At 2am, your kid should be in bed

[customersruinmylife]

I just recalled this story due to the fact I was ever-so-slightly-tipsy when it occured.

I was visiting a friend I attended university with at the weekend, and the two of us went into town on Saturday night. It was very busy and rowdy, and at about 2am, we decided to get a pizza and then return to the house to have a few more drinks.

The pizza place was very busy and most of the people in there were extremelly drunk. The first thing I noticed was that there was an 8 year old kid wandering around, while her mother, who was dressed like a skank, ordered pizza. I looked at the little girl twice, just to make sure what I saw was real, because the kid honestly looked scared. She was in small pizza takeaway, crammed in with about 15 drunk twenty-somethings, some of which were having massive make-out sessions, some looked like they were going to throw up, and one who fell into the window with such force that I am surprised it didn't smash.

One of the drunken people was having a drunken conversation with his friend.

DP: Fuck! I ammmmm soooooo wasted maaaaannn!
DP1: Me tooo!! Fuck! Haha! I'veee hadd a FUCCCKKKING grrreeeat niiight!

Their conversation then turned into a gossip session which I can't be bothered to type at the moment, but there was a lot of bad language in this conversation. The mother decided to get involved at this point.

Mother: Excuse me! There is a child in this pizza place! Keep your language clean!
DP: Oooooooh! Isn't it past her bedtime?
DP1: Why is your kid in town on a Saturday night anywayyyy? Sheee wouldn't heaar bad languaage if she was innn bedddd!
Mother: Just because she is 8 doesn't mean she can't enjoy a night out with her mother!

At that point, her pizza was ready. She took her very cranky looking daughter and left. Several people laughed. One of the pizza guys said it wasn't the first time she had brought her kid in on a Saturday night.

[LillFilly]

She must be one of the parents that drags her kid to Wal Mart at 3-am. I see so many of those poor things getting dragged/carried by their parents around the store, looking like they're about to pass-out at any second! Well, at least they didn't leave the kids at home alone.

[Zombi]

Just because she is 8 doesn't mean she can't enjoy a night out with her mother!

There are so many things wrong with this sentence I don't even know where to start.

[Broomjockey]

I thought kids only worked as wingmen for single guys, and when they were still toddlers and under.

[Soulstealer]

Oh great, another one of those mothers who want to be their kids' best friend. Damn it woman, parenting can be a verb as well as a noun.

[gremcint]

Actually it sounds like she misses her old lifestyle a bit and the kid is along for the ride.

[blas]

I always feel so sorry for those poor kids who get dragged to Wal-Mart at ungodly hours of the night, or at the buttcrack of dawn.

Eh, maybe in 50-60 years, those kids can get revenge on them.....get em up and early out of the nursing home and make them go to Wal-Mart with them.

[CaroPhoenix]

We've done the Wal-Mart at 3:30 AM/Harris Teeter at 12 Midnight/I-Hop at 2:30 AM thing. When Child Rum wakes up in the middle of the night, she's awake. At least one of us has to be up with her (duh!), but she makes so much noise the other parent wakes up too. And instead of just sitting around, doing nothing for the approximately 4 hours it takes for Child Rum to run her batteries back down, we take her out to make her sleepier faster and we get what we need done at the same time. Sometimes, it's a win-win situation.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I always feel so sorry for those poor kids who get dragged to Wal-Mart at ungodly hours of the night, or at the buttcrack of dawn.

Eh, maybe in 50-60 years, those kids can get revenge on them.....get em up and early out of the nursing home and make them go to Wal-Mart with them.

In some cases, it wouldn't require much arm-twisting to get your mom to go to Wallyworld in the middle of the night.

If my Mom was awake, we'd go. It was so much easier to shop around 3-5 am.

Of course, that was before WM decided to change their hours at the store closest to us (thanks to muggers and purse-snatchers and assorted hoodlums) and now they open at 7 a.m and close at 11 p.m.

I miss those 3 a.m. trips out. I'm hoping we can hit IHOP pretty soon (the one nearest the middle of town is open 24/7 again.)

Belgian waffle with blueberries and whipped cream at 2 a.m. along with a pot of coffee and hash browns on the side . . . .

[Digitalpotato]

Least it was Saturday. IF this were like Monday morning or a "School night", I'd definitely think "...sir what is your kid doing out here?!"

[blas]

Goddess, I don't want to rain on your parade, but if you go to IHOP, you won't be home until almost the next afternoon. Their service is just...that...slow.

[Mike Taylor]

Goddess, I don't want to rain on your parade, but if you go to IHOP, you won't be home until almost the next afternoon. Their service is just...that...slow.

That depends largely on the staff. Whether or not its a corporate location or a franchise can also be a factor as well. The corporate run IHOP here in Naples FL has had its bad moments (which I have related in the past), but the franchised one a few miles away from it was shut down.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Goddess, I don't want to rain on your parade, but if you go to IHOP, you won't be home until almost the next afternoon. Their service is just...that...slow.

Some of them are, no doubt. The one out by the Wallyworld near the house is turtle-on-valium slow during lunch hour, which I discovered along with a couple of coworkers (Ma, Beavis and Butthead) a couple of years ago. We were still waiting for our food 45 minutes later and it wasn't that busy in the dining area. We ended up taking over an hour and a half for lunch that day.

Now when I go with my Mom, it doesn't matter how slow they are, as we're not in any hurry anyways. The one near the middle of town (which is the one that's went 24/7 recently) IIRC does have a little bit faster service.

[bhskittykatt]

I went shopping at 3am at WalMart once and was surprised how many little kids were there...

Every single day, when I get home from my paper route at about 4:30am, someone is dropping up my upstairs neighbor's little kid at that same time. The kid is only in first or second grade, and he's up that early getting dropped off at home...every...single...day. Not sure what the situation is there, but I feel bad for the little guy.

[EvilEmpryss]

I knew a family in which the husband worked graveyard shift and the mother worked first shift so they decided to shift the whole family to nocturnal mode to keep from having to pay massive amounts of child care fees. The kids slept the same time as dad did (after mom went to work) and by the time she got home they were up and dad was homeschooling the kids while she slept. The kids got to play with the neighbor kids in the evening and they all went out together as a family to get errands done late at night.

This only worked because they were in a big city where there were 24 hour groceries, food, clinics, and what-have-you, but it worked for them and they swore by it. Insisted that it gave them more time together as a family. To each his own.