Because it is generally assumed that senior citizens are naturally cranky, or are so because of an assumed level of dementia, I am choosing to write about something that drives me absolutely insane, a person’s use of their child to their advantage while at the same time transferring any responsibility for that child onto others.
As I live just three blocks from the clinic where my doctors and specialists have their offices, I walked there yesterday afternoon and observed one of my major pet peeves, mothers who use their children to stop traffic.
I witnessed, as I have done before, a mother pushing a stroller and upon reaching the curb and wanting to cross the street and needing to stop traffic to do so, pushed the stroller out into the street to accomplish that.
In spite of good driving, there may be circumstances that prevent a driver stopping as quickly as these mothers assume they will.
It was down town, so there were a lot of distractions, one of which was the other cars pulling in and out of parking spaces, or going from one side of the wide street to the other to get a parking space, or anticipating a turn which called for a driver’s attention to be on them, and not looking for something about to be pushed into the street below eye level from between parked cars. After a day of rain the night before, and with the temperature having dropped to below twenty degrees there were patches of ice that could have prevented any attempt to come to a screeching halt on a dime.
There were also some old cars whose levels of disrepair could have meant one, at least, might have been in need of a brake adjustment.
Needless to say, although the desired effect was to have traffic stop, there was the possibility that it wouldn’t, and besides not having gotten what was desired, there would have been a child in a stroller struck by a car which would obviously result in injury or death, a court case, a financial payout, and a negative effect on the psyche of the driver who was not given much warning about needing to come to a stop and who would have to live with the guilt of causing harm to a baby, or worse, death.
Rather than put the responsibility of the child’s safety on some unknown driver, the mother should have either left the stroller on the curb as she stepped forward, and when traffic stopped reached back to get it, or walked the few steps from the curb keeping the stroller next to her but on the side protected from oncoming traffic by her body.
This reassignment of responsibility calls to mind my other pet peeve, the soccer mom vans that have those yellow “baby on board” signs in the rear or driver side back window that seem to transfer any responsibility for the on board baby’s safety from the person driving the vehicle to everyone else on the road required to drive so that it plays to the advantage of the van as it swerves in and out of lanes on the interstate, or pulls out from side streets into oncoming traffic.
If you have one of those signs, it is the responsibility of the parent to drive in such a way as to preserve the safety of the baby, not assign that to everyone else.
And while I am at it, let me also throw in that business of a parent not disciplining the child in a store, preferring to tell the child they need to behave because the person behind the counter will yell at them.
As I told a child once during my short time in retail, “No young lady, I will not yell at you. That is your mother’s job. However, you may see me yell at her if she does not do her job.”
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And, finally as I said, I had walked to the nearby clinic as I intended to refill a prescription.
Because the clinic has various departments with entrances at various locations of its half block façade, to get to the pharmacy you simply pull open the correct glass door, turn immediately to your right, and you either walk up to the counter if it’s free, or get in the back of any line that is there.
I was at the back of the line when I noticed a woman who was pushing a large stroller having difficulty pulling the enter door open, and so, filled with the spirit of Christian charity, I took a step or two back and opened the door for her and held it as she entered. However, rather than standing to the side as I retook my place in line, she walked straight to the line taking the spot that had been mine so that I was once again last.
She neither acknowledged my kindness, nor acknowledged my existence, but, instead, took out a cell phone, and as she dialed it, turned the stroller at such an angle that if it had been my intention to regain my rightful place in line, I was barred from doing so by her newly created barrier.
One lady used her child to stop traffic and another to cut in line.
It’s not that I have anything against babies, but I do have something against mothers who use their babies as tools, especially as doing so puts the responsibility on others that should remain that of the parent.
There. I’m done.
Need that last minute electronic stocking stuffer?
Well, here it is.
