Why do so many people have issue with children? I am not talking about the "I don't want kids" brigade, or the "obnoxious children are obnoxious" ones, since having kids isn't for everyone, and kids can be horrid. I am talking about those people that see children and babies as something somehow alien. Children aren't aliens, to quote Whitney (try not to puke!) Children are our future. And how we treat them, and how we respond to them has a direct effect on how they develop and what our future will be like.
I appreciate that I am a mother, and therefore somewhat biased, but lets face it, children are the only section of society who we can condemn on mass without thought. Whether it's the screaming baby in the restaurant, (believe me, the parents are more upset about that one than you are, so really can do without the tuts), the tantruming toddler in the supermarket, or the hooded teen walking down the road. All of these people (and they are people) deserve some slack.
I am not saying that children should be free to do what they like, or that there aren't occasions where there are issues. However, kids' problems are our problems, since in the long term we all have to deal with them. My issue is with those who consider children to be subhuman somehow. What the hell does that say about us?
I can see why some people hate kids. They get really wound up by the noisy ones who scream their heads off and become ignorant to those who don't. Which is a failing on their part, not the children or the parents.
ReplyDeleteThat said today at Itsu some woman just let her young child scream it's head off. It was screaming for fun so the parent thought that was some how OK and we'd all be comforted by the dulcet tones of a child being murdered.
Unfortunately crap parents exist, as do idiots who think children only exist to make their lives hell. I can see this only getting worse as parents get busier and people become more intolerant.
I think hating kids is different from treating them like creatures from the beyond. And lets face it, the problem with those obnoxious kids are the parents that let them get that way.
ReplyDeleteLittle Madam likes to scream for fun, and there isn't really a great deal I can do to stop it. She is just too young to understand. Doesn't mean I let her get away with it completely, but if it was on the Tube, I'd be mortified. However, I would understand why people would be pissed off. It is annoying.
I am more worried about those who just react with almost fear about kids. What exactly is there to be scared of? Their smallness, their defenselessness?