Last Sunday, Reilly and I headed out for our morning session at the local park, as we do every day. The park was very busy, and I was surprised to see that there were many fathers in attendance--a rarity around these parts. It wasn't until I overheard a conversation between two of these fathers that I realized what was going on:
"Wife made you take the kids out?
"Yeah. Gotta wear 'em out before football comes on."
"I hear ya."
It was a little sad for me to realize that the other dads were at the park almost as a punishment for the afternoon they were about to spend before the television. Even sadder was the fact that they weren't really playing with their kids, just sitting on a bench and watching them. One young girl asked her dad to ride the purple dinosaur with her. When he refused, she whined a little, and then he punished her for whining by making her sit on the bench with him. Sad.
At one point, I was watching Reilly as she "drove" the wheel bolted on to one of the playsets. As I stood there, a young girl (maybe five years old) came over and shoved Reilly off the wheel, causing her to fall.
Instinctively, I said, "No, no, no, young lady! That is NOT nice!"
Her father, who had witnessed the scene, rushed over, took her by the arm, and said, "You're going to get a spanking!" and proceeded to bend her over his knee, right there, and spank her ass.
Now, I'm not going to get into the whole spanking debate, but I will say that I have no intention of hitting my child, and that the whole scene made me feel very uncomfortable. I was so nonplussed that I lifted up Reilly and walked back to the car to go home. The whole way, I kept my eyes to the ground, not wanting to have the other fathers see how embarrassed I was.
Of them.
I hear you, Brian. We once saw a set of twins, around 1 year old, playing in the sand. One of them threw sand and it went in his brother's face. The father came over and threw sand in the offenders face and said "See how you like it!"
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