Walkies*

Not by any stretch of the imagination would I ever be considered for Mother of the Year (or Month, Day, Hour, ad nauseum), nor would I want to. I mean, think of the pressure to outperform yourself the next time if you were considered the Wonderful now! I just don't have that kind of drive.

Aside from the times I like to either threaten X that I will nail his shoes to his feet if he "takes them off one.more.time" when we go on errands; or asking if he wants to take a Ho-Ho/Pepsi break with me at 10 minutes to bedtime, I think I'm doing an O-K job. And let's not consider the ten month period after he started walking where he was rarely seen in public without one, if not two, prominent bruises on his forehead due to the propensity he had in letting his big ole' melon head capsize him into the nearest solid surface, as I consider that my "gimme".

So when I saw this type of thing on a child during today's trip to a museum, I really had to wonder at the parenting competency level around me. I fervently wanted to give the care-giver the benefit of the doubt as my sister had to use one when she traveled Internationally with her 6 month and 2 year old...alone...with layovers in London, New York and Chicago. I made fun of her, but realized that she had to not only juggle her two children, but the carry-on luggage for herself and the kids (3 months stay in the States = lots of luggage), and an infant carrier.

When I first saw the girl wearing the harness, it appeared grandma was the one holding the leash. OK, so grandma is one of those overly protective type and the kid's mom figures what-the-heck since no one will know it was her kid on the leash. Wrong. Apparently, it was a family outing: grandma, mommy, and girl. OK...so maybe it's because bringing a stroller can be rather cumbersome and she doesn't want her traipsing off into Indian Artifact exhibit and tearing apart a head-dress or eating moon rocks. Oops. Nope. Museum lends out strollers...for free. And then get this! Along comes grandpa, pushing a double-stroller and holding a baby. So, now you're telling me that three physically-able adults (grandparents weren't much into their 50's) do not have the attention span and necessary coordination to take care of two small children, one of which could only escape by either rolling or even possibly army-crawling her way out of sight and the other just barely tottling? Can you imagine the chaos that ensues when just ONE of these people has to go to take a piss?

X did not seem to take much notice of the dog show (sans *Barbara Woodhouse). He was too busy trying to stick his finger in the pencil sharpener in the activity center or slurping the water that had pooled in the drinking fountain because the drain was clogged with sunflower seed husks...swear.to.god.