Out To Eat
Yesterday I went to a small diner near my house to get a little chow. I’d been playing World of Warcraft all day long, and I realized that I hadn’t eaten yet. I could have made something at the house, but I decided to get out of the house for some food.
The place was almost empty when I got there, so I got a seat right away. I ordered my food, and it came in a timely manner. I was about halfway through my meal when the wait staff began to setup tables for a large party right next to me. Ugh. I was hoping that it wasn’t a ton of loud teenagers or something. Turns out that it was a set of parents, a set of grandparents, two boys, and a girl. One of the boys was being loud, but mother quickly put a stop to that. She was firm, but nice about it, and the child responded quickly. I was thankful for that.
The place gave all three children paper place mats and some crayons to color the paper with. One of the boys dove into the crayons and began to color. The mom spotted this, and took the crayons away. She told the boy, “These are yucky. They’ve been touched by other people. We can have one dinner without crayons, can’t we?”
What the fuck? Yucky crayons because someone else touched them?
The boy was too young to be in school (I’d put him at around 4 years old,) and as soon as he enters school, he’s going to have zero immune system. Kids need to be around germs on a regular basis to stay healthy.
I learned in vet tech school that puppies, kittens, etc. need their mother’s milk because the milk contains proteins that build up their immune system (among other things, too.) I’m assuming the same kind of thing happens with humans. When the child is finally weaned off of the mother’s tit, they’re on their own for fighting off germs. If a child is constantly kept from being exposed to “yucky things”, then they are in for a world of hurt when they get outside parent supervision, and get exposed to all sorts of germs.
I felt sorry for the child. Coloring with crayons is one of the joys of being a youth, and it’s a great idea when eating out because it keeps the child occupied while waiting for food. Adults are able to hold stimulating conversation with each other to pass the time while waiting for food. Children haven’t quite developed those skills yet, and they get bored easily. When this boredom sets in they start to cause trouble for the adults around them.
On the flip-side of things… The child without the crayons looked at the paper mat that he had been given. He was still learning words, and trying to place words with objects that he sees. He kept pointing at the paper, and asking, “Daddy! What’s this?” He did this repeatedly, and the father was very patient with all of the questions. He would answer the child, and tell him what everything on the mat was. The father even went so far as to walk around the table to read the words to his son. It was damn cute.
Now, I know that women have this biological clock thing that tells them when they’re getting almost too old to have children. I’ve never heard this term applied to a man, but I think mine is starting to kick in. I was jealous of the man with the son because it was so obvious that he cared deeply about his son, and he went out of his way to pass on some minor education to his son.
I hope that I can do that someday. I’ve always wanted to have someone to pass on my (limited) wisdom, and education to. In my opinion, there’s no greater accomplishment than raising a child. Maybe that child will cure cancer? Maybe not. If they do something useful (and hopefully something that they enjoy) with their life, then there’s nothing better.
