Babysit My Kids For Free

Okay, NOW I get it.

I've wondered for a long time why parents are so desperate to make sure that the rest of us be forced to act like the parents of their kids.

We're to have our books, our media, the internet, even our bedrooms and who we sleep with monitored so it doesn't infringe on the way they see their kids should be interacting with their environment.

I finally GET it -- and I have a family in Clallam Bay to thank for that!

Oh, awright, it's a family that was up here from Port Angeles for the Scholarship Auction.

There was this one woman doing the usual A Cat Attacked My Kid spiel.

You know the one -- the parent describes the baby grabbing the cat, or cornering the cat, and getting a quick slap around both sides of the head.

Then the cat is killed, or abandoned, or any of the other bullying nasty things a big omnivore can do to a small animal. Because we can, or some other reason we should be ashamed for.

But did you get it up there? "Grabbed the cat." "Cornered the cat."

That's right.

Mommy or daddy stood right there, brainless and starry-eyed, and let their soft, hairless, vulnerable, soft-eyed offspring crawl right up and grab --

A HEAVILY-BEWEAPONED PREDATOR WITH THE REACTION BUTTON OF A BIRD (Read: Therapod dinosaur niece).

Sat RIGHT there and let the kid crawl up to an animal that is on the constant alert NOT to be grabbed or harrassed -- that has buttons in its head that make the knives come out and the attack-arms flash out -- and then got all surprised when the cat popped the kid!

And they should be grateful that ALL the cat did was a little quick warning slap. That the cat spared the kid in ways the parents can't even begin to realize. That the cat exercised EXTREME self-control on a kitten.

A friend of mine once tried to rescue his two big Siamese from a raccoon they were backing off the yard. He picked them up. Did they hear him coming? Did they know they were about to be boosted? Did he even realize he'd set off the flash-attack switch in their heads and spinal columns?

42 stitches. 42 STITCHES. He looked like the mummy.
And those cats never meant to hurt him. That was just a defense mechanism. The guy did no more than step on a land-mine.

He didn't blame the cats. He knew it was his fault. He's the human -- he's the responsible one.

But parents who let their kids play with predators? That don't teach their kid not to torment animals?

Talk about lazy. Talk about irresponsible. Talk about self-absorbed. Talk about a kid in danger -- and not because of a little animal.

These are the same people who dump their kids off in libraries, and bookstores, and then patrol the freedoms of adults, because they've wandered off to do their thing, and left the rest of us to deal with their kids.

In their eyes, the rest of society is just a free baby-sitting service, and they can turn their backs on their kids any time they like, just dump them out there without supervision or care, because WE'll pick up the tab.

I get it.

GAG.