Were You Raised By Wolves?!?!

"On the beach, you can live in bliss." 

~ Dennis Wilson~ 

I like watching people.  Human behavior interests me.  But sometimes, I just want to sit in a chair on a beach and have humanity leave me alone.  Today was one of those days. 

So, today I went to the beach.  It seems today was tween/young teen day at the beach.  There were lots of what looked to be 12, 13, 14 year olds, wandering around, unattended by adults.  And were they ever rude and inconsiderate of the adults around them.  Lots of yelling, running, and just general rudeness going on. 

There was one group, three boys, three girls, that decided to park themselves right next to my blanket and chair.  They threw their things to the ground, began kicking sand and yelling at each other.  Joyfully yelling at each other, but yelling none the less.  And the sand.  Dust kicking up every where, I could feel the fine layer settling on my Coppertone greased skin.  Yea.  

Then the girls decided to run off to the bathroom.  I was in the way of the bathroom.  My blanket had blown over on itself thanks to the wind, and so, instead of walking around my blanket, what did one of the girls decide to do?  Yup, she jumped over my blanket.  Really.  With me sitting right there in a chair at the edge of my blanket.  I lowered my sunglasses and stared at her two friends who were getting ready to do the same.  I must have given them some look, one of the remaining two said "We'll go around".  Hahaha.  

Then there were the little ones.  All full of joy to be at the beach.  Running 50 miles per hour back and forth across the sands, spreading love wherever they go.  Or sand.  Lots of sand, wherever the go.  And the parents, who see them kicking great big billows of sand onto all those around them?  Nothing.  Not a peep.  Really?!?!

And then you have the screamers.  Sometimes that means kids, other times that means adults.  The moms who take their kids to the beach, for what one would think would be the intention of having a fun day and making memories and all that sweet, sugary stuff, but in reality, the moms are harried and tired of being moms so they just scream at their kids the whole time they are there.  That's fun to listen to.  

Then you have the kid screamers.  The ones who scream for fun, the ones who scream at people 100 yards away because they can't seem to walk there, and the ones who scream because their mom tells them no, for the 100th time.  

Yikes!  When did we stop caring how our actions affect others?  I was never one to let my children be rude and unruly in public.  I always made sure they realized that sometimes, our actions can upset other people and we should always try to be courteous of others.  My girls knew not to run by people on a beach because running kicks up sand.  The knew better than to scream at me or each other from the water to the sand.  They certainly knew not to jump over someone else's stuff.  

As a mom, I tried really, really hard to never yell at or shame my kids in public.  There are lots of moms out there who seem to never have learned that lesson.  

I have written about bad moms before here, and about the sad state of humanity here and here.  So I guess this is a running theme with me.  I'm just so easily annoyed about things that seem like common courtesy to me.  

Maybe it's aging.  Maybe I'm just less tolerant the older I get.  I actually sympathize with the people who want kid free restaurants and flights.

But I don't blame the kids, really.  Not the young ones anyway.  I blame the parents.  By teens, even though teens to be very self absorbed, one would think they should have the where with all to know when they are annoying people.  But little kids, they only know what they see or have been taught, and for that, the parents are at fault. 

Blame.  Someone has to be blamed, right?  They ruined my day at the beach.  But so did the sun, it chose not to shine.  But that's a sad story for another grumpy day.  

“When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have” 

~Stephen Hawking~