Comparing cultures...

I hate living in Sunnyvale. Everywhere here, kids are screaming outside, bouncing balls against the houses. Why can't they go TO THE PARK where they belong. And whatever happened to bedtime? Not here! Little kids run around on sugar highs until 10pm.

Oh, the other day the fiance was outside and trying to drive away. A two year old was walking into the street, his mom turned around walking the other way. The two year old stood in front of the car and put his hands up to stop the car for fun. Very nice. These are mexicans. Not to say anything, but I've never seen a white person or asian person or black person let their two year old walk into the street. I see so many tiny little mexican toddlers running around here as if it was a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. It's not. Adults almost get hit here.

She finally turned around and screamed and snatched the kid up, and looked at him like he had actually hit the kid...

I hate kids. And I hate parents. But most of all I hate being in Target and constantly having children run into me and never say excuse me. And oh yeah, SCREAMING in target. And in Target here, the screaming kids are almost always Indian. I guess other cultures have different rules about kids....I know in Japan they let their kids go wild in public because they need to let them "have fun before their life sucks" and I guess it's the same here in Silicon valley.

When I grew up in Michigan, everyone was white....kids went to bed at eight. If it was dark out due to daylight savings time (or is that lack of dst?) parents were wary of letting the kids stay out after dark. Kids were quiet in stores. Kids were only crazy in the kid sections of wherever they were. Now even at the DMV I have kids spitting on me, crashing into me, and the parents sit there and watch it happen. Try filling out a form while a little kid keeps poking you in the boobs....and the other kids are screaming for no reason with not a peep from the mom.

I'll be deaf before I'm 30.

L

I can understand your issues. Believe me.
My cousin has had two kids, one girl who's 14 and a boy who's 5. Now the girl...my family...my mom, my sister and I have all taken care of this kid, we've taken her on vacation, provided all the things for her that her father couldn't. She really isn't spoiled and now she's reaching the age where she's finding that she's actually being treated unfairly. Her father disciplines her but not the 5 year old, she gets grounded for months on end for the most minor infraction...but the 5 year old can walk outside of his house and tell you to go fuck yourself because you parked your car in the place where he rides his tricycle and he's mad because he can't play there. His father does absolutely NOTHING. Just lets him go off and do it.
My stepfather was going to snatch him by his ass and spank him...because he really did deserve it, for going somewhere he didn't belong and could be seriously hurt the other day. We're building a garage behind my house and he tries to go into the construction site where he doesn't belong. His father got pissed at my stepfather for just threatening to spank him.
Ask Samurai about it sometime, he's seen him, repeatedly, at my family gatherings over holidays, etc. Not to mention Sam gave the kid what for for not getting out of the road when he dropped me off one night, the kid called him a motherfucker and said he'd kill him.
Sam did not take that well, it took all he could to keep himself from picking that kid up and slapping his ass for him.
I don't get out much except when I go to work or with Sam, so I don't see too much of it outside, like in shopping centers or stores, but with what I'm living next door to, I can feel your pain.
If I could, I'd adopt my cousin's daughter just to get her away from this and maybe teach her a few things about the way things should be, instead of the way things are. By the time she's 16, she's going to run away from home, that much I'm sure of and I don't want this kid to turn into her mother, a slut who does anything for drugs.
What gets me is if I had done half of what the boy has done at 5, I would have had my ass jacked six ways from Sunday and my mouth washed out with soap.
Maybe that's what the world needs, a little less permissiveness and a little more punishment, even if it's not the corporal kind.

Shael

Okay, Shael, I love ya, sister, but seriously, it's time for an intervention.

You have GOT to throw some extra line breaks in there, between your paragraphs. I get a migraine trying to read your posts sometimes.

I would recommend getting a really big flashgun (for a camera, though you don't really need the camera for this fun little trick), and firing the thing off in their eyes. I enjoyed reading your rant.