Tuesday's Tirade--

I was reading what Badgerdaddy had to say tonight, and it led me to THIS. Which is a rant I was going to save for another day, but you get it now. Lucky you.

Who in their right fucking mind goes out to dinner and leaves a 3 (nearly 4!) year old and twin 2 year old babies alone in an hotel room? WHO? Nobody, that's who. Only fucking crazy-people.

And upon doing so, (leaving one's wee-infant children alone in an hotel room while one goes out to dinner) who on earth would then blame the POLICE for not doing enough to find and protect their missing child? MORONS, that's who.

Apparently children are a lot easier to come by than I had previously believed. They're so easy to come by, in fact, that they're pretty much disposable. If it's inconvenient to look after them, or to even utilize the child-minding service provided by the hotel, just leave them alone in the room. SAY that you checked on them every half-hour to make sure they were alright, but then don't ACTUALLY check on them and notice they're missing for at least 60 minutes.

The only problem with parenthood so far as I can see it? Is that any moron can do it. You have to have a license to have a dog, but you have to have no such permits for a child. AND, there's no limit on the number of children you can have! Heck, here in Canada, we actually PAY you to have babies! The more the merrier!

I'd be spouting off about 'survival of the fittest', except that it's not the child's fault her parents are imbeciles. It is, however, the child's problem that she's missing. It's not the child's fault that she is nowhere to be found...even if she wandered off (highly unlikely at this point in time), SHE IS THREE YEARS OLD. Three year olds are generally not known for either their good judgement, or for their unerring sense of direction. The poor child is the one that is missing her parents. The poor child is the one that doesn't know where she is. The poor child is the one that is currently spending time in the company of strangers. Make that STRANGERS. And folks, strangers are CREEPY.

These people do NOT deserve to have children. If I were in charge, I'd arrange to have their other two children removed into custody and adopted out to parents who WANT them and can be bothered to look after them properly.

***
And speaking of people who piss me off. (yes, yes we were. And we will continue to do so. Suck it up or step off. Your choice.)

Tonight on my way to Gaelic, I stopped for coffee. I park on one side of the busy, busy street and walk across to the coffee shop. It's a difficult street to cross on foot, but near impossible to do so in a car. I was (not-so) patiently waiting at the crosswalk to go back to my car, making googly eyes at some stranger's baby the whole while.

Cars where whizzing past at relatively break-neck speeds. It's rush-hour in the downtown core. People are trying to get out to the burbs, wanting to get to their dinners, and their soccer practices, and their swimming lessons. They are in a rush.

One over-sized vehicle went past and it gave me pause. It was weaving around on the single-lane thoroughfare as it passed. I quickly looked over at the small child and the couple standing next to me, wanting to be sure they were well back from the edge of the road. The car was wandering that much that I was worried for the safety of these strangers and their baby.

Looking at the woman driving the car I noted the following things:

Item the first: She was leaning into the passenger's side fishing for something with one arm.

Item the second: She had two young girls in the back seats of the SUV.

Item the third: The young girls DID appear to be wearing seat belts, but each had an over-sized ice cream cone, and one was balancing an extraordinarily large sleeve of what appeared to be caramel corn between the hump and the ceiling. She was stretched out of her car seat, and looked precarious.

Item the fourth: The woman was using her spare hand to drink a coffee.

And finally, item the fifth: She was using her OTHER spare hand to clamp her cellular telephone to her ear while she yammered into said telephone.

WHAT THE FUCK?

Not only was she endangering her OWN children, but me, my neighbour couple, and THEIR child too.

Come on now people...put down the fucking phones. Do what cars were intended for. DRIVE. Do not use your car as a mobile meal centre or a portable beverage dispenser. And it is certainly not a traveling telephone booth. Concentrate on one thing. Getting yourself (and your loved ones) safely from point A to point B.

I'm tired, so that's it for now. Sorry, I'm not going to edit. That's just the way it is with me...Rant and run.

Lots tomorrow from work...I may have some news soon. And I may not. But I'll fill you in then. Goodnight.