Today I had a job interview at a wonderful school downtown. The position is for a part-time assistant in either a 2's/3's classroom or a 3's/4's classroom and I LOVE the school. So cross your fingers that they loved me equally.
Because we don't have a babysitter on tuesdays the hubby stayed home from work to watch the babe. The day began for them easily enough (have I mentioned that the babe is ridiculously easy to care for?) they had some breakfast, they took a nap and then they went to the park. Then they went to the daddy park (the small bar around the corner) to watch the Mets home opener. When I got home the hubby had this to say:
"I've never seen so many people who looked so unfriendly before. Everyone in the park looked at me like I didn't belong there, even the woman smoking her cigarette as she pushed her kid on the swing seemed like she was going to question what I was doing with the babe. I was just waiting for someone to tell me I shouldn't let him look under the slides, or crawl on the jungle gym but I had my response all ready to go if they did. I wanted someone to say something just so i could respond, "Just because I haven't read the book by Doctor Shut the F**K Up, doesn't mean I am a bad father; we let our kid walk around and explore."
Now I know what you mean about the parents who live near us, they are so afraid to let their kids play in the dirt the way we all did growing up; all because some book is telling them what is the 'right' thing to do with the kids. The whole time I was in the park I was talking to the babe, telling him that after the swings we were going to go watch the Mets, and not one of the other dads who were in the park; not even the one in work boots and a giants cap (he seemed like a regular joe shmo like me) seemed like their wives would even let them watch the game if they wanted to."
It was nice to hear the hubby talk like this about other parents, even though he could really care less if anyone in the park talked to him, because it makes me feel like less of a antisocial nut job. He also noted how much older everyone with kids around us really are, he said he was easily the youngest in the park and clearly the one having the most fun with his child.
I should also note before people get on my case about the babe in the bar it is a block from our house and is populated on any given afternoon by 3 people (including the bartender) and one of those people is usually an old woman who comes in after going to church.
2 comments:
I think it's sad that when people hear the word "bar," their minds go straight to what they've seen on Cops and various incarnations of The Real World--like every bar in the universe is filled to the rafters with booming techno music and/or a bunch of slobbering drunks shoving broken bottles in each other's faces. Most of the bars my parents took me into when I was young (not an uncommon practice in WI, especially in rural areas) were even more benign than Cheers--just people sitting around, having a drink & talking, no big fisticuffs or shenanigans happening. I don't see how it's much different than taking your kids to a restaurant, really--especially a neighborhood bar, on a quiet weekday afternoon.
If you really care what people think, you can say you took the babe "to see a man about a horse".
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