mamajoan

Yesterday we were at the playground and there were all these little girls, like 10-11-12 years old, running around with cellphones clipped to their belts. One girl was swinging on the swing and chatting on her cellphone. They all kept pausing in the middle of playing to answer their phones and chatter away. WTF?!

There was also a mom who was smoking a cigarette while making her daughter wash her hands in the drinking fountain. I don't know why smokers think that holding the cigarette away from their bodies (or their kids' bodies) makes it any better. Afterward, she dropped the cigarette on the grass and didn't put it out with her foot, which is like my BIGGEST pet peeve. I went over and put it out myself, while giving her a dirty look, but I don't think she noticed. (Meanwhile, her husband/boyfriend was teaching their son, age 8 or so, how to climb over the fence that separates the playground from the train tracks. Yeah, good clean fun!)

Then there was also a mom with a 3-year-old (or so) who said to me out of the blue, "No, that's not your kid who stinks." Meaning of course that it was hers. I made a little grunting noise that was meant to convey "I didn't smell anything, but thanks for the info, I guess." And then she went on to tell me all about how he was fine when they left the house but of course as soon as they got to the playground he pooped. Hello!!! Like I care?! Listen, I'm happy to listen to my FRIENDS talk about their kids' bodily functions all day, but this is a complete stranger, so, not so much.

To be fair, there was one mom who told her kids to move their frisbee game away so they wouldn't risk hitting Isaac with it while he pushed his stroller around. Of course, he was fascinated by the frisbee so he just followed them to their new location, but at least she made the effort....