Please Explain Something to Me

On a beautiful day like it was today, you might be tempted to head to the park to take your child to the jungle gym or watch a baseball or softball game. Why bother staying inside? After all, isn't that what we just did for the last 9 months?

At the recreation center I work at, there was two games going on - one baseball and one softball - so it was a fan's day. Well, sometimes these types of days really don't make a City of St. Paul - Department of Parks and Recreation a happy camper. Today was one of those days.

Earlier this afternoon, while the two games going was going on, there was a very young child, 3 to be exact, laying face first in the sand box. Why? I don't know. Besides having a broken arm, she looked to be just fine. A parent came in to alert me of the situation. The parent tried to talk to the young child. No results. I tried to talk to the child. No results. At this point, I went to my supervisor for further instruction. My supervisor even tried to talk to the young child. No results.

My best guess is the parents are watching their teenage child play baseball. Read that last sentence over again. Look at the previous paragraph. See anything wrong with that picture?

Oh, it gets better. The parent sends her brother to watch her. The only problem: He's 5.

At this point, as my supervisor is on the phone with the police, another parent comes up to us and says the grandfather arrived. My supervisor has a chat with the grandfather.

My only question to parents is: Why? Why would you send an infant child or in this case two infant children, to the park unsupervised? Do you expect other people to watch your child(ren)? Do you expect the recreation center staff to supervise your child? It's people, in my opinion, like this who should not be parents. I mentioned in a previous blog that no one is invisible. Bad things can happen to anyone at anytime, especially younger children who don't quite yet has the common sense to defend him/herself.

Truth be told, if I were married and had children and found out that my wife sent my infant child(ren) to the park unsupervised, well I won't tell you what I would say but I can tell you, it won't be pretty.

This is one of the main reasons why I have a hard time building new relationships with a lot people. The common sense in people doesn't exist anymore. I can't believe how difficult it is to actually meet an intelligent person. That's one of the qualities I look for in a woman: intelligence. Where are you????????

Another question I must ask as a non-parent is: Is it just me or is America, not only getting more obese but stupider?