Kids in Grown-up Places

Yes, I am a curmudgeon, I admit it. But I sincerely believe that there are places where small, noisy, bratty children are not meant to be. The place I work is one such location. 

Billed as a quiet retreat, this summer it has become a kind of unsupervised summer camp for all manner of kids under the age of ten.  Screaming at the top of their lungs, running through the property waving sticks they find on the grounds, (this morning one kid had a stick on fire!), throwing rocks and pine needles into the outside fire pit, stomping on the sprinklers, tossing trash on the ground instead of in a trash receptacle, basically acting like a young cast of "Lord of the Flies", the kids we have had lately have been awful.

And the parents are worse. While the kids are doing all of the above and more, parents are either totally absent (in their tents or Airstreams, oblivious of their offsprings' whereabouts) or sitting on lawn chairs furiously working their social media contacts on their phones.  These parents have zero contact with their children until we, the front desk or housekeeping or maintenance staff confront them about their out-of-control kids. And even then, they look up with a blank face, as if they have completely forgotten those kids belong to them.

It is a sad commentary on so much of the current realm of what's appropriate. The abdication of responsibility, whether in parenting or in the workplace or in our world, is rampant. Telling a kid over and over to not throw any kind of material (paper, leaves, pine needles, rocks, balloons, potato chips, etc) into the fire pit and getting no backup from the parental units is infuriating. For the other guests, those trying to have a peaceful stay in the redwoods without kids, it is annoying, frustrating and anything but peaceful.

Children do not have the right to ruin anyone's vacation weekend.  I don't care how cute a parent thinks his/her kid is, if that kid is out of control then that kid needs to be controlled. Kids do not belong everywhere.

So sue me for being politically incorrect.  Kids do not belong everywhere.

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