People raising children

Let me start by saying I believe everyone has the right to diffences in opinions when it comes to raising their own children. However, I really wish some people would take a step back and view their children from anothers perspective. Not having any children of my own yet, I can understand how some people could argue that it's not as easy as I may think. But I'm not talking about the "big picture", I'm looking at the little things that could really effect your children. Some of the things that I've seen just really threw me for a loop.

When I was in the mall one day, at a little kiosk getting a coffee, a woman came up to the counter and asked for a lollipop for her son. No big deal, right? Then she proceeded to ask if they had any smaller, less expensive ones. How much can a lollipop really cost? She continued to explain to the associate that she didn't have enough money for the first one because she wasn't planning on having to buy one. Her son, I would guess about 4 years old, had started to complain of a really bad stomach ache so she needed to buy him a lollipop to "settle his stomach" so she could go get her nails done. Really?? You have money to get your nails done but not enough for a piece of candy, your child is complaining of a stomach ache and you're feeding him sugar, and even though your child is sick you're still gong to go get your nails done? Wow!

At my place of employment, a retail store, we were open until midnight for the holidays. At eleven o'clock at night I see a mother standing in line with her daughter. Again guessing about the age, I would say a three year old. The child is wearing her pajama's. A little one piece, without the feet sewn in. I was annoyed enough by the fact that the child was out that late in her pajamas with no shoes on but that wasn't the bad part. I stood there and watched them walk out the door...yes, the little girl walked outside in December with no shoes on, and it was raining. No hat, no jacket, no shoes. Just the little, thin pajamas. Unbelievable.

My previous job, things were no better. There was one night I was walking through the front of the store and I noticed a little girl laying by the registers, on her stomach reading a book. I looked around and didn't see and adults nearby. So, I stood there for about two minutes (do you know what could happen to a child in two minutes time?) and then I decided to approach the girl and ask her if she knew where her mommy or daddy were. She said "no". So, at that point I asked her what her name was and I was able to get her mother's name as well. So I went over the intercom and asked her mother to come to the front of the store.  Needless to say, the mother came up to the front when she was finished with her shopping, half an hour later. I told her that we had been paging her every five minutes once we saw her daughter there by herself and all she could say was "she was fine sitting there reading her book." What the mother didn't realize was that after the first time we paged her, her daughter stood up and walked out the door of the store. One of our associates had to get get the little girl and bring her back inside.

 What is wrong with these people? Do they think their children are invincible? Because they're not. I'm not saying that you have to stop living your own life once you have children, but you do need to realize that your kids have got to be your number one priority.Your childs health and well-being are your responsibility. Children are not capable of taking care of themselves. Someone has got to be there to watch over them.