They run everywhere. I smile at their parents and they smile back. They're allowed to be out of the house. It's the way it should be.
As a side note, I've never even heard of McDain's in Pittsburgh, and I lived not even 10 minutes from Monroeville. But then again, anywhere that costs more then $20 a plate has always been kind of out of the question for me, so I guess I'm not really surprised.
Hey! My Mary is pretty great, huh? And I laughed at Hayden winning too. What a nut.
I am sure there was absolutely no bossing going on as Cheyenne posed the cousins. And Elliott's goatee always cracks me up. Your kids sure got some cousin/friend time in in the last week! Coolness!
Bet, you are a great photographer! Some of these photos are awesome!! Anyway, it's late and I didn't bother to read all your rambling.... so if there's something direly important I must know.... say on in an email. =)
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