Ankle Biters

What was it with today? Everyone brought their relatives with them to their dental appointments - very small relatives. I used to be a teacher; I can handle kids. But there was NO parenting going on today in the reception room. By lunch, Clare The Insurance Guru had to clean poop off the wall of the reception area bathroom. Now, our patients just don't do mess like that. It's not like we're the public bathroom at the mall. But there it was. And kids don't just walk in unaccompanied off the street. Some parent or pseudo-parent is NOT doing their job.

Then, this afternoon after school, three people brought their kids plus friends from the neighborhood. Around four o'clock there were seven children under five running around screaming in the reception area with moms or nannies sitting in chairs whispering, "Use your inside voices; use your inside voices." Uh - no. After two chances, you yank 'em in the seat next to you and threaten to take away something dear to them. Sheesh.

But don't do what one dad did. He couldn't have been more than nineteen with a four-year-old daughter. He demanded the remote control for the TV and she threw it at him. He then said, "We don't throw things in here," and popped her on the head WITH THE REMOTE. Then he turned the TV in the children's area on to E! which I did not notice until he left because I was busy. I only noticed it when the ad came on for the latest Victoria's Secret Lingerie Runway Show an hour or so later, when a three-year-old girl was playing in there with the blocks. It would be nice if the little girl had said, "Mommy, why is that lady on TV in her underwear? Why is she so skinny? Why is she pouting like I do when I want candy in the check-out line?" But three year olds can't do that. They assume everything they see is the way it is. Enough of that and she'll have anorexia at eight and want plastic surgery for breasts at eleven.

Then I remembered. It was the nineteen year old dad that had left it on that channel. Now, I know he loves his little girl. Reckon what he'll say when she wears trampy clothes on her first date? Hmm? So the real ankle biters are the parents.

Learn more about this author, Lin Haraway.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Essays: Parenting?
We want to hear your view. Write now!