As
parents, we have all at some point experienced a feeling, look or
even a comment that is negative from someone while out in public with
our children. Whether it be a sideways glance while in a restaurant
when your child is not using his ‘indoor voice’, or a tut, shake of
the head, or as I just last week experienced, fingers in the ears,
when your baby is crying on a plane. Oy was I sweating and trying
desperately to avoid the eyes boring into the side of my head!
Now don’t get me wrong, I totally get the need for
spaces and places free from children, I was an adult (not parent) once
too! However, having made that one way journey into Motherhood, I
now understand that it is even more unbearable being the owner of said
‘misbehaving’ child, suffering those dreaded stares that in their own
way scream, “Will you just shut your kid up!” (and harsher thoughts
besides). As all parents know, BK (Before Kids), we were those eye
rollers , but AK (After Kids), we now empathize with the likes of me
on that plane to Seattle last week.
With this sweaty experience still in mind, I have
re- examined how much our society really likes children, or doesn’t, as
the case may be. Growing up in England I often heard from elders that
‘children should be seen and not heard’ and I think this sentiment
still rings true today. People like to see cute little kids – from
afar. But no one wants to sit next to one in a public place as they
fidget and whine. It seems like there are more and more kid-free zones
like vacations, hotels, even planes. Just last year Malaysia
Airlines placed a ban on babies in First Class, and recently a family
was thrown off a Jet Blue flight when their 2 year old had a tantrum.
This Youtube video about kids as cargo amusingly captures in a half- joke, half-not manner this prevailing sentiment towards kids.
Posted by Claire Turner
Hampton Roads, Tidewater, Virginia,
Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport
News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, nanny, childcare, babysitter, sitter, live-in, au
pair, provider, AuPairCare, nannies, children, child, kids, multiples, twins,
triplets
