Hmmm, should this post be titled, "Exhibitionist Pregos" or, "Revisit of Pet Peeve 1,247?"

This week I took the girls back to one of our favorite places, the Silliman Family Aquatic Center. It's an indoor water park that is open all year long, and geared toward younger children. This time there was the strangest assortment of people there. Normally everyone is very polite, keeps an eye on their own children, and there is a certain amount of decorum that is inherent to the place. Today none of that was present. Was it the holiday crowd that I should be avoiding? (It was MLK day)

There was one boy, about 7 years old, that kept splashing everyone (in the small kids area), didn't wait his turn on the slide, and kept sliding into the other kids. When he slid into my kids, and actually hurt them (he was large for his age), I went and talked to his Mom. At first she seemed very nice, and headed over to talk to him. However, as she was walking over, she turned around and said that all the kids were doing it (they weren't), and that my kids had run into him before that (they hadn't - I was right next to them the whole time.) Later I noted another Mom went up and talked to her and got the same response. I guess this goes back to my Pet Peeve #1,247.

A plea to pregnant women everywhere, on behalf of all people with eye/s:

To the extremely large pregnant woman who came out of the locker room looking very appropriate in her swimsuit, keep it that way. Do not sit at the edge of the pool and proceed to roll the swim suit top up to the crease between your breast and your swollen belly - there's no sun at an indoor pool, you cannot tan this way.

To the other very large pregnant woman there - Thong bikinis were not meant to be worn by pregnant women. Bikini's yes. You had the body for it. Thongs, no. Getting to see your swollen prego bits was not my idea of fun. And to your husband, banana hammocks are just not attractive at the family pool.

Thank you for listening.

Pet Peeve 1,247...

People who don't parent their own children at the park (or any public venue for that matter.)

Today we went to the park with Liz and Val and there was this group of less than well behaved children who were using sticks as guns, poking each other with them, pouring sand on my girls heads, and whacking Val in the face with a stick (though this last was just due to carelessness and not paying attention to the stick they had in their hand) all while their mothers sat on a bench and socialized. At one point, one of the Moms called out. "We don't play with sticks." Seriously, is that all it takes in her mind? The only other thing said to the children was, "5 minutes" meaning they had 5 minutes left before they were going home.

I'm appalled to say I overheard them speaking of homeschooling meetings as I am seriously considering homeschooling the girls. However, I hope that these parents and children are not indicative of the homeschooling community.