Seats are for sitting in ...

[Rinky vs.4.0]

Not for standing on with your mucky shoes and falling off and whacking your head on the seat in front of you when the bus/train swerves or is forced to brake suddenly.

Why don't more parents of young children know this and if they know this, why don't they bloody well make the kids sit down properly? I see people letting their kids do this on public transport all the time. I once saw a kid go down with a real shiner after the bus we were on braked suddenly and he toppled in gorgeous slow-motion off his seat and face-first into the edge of the seat in front of him. It would have been mildly entertaining, not for the injury but at the sheer slapstick inevitability of the whole thing, if the rest of us hadn't then had to spend the remainder of the trip with his resentful howling as a soundtrack.

You'd almost think some parents want their kids to get hurt, wouldn't you, the stuff some of them let them do on a regular basis?

[jeth]

Seats are for sitting in even when we've been taxi'ing around JFK for 45 minutes. I don't care if your child is bored. When the plane stops and your kid falls off the seat and slams their head into the wall don't get pissed at the flight attendant who tells you to buckle your kid in. And stop drinking so many damn gin and tonics before we even leave the ground. Sheesh.

[Rinky vs.4.0]

And no-one in a public transport environment needs your jam-faced, snot-nosed whelp constantly sticking his or her face through the cracks between seats or hanging precariously over the back of their seat and staring or gabbling incomprehnsibly at them for minutes on end, either. It's not cute, it's annoying. It's bad enough being squashed into the modern equivalent of the cattle truck with the great mass of humanity and all their attendant noises and smells, without dealing with intrusion into what tiny amount of personal space you already have by curious mini-humans.

[jeth]

Also, shopping carts have a child seat built in. Do not put your kid in the body of the cart. They will only tip it over/fall out/try to lift the gate and crawl out and get stuck and start wailing about it*.

*this is from personal experience.

[hollerskates]

i want to preface this by saying i don't agree with this practice, but i think some parents don't want to cause a discipline scene with their kids in front of people. i think parents think if they try to make their children, in this case, sit in their seats, that the kids will pitch a fit/throw a tantrum or just retaliate/rebel and act worse. i think a lot of parents are embarrassed when their children don't listen to them. they don't want to draw attention to the fact that they can't control their children. i think many parents pick and choose their battles at the expense of those around them. doesn't make it any less fucking annoying, i know.

[The March Hare]

I babysit for my roommates(and thank the gods I get paid for it). They have a toddler and he gets disciplined if he does not remain sitting. His father is very appreciative of me being rather strict, but his mum is not(she wants to completely spoil and Fockerize this child). I don't understand the mum's way of thinking that Riley should have his way with everything. It makes no sense.

I stick by my methods and everyday I take care of Riley fully instills the fact into my skull that I do NOT want children.

[Amy!]

Restaurants too. Just because the kid is being quiet and you can actually have a conversation does not mean that it's okay for the kid to be hanging over the back of it's seat showing me it's mouthfull of half-chewed chicken nugget.

[Charles:]

i want to preface this by saying i don't agree with this practice, but i think some parents don't want to cause a discipline scene with their kids in front of people. i think parents think if they try to make their children, in this case, sit in their seats, that the kids will pitch a fit/throw a tantrum or just retaliate/rebel and act worse. i think a lot of parents are embarrassed when their children don't listen to them. they don't want to draw attention to the fact that they can't control their children. i think many parents pick and choose their battles at the expense of those around them. doesn't make it any less fucking annoying, i know.

Fuck that! When tristan was little and he was acting up, I'd just take him to the bathroom or outside and have a talk. I'd whisper in his ear "If you don't straighten your ass up, we're gonna have a talk" and he knew what I meant. Didn't require any embarrassment for him, nor me, and if he kept it up, off we went, out of sight where I could have his attention and I could set him straight.

[by the woods]

i want to preface this by saying i don't agree with this practice, but i think some parents don't want to cause a discipline scene with their kids in front of people. i think parents think if they try to make their children, in this case, sit in their seats, that the kids will pitch a fit/throw a tantrum or just retaliate/rebel and act worse. i think a lot of parents are embarrassed when their children don't listen to them. they don't want to draw attention to the fact that they can't control their children. i think many parents pick and choose their battles at the expense of those around them. doesn't make it any less fucking annoying, i know.
I agree. I think a lot of parents just don't have the patience or energy to discipline the child and it's just easier to give him/her what they want. :r

[jenniferblaufrau]

Fuck that! When tristan was little and he was acting up, I'd just take him to the bathroom or outside and have a talk. I'd whisper in his ear "If you don't straighten your ass up, we're gonna have a talk" and he knew what I meant. Didn't require any embarrassment for him, nor me, and if he kept it up, off we went, out of sight where I could have his attention and I could set him straight.
Exactly. What is it these days? My brothers and sisters and I never acted up in public. You JUST DIDN'T DO IT. Has discipline flown right out the window?

[jeth]

^ And even if we did mom didn't hesitate to abandon the shopping cart in the middle of the aisle, haul us out the car and make us stand there until we stopped snivelling, and then we got the super-stern "Behave or we go home" lecture. And you damn well knew she wasn't kidding about that, because the one time you defied her warning you really DID go straight home and get left with dad/relatives/the neighbors while she went off shopping on her own.

[Kari]

Exactly. What is it these days? My brothers and sisters and I never acted up in public. You JUST DIDN'T DO IT. Has discipline flown right out the window?

I would never act up in a restaurant. Ever ever ever ever Never ever. I'm not saying I was a perfect kid, but when it came to restaurants, public places and family gatherings, I knew I was not to cross that line.

If you acted up at a restaurant, you got put in the CAR and driven home. That was it. End of story.

[Boomer #8]

While we are it, I'd like to state that parents who gives children juice and sodas to shut them up should be shot, or have its head banged against the wall several times.
I apologise for the harshness, but do you really think that the child will calm down after been giving tons of sugar? Actually, I won't apologise . You should apologise for this torture!

[by the woods]

If you acted up at a restaurant, you got put in the CAR and driven home. That was it. End of story.
And when you got home you were in deep trouble.

[laurenl842]

Restaurants too. Just because the kid is being quiet and you can actually have a conversation does not mean that it's okay for the kid to be hanging over the back of it's seat showing me it's mouthfull of half-chewed chicken nugget.
I hate that! I don't like being stared at, especially by things that look like little grown ups (side note: is it just me, or are kids' clothes starting to look too much like our own clothes?).

My friend lets her daughter do this all the time. In fact, it just happened last week. Her daughter was standing up in the booth just staring at the people in the booth behind us. Hovering over them to the point where it was an invasion of personal space. Of course I couldn't say anything about it without my friend freaking for telling her how to raise her child.

Ugh.

[Boomer #8]

(side note: is it just me, or are kids' clothes starting to look too much like our own clothes?).



Nope. It's been like that for years. I remember going on this fashion convention with my Fashion & Design class five years ago, and I was appalled by the kid's clothes. In fact, it seemed the kids had better choice of clothing than the adults-.