Parenting, good bad and neutral
Woman removing a bunch of stuff, pinkish clearly items belonging to her daughter — or girl she was care taking in some capacity. She yells to a woman out on the sidewalk to greet her, “I packed all of Magelline’s stuff and forgot to bring Magelline!”
“Oh My gosh! Did you leave her at the MALL?”, asked more urgently.
“No. Back at the house.”
It occurs to me that if she had left her at the mall, she would have shouted with more urgency than at the house. I think for a moment, overthinking, that maybe this shouldn’t be the case — that maybe the multitudes of people at the mall would ensue Magelline safe passage to a “Lost and Found” as against the house where Magelline is on her own — but then realize, no the possibility of abduction and all that…
A woman is walking along with her young son on a bicycle and her young daughter on a tricycle. She sometimes has to push the tricycle ahead.
The boy says to his mom, “Mom, I don’t think I need this helmet. Everytime I fall, I never land on my head.”
The mom says, “Oh, but you’ve never fallen really badly. You need the helmet.”
This strikes me as good parenting. It’s unlikely she will ever leave these kids back at the house, or at the mall.
At a Starbucks I go to once a week or so at the same time and see this same group when I do — an obese woman is riding around down a brief aisle on a motor-cart with her friend’s baby going “wee”. A surly twenty-something grunts, to his friends but seemingly at this group of women, “If I ever get that fat, kill me.” Rather mean, sure, one of the women darts a dirty look, but shakes it off.
A couple of minutes later, he is asking everyone if they have a cigarette. This includes the group he just insulted. My thought runs along the lines of — you’re on okay ground with the insult, you’re on okay group bumming a cigarette, you are not on okay ground trying to bum a cigarette from a group you just insulted.