Parental error at the state fair

[Chromatix]

I will say that policemen can be a godsend for getting home. Happened to me once...

Yes, dearest Mother forgot she'd arranged to meet me somewhere at some time, and went home without me. (A parenting FAIL by itself, and not the only one she committed.) There happened to be a police information office nearby, and after quite a lot of waiting, a policeman lent me the bus fare to get home with.

Of course, the wheels were greased quite a lot by the fact that I knew how to get home, even knew our phone number without any difficulty, and was actually old enough to go on a bus by myself - the fare being all that I was missing. (No, I didnt get pocket money. Another of the parenting FAILs.) But even without those, I'm sure something would have been figured out.

[XCashier]

R. K. Milholland has something to say about this subject.

It is wrong to turn police officers and others into bogeymen to frighten your children into behaving. As has been stated before, what if your child is lost or hurt and needs help, but is frightened that the police officer is going to arrest him/her on a whim? Besides, it's buck passing to the extreme. You are the parent, it is your job to discipline your children, not everyone else's job.

[Ben_Who]

If I were ever placed in that position, I think I'd tear a strip off that mother before moving on with my life. Then I'd turn to the child and say, "Your mother is lying to you. If you keep misbehaving, I'll buy you a candy bar. And that's a promise."

There's a right way and a wrong way to do this. (My mother's way involved threatening to "take me into the ladies' room," i.e. into a nice private place where there were no witnesses. Always shut me right the hell up. I'd go with that.)

Love, Who?

[Bella_Vixen]

having watched piglets and baby billy goats running in a circle in pursuit of cheez doodles.

I finally saw the pig races after all these years. It was awesome!




Don't get me started about the lack of apple cider donuts on the 11th, though.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

One of my co-workers was telling me today he was listening to the radio, and one of the radio DJS was talking about the family of five 300-pound individuals they saw at the Cheeselandialand State Fair.

I told him "If they're shocked to see a family where everyone in it is that big, then they need to get out more often."