Degrees of Sin

If I was feeling any guilt about how I was living my life, it was wiped out by what I saw at lunch today. What is adultery when compared to horrendously bad parenting?

I knew the couple in the next booth weren't the best parents in the world when their 3-year-old was standing on the seat, hanging into my booth, and talking to me. I felt justified in ignoring her. After all her parents were.

By the time my Server had returned with my change their child was annoying them too much so they let her out of the booth to run through the dining room, roll on the floor, and sing and dance. Other diners being bothered was irrelevant. They had Guacamole to eat.

It's a lovely Mexican place with fine tableware, linen napkins, art deco glassware, and an upscale design not Chuck E. Cheese. The reason I go to nice places and spend more money is so I don't have to deal with other people's Little Darlings on an unchecked rampage. If I'm in a mood where I don't care I'll stop off at McDonalds and not blink if there are french fries flying through the air but there should be some places where only adults and well-behaved children go.

It's the future that's going to get really ugly. If they can't/won't handle her for 15 minutes at age 3 in a nice restaraunt none of them will get out of her teen years alive.