Anyway, as we were eating lunch, we were seated at a very small two-top at the front of this restaurant near the entrance. This other family with two kids probably 5 & 8 were standing near our table waiting for their table. The 5 year old was a boy and he was really fricking annoying. He kept coming up to our table and touching our table. The father was just standing behind the boy beaming. I almost asked the father if he minded paying us to watch the boy since he wasn't.
My girls will do annoying things, all kids do, but I try really hard not to let them invade other people's space. This father wasn't doing anything to prevent the son from breaching the normal social contract, and he appeared to think that we should enjoy having his son breathing all over our table and food. We didn't. Maybe the father thought we were a childless couple who were getting enjoyment out of his child and he was giving us a gift by letting his son interact with us. Let me stress that we weren't enjoying the boy.
My husband and I were trying to enjoy a quiet lunch sans children. We had two nannies working with us so that this could happen. We did not want a random child interupting us. Parents out there, please don't assume that someone without kids with them and who are being nice to your kid actually want to be interacting with your kid. I think our body language was pretty clear and saying that we didn't want to be interacting with the child. Maybe it wouldn't have been clear to the child, but the father should have picked up on it. But he was clueless apparently. We were only being nice to the child because, in general, we are nice people. I wasn't thinking nice thoughts though. I was not inviting the child to interact with me.
To give one example of how annoying the child was, he almost took the croutons that my husband didn't eat from his salad but left on his plate. It was only through quick thinking on my husband's part that prevented the child from doing so. I'm not sure what the boy's father was thinking, but he wasn't doing anything to prevent his son from stealing food (granted food we didn't want) but stealing food nonetheless from someone's plate from happening. Oh, this child was annoying, but probably only because his parents let him get away with this sort of behavior. What sort of parent lets their child touch the used plate of someone who is not related to them?
Okay, I'm done venting about that experience.
Oh, one more thing about that experience, but it's not venting... When that other family got seated my husband and I discussed what we would have liked to have said to the father... I said the thing about asking if the father would pay us. I then told my husband that I was going to blog about the experience and he said I should have asked the father if he minded if I blogged about his annoying son and him. Tee Hee.
As my husband and I were walking around, I asked him if he liked having our three little girls. I sometimes feel they overwhelm him. He said, yes he loved having our little girls. I asked if he'd be bored with out them, and he said, Yes, but that he probably wouldn't realize he was bored. So true. You don't realize how much kids change your life till you have them and especially when you go out without them. You miss them! We haven't actually spent a night away from the girls yet. I can't imagine leaving them for all night. I have spent 2 nights in the hopital away from N, one night for the birth of each of her sisters, but I don't count those as nights away. He was with the older girls while I was in the hospital.
I'm now sitting here with T (4 months) and she's helping me type. She's such a good girl. The older two will be home from hanging with the other nanny soon. Tomorrow I think I will have that nanny watch N (almost 4) and T so that I can spend some quality time with K (19.5 months). I rarely get one-on-one time with K. I also want to have a special day with N this weekend. N gets me a lot with T, but not a lot one-on-one. T gets me a lot with N and also all by herself since she's my nursling who is exclusively nursing.
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