You Know You Live In A Good Neighborhood When...

So last week I was at breakfast when I saw a family of 5. A husband and wife and their three children. The kids were loud and energetic as they are prone to do. They ran around the patio area loud and full of life. And I am sure that at 9 in the morning their energy was probably frustrating and annoying for most of the patrons out on the patio. Well, long story short as they were trying to herd there kids the parents decided that they needed to go get coffee and a bunch of other stuff. So they decided to go back into the coffee shop with two of them and just left one of them outside sitting by themselves.

All I kept thinking was, "you know you live in a good neighborhood when you can choose to be a negligent parent."

I mean seriously, this is the parenting equivalent of being able to leave your front door unlocked because you live in a neighborhood were you don't have to worry about break in thefts. How do you just leave your kid alone for three minutes on a patio while eating a bagel? It must be nice to not have to worry about these types of things. I remember one time my mom dropped my brother and I off at my grandparents for a sleep over. As we met my grandmother in the drive way a man covered in blood ran in front of us screaming unintelligibly. And I am not being over dramatic when I say he was covered in blood. The man's entire face and shirt was covered in blood. My grandmother and mom looked at each other, there was a pause, and then my mom said, "all right I will come by to pick them up in a couple of days." Ha!

Bad parenting is relative, or it can be anyway. In bad neighborhoods it is leaving your kids with relative while blood drenched people run around screaming. In a nice town like La Jolla, it's leaving our kids alone out side a bagel shop unattended.

By the way, the kid is clearly 5 or 6 and is already eating food that I didn't eat until I was 21. Unbelievable.