Anyone who knows me knows that I don't want kids. I joke about my list of 9, 683 reasons why I'm not having children. One of those reasons--and one very near the top of the list--is that I see too many ill behaved children in the world. Now, don't get me wrong, I love kids; I'm a teacher for goodness sake. Yet, the beauty of my life is that I can enjoy them at school and then send them home at the end of the day! If they are bratty...no big deal...55 minutes later they are out the door. Yet, when we go into public and want to have a nice lunch, there is nothing more annoying than loud, misbehaving children. No...their irresponsible parents are far more annoying.
For instance, Neal and I were in Quizons a couple of weeks ago (this is a bit of a Sunday routine for us), and a dad comes in with a 10 year-old(ish) boy. The kid starts flipping all the chip signs up and one falls on the floor. He looks at it. Looks at his dad who is oblivious. Shrugs and leaves it on the floor. The dad eventually told the kid to knock it off, but he didn't have the kid fix the signs. They left and I was disgusted. A few minutes later, my faith in humanity was restored when a mom came in with two kids (both elementary age), and they promptly started fixing the signs. The mom bent down and helped her daughter fix the sign that had fallen on the floor.
Today was another good day at Quiznos. Neal and I broke routine and did our Sunday errands on Saturday. We also ate a late lunch. All of these factors led to seeing an extremely cute moment between two brothers. When we arrived at the restaurant, a dad and his two boys (approximately 8 and 4) were eating lunch. I didn't really pay much attention to them until I got up to wash my hands. The youngest boy was giving his dad and brother high-fives. He was so cute that I wanted to join in! I figured 1) his father had taught him not to talk to--or high-five--strangers, and 2) my hands were sticky from the BBQ sauce on my sandwich. A little later, after the boys finished eating, they got up and started playing with each other. I know...this had the potential to be really annoying, but it wasn't. In fact, I turned to Neal and said, "If I was their mom, I would be taking photos of this moment...it would make a great scrapbook page!"
The boys were facing each other and seeing how far they could spread their legs while maintaining their balance. The older boy--with longer legs--had a much easier time of it, but his brother was still trying to spread his legs as far as his brother. The older boy helped his brother keep his balance. They repeated this game three times before they had to go. The boys held hands as they left, but the littlest of the two, not wanting the game to end, waddled out with his legs spread as far as possible. His brother and I made eye contact and shared a laugh as they left. It was such a precious moment; it's still making me smile! I hope those boys are always able to maintain the love they have for one another right now, and I hope they repeat the game at home so mom can get some good photos!
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