Kids, iPads & Dining Out...

I don’t have kids.  Therefore most of the time I don’t comment about “kids’ stuff” as I usually cop death stares galore from people who then take great delight in saying “you don’t have kids, what would you know?” (I am not going to enter into that debate now.)

But I am commenting on what you are about to read.  Simply because I find if I don’t I may for ever wonder if I am living in the dark ages or if people agree even these parents took it too far…

Out for dinner on Sunday night in Cronulla (one of the best beach suburbs in Sydney!) and at the table next to us was a family of 4 (mum, dad and 2 kids; boys about 2 and 4) and who I can only assume was grandma and grandpa.  The kids have an iPad each and are watching Octonauts (thanks to my niece I know who these guys are..) – not engaging in any conversation or showing any interest in grandma and grandpa OR their parents and really, it went both ways. 

Okay, maybe I can live with them watching a DVD before their dinner is served (actually, I cannot – I mean really, it is bloody ridiculous when you are in a restaurant).  But then………………..

Then dinner is served – and bloody hell – they continued watching their separate DVD’s and the parents and grandparents picked their dinner up off the table and ate with their plate in one hand and their fork in the other because these iPads were taking up a lot of the room on the table (big dishes of pasta and pizza were served)……  I mean really?  I tried to reason with myself that growing up, some families in my era (oh lord I sound old) ate dinner in front of the TV – but that was at home, this was in a restaurant on a Sunday night at 6pm…

 

Is this lazy parenting?  I think so!  Take your kids out for dinner, stick them in front of an iPad and then promptly ignore them for 2 hours while you drink and eat (albeit eat very uncomfortably, juggling plates in the air).

Am I that old fashioned?  Do I need to pull me head out of the sand and appreciate this is what society has become?  If so, wow, our kids of today will have NO social skills what so ever when they grow into adults and enter the work force.

I felt the need to comment on this one.

White Ribbon Day: 25 November 2013

If you’ve made it to my page to read my latest blog I would only make one small request..  If you have a comment to make, please comment via the blog, not the social media platform I may have put it on to get the blog out there.  Thank you!

In 2013 White Ribbon Day falls on the 25^th of November: White Ribbon Org

 

Some of you may recall a blog I wrote just over a year ago.  Given White Ribbon Day is getting closer, I thought it apt to repost:  It Can Happen to Anyone

Did you know that one Australian woman dies every week as the victim of domestic violence: Australia's Dark Secret

I didn’t know that.

Go and check the site out, it will open your eyes to something most people refuse to talk about.  It’s taboo.  Almost like if we ignore it, it is not really happening.  Well it is.  And I just thought you needed to know.

The Week That Was..

It's funny now, looking back at the week that was...

Monday:
I am putting the bins out and all of a sudden something drops off the bin onto my hand; turns out it is one of those pen knives, it sliced my hand open and all husband could say was “damn, I wondered where that was”…  I now have my right hand bandaged…

 

Tuesday:
I am out walking my 5.5 kilometres as a warm up to the day, at 5.30am as I do…  Before I tell you the rest as a precursor, several times over the last 8 weeks there has been this guy who rides past me on a small type postie bike around where I walk, he  usually toots and waves and keeps going.  I thought it was someone being, well, neighbourly..  So, yesterday I am in the same area, not a soul around, and the same lunatic rides up next to me on his bike (visor pulled up, he really looks eerie) and says “hi honey, what you up to”.  I screamed, as it scared me (it happened so quickly) and shouted “Oh Fe*k off” and he rode off..  I mean WTF?  So for the rest of the week I have taken a different route..  FREAK.  I’m thinking of reporting it.

Wednesday:
I am feeling like he** on earth so take what I think is 3 pain killers.  WRONG.  Realised 30 minutes later I had taken 3 sleeping tablets – really, who does that?

Thursday:
I am driving home minding my own business when a truck pulls out and holds up all the traffic in a narrow little back street I use – we must have sat there for about 5 minutes waiting for his to reverse (nothing I could do, narrow street), painful but no big deal, it happens.  This lunatic behind me is honking at me and telling me to go round – then jumps out of his car (hotted up Subaru, say no more) and starts screaming at me through the window – I'd had enough so I jumped out of the car and lost it – and I mean lost it.  He is screaming back at me and then a rather large man got out of his car and came up and told the other dude to, well go away, and get back in his car and shut up.  The lunatic was saying he’d follow me etc, so the nice guy followed me for some of the way home, obviously to make sure I got out okay…….

Friday:
I stayed home and closed all windows and doors.  It was uneventful.