Kidizing the World

I get that the entire world can't be child-proofed, that not every person's house is set up for kids, that not every restaurant should provide crayons and a kids menu (although it's pretty nice when they do). I understand all that, but what really gets me are people's general attitude toward kids.

Finn is not a cart kid. It generally takes some degree of bribery (popcorn at Target, a sucker at Trader Joe's) to keep him in the cart, and even then he never lasts long. He'd much rather be walking with us or (usually) throwing stuff that looks cool into the cart. This is what happened yesterday at Trader Joe's. A couple licks into his sucker he hands it to us and decides it's time to get down.

Let the chase begin.

We happened to run into Finn's friend Tristan, sitting quietly in his cart, but not for long. Soon the boys were chasing each other, running through Trader Joe's.

A kidless person's absolute nightmare. Well, minus the screaming.

It was a joyous display of childhood, these two little boys having the time of their lives. M. or I were with them the entire time, but I kept feeling the burning glares of people as my child rounded corners, veered toward the cheese case, zoomed down the frozen food aisle. Because more importantly than having family-friendly spaces in this world is having child-friendly attitudes, and I tell you, attitudes towards kids sucks sometimes.

I would have been one of those people glaring before Finn came along. I would have muttered to M. about people not controlling their children. I now know that children are not made to be controlled, that their joy should not be suppressed except for safety reasons, as long as their parent is present and attentive.

Maybe we broke all the social rules of parenthood yesterday. Perhaps I deserved a few of those glares. I think that people in general need to be more kid-ized, to see kids through the eyes of a child, to see all the wonder they bring to a simple trip to the grocery store. I'm okay with spaces not being appropriate for children and I'll respect that, but I do tire of attitudes that don't respect children being present in this society as well as being allowed to be who they are...children.