It Takes a Village …

to raise a child. It does because the parents are idiots. I took the dog for a walk around the block. It is getting near sunset and the sun is low in the sky, peeking through the trees when you least expect it. It is a warm, beautiful evening.

I live in a residential area built around a golf course. These are nice new homes moderately priced – or maybe higher than moderate. They are new homes. And I mean new. There are still some under construction.

So I am taking the dog on a restful meander around the local block. And twice, count that – two times – there were very small children playing in the road with the adult not looking on in apparent nonchalance. I believe that the adults felt that their what should be to them precious children were safe because they bought little plastic things that told the cars that belong in the road that there were stupid adults allowing small children to play there.

Each house here has a yard. Many of the backyards are fenced. But that is too restrictive. So the kids need to play in the street. We all remember riding our bikes in the street. I remember that. I even remember my kids doing that. But I’m not talking about riding a bike in the street when you are in middle school.

The first child I encountered playing in the street was riding a low Hot Wheels type plastic toy. She was probably three but may have been as old as four. She was definitely pre-school age. I could find no adult anywhere near although there was a five or six year old on the sidewalk with his bike. I kept looking for an adult because I didn’t think that the plastic SLOW sign was really going to be much of a protective device. I finally found the male adult washing his SUV. I had to be completely around the car before I could see him. I know he could not really be watching the child.

So I continued on my walk thinking how moronic parents have become. Ten years ago when I lived on a cul-de-sac and no one but local traffic was ever on the road, a neighbor told me to tell my then 16-year-old to be more careful when he was driving on the road. Her children were precious and needed protection. I told her that I knew a sure way to keep them from being hit by a car. Keep them out of the road. The road is for the cars. I knew that the only way a driver in that neighborhood could be assured of never hitting any of the kids that lived there was to drive on the sidewalk. No kid was ever on the sidewalk because they were always in the road.

Where I live now is not a cul-de-sac. There is a fair amount of traffic any time of day. At least at this time of day there is not a bunch of construction traffic.

The dog and I continued on our merry way. And sure enough. Another moron. Only this time the female adult was in the front yard watering her landscaping. And the 15 to 18-month-old was playing in the street. She was protected by a bright green plastic SLOW sign set up in the middle of the lane. Why on God’s earth would you teach your child to play in the street? This kid doesn’t know if the sign is out or not or why it even matters. But she knows that the street is made to play in.

A few more houses down the street another male adult is watching two small (6-8 years) boys ride their bikes – in the street. He told me he was watching them ride so that they would be safe. They were four or five houses down the street so I don’t know exactly how this was going to work. But since he spoke to me I mentioned that I remembered when parents taught their kids to not play in the road. He told me, “Yeah, but …” and that was the whole response. I told him that I thought someone was going to feel real bad when they ran over those kids.

What is wrong with parents? There are a bunch of eight-to-ten-year-olds here who drive up and down the street in golf carts. They don’t stop at the stop signs. They don’t stay on the correct side of the road. They just drive without a license in a not-licensed vehicle. When one of them gets killed there will be sadness because the parents were too stupid to protect their children. Unless, of course, one of the golf carts takes out one of the toddlers.