Andi’s Blog…or life according to the voices in my head…

Last night Tim and I went to dinner with my mom. After dinner we stopped by Home Depot because Mom wanted some new flowers to plant in her backyard. While she was shopping in the garden section Tim and I went to check out tile options (he’s redoing the master bath in his house). We were a bit disappointed with the tile selection and didn’t want to leave Mom alone in the garden section too long, so amazingly we were able to leave Home Depot without Tim spending a single dime.

After we dropped my mom and her new plants off we decided to go out for ice cream. I haven’t had Baskin Robbins in ages, so this was a nice treat. We had a lovely time sitting on the outside bench, licking our ice cream cones, and watching a very small boy with a huge head run around. He looked like a small life-sized bobble head.

Then we headed to the grocery store because I needed four specific items, milk, apples, kitchen funnels, and face soap. This was meant to be a quick in and out mission, but alas… My grocery store was remodeled and expanded a couple of months ago. I’ve been in several times since then, but I usually go directly to the isles I need and don’t spend much time browsing. This trip was different. We got “lost” in one of the remodeled sections and Tim found the amazing dollar isle. Everything on it was only $1, and it wasn’t all crap either. I found a car charger for my cell phone for $1; Cingular wanted somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 for a car charger when I got the phone. Granted this one doesn’t have the official Cingular logo and the plastic casing doesn’t look quite as sturdy, but how much abuse is a car cell phone charger really going to get? Tim found seven tool related items. I find it a little ironic that he didn’t spend any money in Home Depot but got seven $1 items at the grocery store, and he’s pretty picky about his tools, so he was ecstatic about the deal. They were all little things, some clamps and stuff like that, no power tools, but still it was a bargain.

Then I happened upon a dream item. I was so excited that I think I bought about half a dozen of these. There has been a huge void in my life since KFC did away with the Spork several years ago and started using regular boring plastic flatware just like everyone else. Now I finally have a Spork again, and it’s a bottle opener too! 24 hours later and I’m still giddy about it. :-)

I just read Sharron’s post on child leashes which reminded me of a radio debate I heard on my drive home yesterday. Apparently the DJs had gone to the opening of some swanky new joint in town and were horrified when another guest started breastfeeding her infant at the bar. One of these DJs is a mother of 2 and clearly stated that she wasn’t opposed to breastfeeding but that there are limits on what is socially acceptable. This started a tirade of angry calls from mothers claiming that these DJs were opposing breastfeeding and supporting “formula milk propaganda” when everyone knows that breast milk is much more nutritious for the baby. There were also several calls from stupid guys with comments like, “Sure it’s ok to breastfeed in public. Heck, anytime I get to see me some hooters I’m one happy sumonabitch!” The DJs tried to get across that they weren’t even opposed to public breastfeeding as long as the mother was discreet, but that there are places where it isn’t acceptable such as this swanky bar opening, and that this mother wasn’t at all discreet and totally exposed herself to everyone in the bar. People kept calling in saying that it was a natural thing and prude Americans should just get over it and that a mother has a legal right to breastfeed anywhere at anytime.

Ok, I’m not a mother, so I’m not sure if I’m qualified to speak on this or not. I guess my general opinion is that Americans are a bit prude, but I don’t see that changing anytime soon and a polite person will have the presence of mind to consider whether or not her actions would cause other people to be uncomfortable in certain situations. There are lots of things that are natural bodily functions, but that doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable to do them all in plain view of the surrounding people, and just because something is a legal right doesn’t make it universally appropriate. As far as the breast milk vs. formula milk argument…isn’t that what breast pumps are for?!

But let’s stop a moment and look at what’s really wrong with this whole picture and what not one single caller bothered to mention. SHE HAD AN INFANT IN A BAR!!! Not only do I find this completely unacceptable in terms of what is good for the baby, but I’m also quite fed up with having my adult time ruined because selfish parents insist on dragging along their rug rats to places that should be adult only venues. I’m not just talking about bars. I recently had what would have been an otherwise pleasant dinner in a somewhat upscale restaurant ruined by an adjacent table. At the aforementioned table sat 2 parents. 5 kids accompanied them, but none of these kids were sitting at the table. No, they were all 5 running around the table, stealing each others food, arguing, spilling drinks, and making A LOT of noise. As if this general annoyance wasn’t bad enough, they kept our poor waiter so busy that I never once got a refill on my beverage and we almost had to ask another waiter to get our check.

So, I guess in my opinion the best solutions can be summed up with the following words: discretion, breast pump, babysitter, pizza guy, child friendly restaurants with playscapes.

As a sidenote, I have a friend who’s currently going through tons of redtape so that he and his wife can be approved to adopt through the state rather than a private agency. They are having to take parenting classes, parenting tests, all of their finances are under contstant review, and even the size of their house and the condition of their neighborhood are heavily weighted factors in how many children they are allowed to adopt if they are approved at all. Happily, it looks good for them, but I can’t help wondering if we wouldn’t all be better off if they made EVERYONE get a “parenting license” before one was allowed to reproduce. Ok, ok, I know that’s a bit extreme and a little Brave New Worldish, but I still wonder…