Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Parenting - Just Hard, Or Is It Hell?

I just overheard one side of the following cell phone conversation while waiting in line at Panda Express for my cheap Chinese food fix. The caller was a girl of about 20 years of age who had probably been dumped by "Kevin". Perhaps she was even dumped in favor of the new mother. In any case, by the end of the conversation, I was pretty sure Kevin was better off without this nasty piece of work.

Vindictive Girl on Phone (VGOP) – So, Kevin just had his baby.

Me (Talking to the voices in my head) – Wha? How does a guy have a baby?

VGOP – (With delight) Yeah she was in labor for like 12 hours. I like, smiled all through practice on Saturday. Now his life is finally going to go to hell. I just wanted to call and tell you because I was so happy. You know, I’m spreading the word.

At this point the person on the other end of the call must have said something that made her feel like the vindictive bitch she sounded like, because her end of the conversation suddenly turned defensive.

VGOP – Well, Charlotte deserves it. She was dumb and she got with Kevin……(here I like to imagine that the caller called her something that rhymes with snitch, and told her to shut up). OK. OK. Well, bye.

At that point I felt the need to shower an excessive amount of public affection on Garrett who had also heard this exchange. I wanted both him and the twit on the phone to understand that becoming a parent does not equate with taking up residence in H-E-double hockey sticks. What a nasty thing to say front of a little kid. I realize that when teenagers become parents (and I'm assuming the parents in question were teenagers), its not an ideal situation and the going is likely to be extremely rough for everyone involved. I am not in favor of kids having kids. Babies born into this kind of situation are often better off when given up for adoption. Publicly gloating that the birth of a child is cursing the teen parents to an existence in hell, is just really callous.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - crazy situation. Also confirms my thoughts on having "private" conversations in public places and how cell phones have blown people's consideration for others out the window.

Julia said...

I am really amazed at the next generation beneath us. Very scary indeed.

Anonymous said...

In the words of Church Lady from SNL "Slut, slut, slut."I was expecting to see some major whines about your comment that such babies are better off given up for adoption. I have a great book on that subject for you to read. "Brother and Sister" by Joanna Trollope.