Some People's Kids

I am amazed by what some parents allow their children to do. Living by a kid like Phillip clearly blows my perception of parenting out of the water, but I've always told myself that people like Phillip's parents are exceptions to the parenting rule . . . . or are they?

By no means am I going to sit here and say that my children are perfect - heck no! Believe me, I have been embarrassed on more than one occasion . . . thank you very much. I only hope that I am at least teaching my children along the way the difference between the right and wrong ways to do things.

You already know Phillip's creepy family lives on one side of us. On the other side is a nice young couple with two little kids . . . they seem very down-to-earth and Sara (their daughter) plays here often. Directly behind our house is an older couple that have the occasional grandchild over. One evening about one year ago the kids and I were outside and I noticed they were outside as well with a small boy around Bella's age. He was fascinated with our swing set, so naturally I invited him over to play with us. The children played while I chatted with the little boys mother and was introduced to his grandmother (our neighbor). When it was time to go in I think I mumbled something like "oh, come over anytime" . . . . which apparently they took to mean literally . . . as in even if we are not home or not outside . . . ummm . . . me and my big mouth.

So Memorial Day (the day Bella got the side of her faced kicked in) it was evening and the kids were bathed and settling down for bedtime. Phillip came to our front door and told us that there were some children playing on our swing set. HUH? That was weird - I thought . . . so I went to the window and sure enough . . . three little kids on our swing set . . . not a parent in sight. I looked a little closer and I could clearly make out that one of the three kids was our neighbor's grandson . . . running around like he owned the place.

Ok . . . so I wasn't real keen on the idea of these little kids playing unsupervised on this swing set especially after the weekend I spent with Bella. BUT - not wanting to ruffle any feathers I left it alone. About 15 minutes later . . . Phillip again tells us that now there were a whole crap load of kids on our swing set (ok - so he didn't say crap load, but you get my drift). I looked out the window and the three kids had multiplied into about eight kids . . . some of which were not so little. In fact one girl in particular was, in my opinion, too big to be playing on this swing set . . .

Now I was mad. Seriously???? What kind of parent allows their child to play on someone else's swing set and not even have 1. the decency to ask first and 2. the common sense to at least supervise those kids!!! When I said "come over anytime" I meant like when we were outside playing too . . . not whenever you had company over and needed to entertain some strangers' children! And the real kicker . . . . . . this was not the first time they had done this!!! One time last summer the kids and I were eating supper and I turned around to see literally 15 kids swarmed on our swing set . . . all from the house behind us.

I could feel the smoke start to come out of my ears . . . so I said enough was enough . . . . . and I sent Brian out to yell at them as I watched from the window! HA! I could see the older kids scatter as Brian rounded the side of the house toward them - it was obvious they knew they were playing on someone else's property. It took awhile to convince the littlest kids to leave the fun playground . . . since Brian was certain they hadn't understood a word he'd said . . . but they did. All the while not a parent in sight.

I have to say, it felt good to stick up for ourselves for once. I only hope that one of the older kids went inside and told their parents what happened . . . not that they'd care.