It seems like day in and day out I come across parents who put on a good act about their kids being the most important things in their lives, but really they are just very self centered with their lives.
For example, at the school I know two kids that seem to have it all. They are in kindergarten and third grade. They dress well and take several vacations a year with their parents. Well, the boy who is the one in kindergarten was absent because he went to the beach with his parents for the week. When I saw his sister at school, I asked her why she was in school and not with her family, and she told me it was because she had tests this coming week, so she had to stay with her grandma so she would be here for the tests. This kind of thing just blows my mind. I don’t mean to question it, but instead of staying home as a family they had to just leave their kids behind while the rest of the family was at the beach. I mean school will be out in 3 weeks, they couldn’t wait and take a vacation together then? I don’t know, but this makes no sense to me at all.
Let me give you another example. My one son plays both baseball and soccer. On the baseball team, one of the coach’s wives with 4 kids also, has her two older kids playing baseball, and the two little ones are only four and six. She has recently started asking my daughter to watch her younger kids in the evenings so that she can go to the ball field and watch her older boys play. Sounds good right? Well, the other night, she sees me on the baseball and asks me if I have spoken to my daughter (who was babysitting for her that evening) when I said no, she proceeded to tell me that her 4 year old had a fever, so she gave him some motrin and she was wondering how he was feeling. She never called herself to see how he was doing. Then she proceeds to tell me that he didn’t seem right when she picked him up from the babysitter’s house today, the one that he spent all day with. She is not even watching the game of her son, has no idea what the score is, doesn’t call to check up on her four year old or anything. Now I am all for occasionally leaving your kids with a sitter, but I don’t get why she wouldn’t miss this one ball game and stay home with her four year old to keep an eye on him, especially on a day where he has already been with a babysitter for the entire day. Not only that but I have recently found out that both of her older boys are actually bullies on the bus and complete trouble makers at school. Is it really any wonder why?
I can site many other examples of these types of families, however, I think that might get a little too lengthy and off topic, but in all these examples you will find kids who are experiencing either behavior or learning difficulties and in some cases both.
Now if you met either of these families, you would think that they were great people and excellent parents. What gets me is that I am constantly trying to spread myself thin enough to take care of my four and do what is in everyone’s best interest all at once. I just don’t get how these people can just dump their kids and run no matter what.
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 8:05 PM by Carol Ann