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another letter to someone who won't care

New QOD: the movie quote life

another letter to someone who won't care

I'm feeling better today, thank you. A little pep talk from several people (ok, it was more like an intervention) and I came to the realization that I cannot control other people's actions. I am not responsible for their mistakes, their issues or their apathy. I am only responsible for myself and my own actions and if I could just let go of the notion that everything has to be done according to schedule and to deviate from that schedule would cause the planets to align in such a way that there would be tidal waves and earthquakes, if I could just let that part of me go, everything will be fine.

So, schedule deviated from. Armageddon did not occur. I bought myself three more days to get the project launched. Must combat urge to get back on schedule with heavy doses of Krispy Kreme glazed donuts.

Ok, on with the letter.

Dear Selfish, Lazy Parent,

I saw you yesterday. I pulled up next to you at a light and there you were, in your oversized Expedition, kids in tow. Cute kids. How old were they, ten and under maybe? They were all over the car, the boy in the back bouncing up and down furiously on the seat, the girl wedged between you and the little one in the front seat, trying to reach something on your console.

Do you feel safe in that Expedition? Does the illusion of having a fortress around you make you feel invincible? I've thought about it, but I just can't fathom any other reason that you would have those kids riding around unbuckled. You must think that you are safe from harm, right? That bad things can never happen to you.

How much do you love your children? I know, stupid question. You love them a whole lot, right? Then why? Why can you not take the ten second effort to make sure your kids are either in proper car/booster seats or strapped into seat belts?

Oh, and that charming little girl in the front seat. Cute smile. Too bad if your airbag went off she would probably be killed by it. I'm sure you read the papers and watch the news. Sometime in the past few years you must have read about the dangers of putting small children in front seat of cars with pasenger side airbags. You know that big yellow black and white sticker that came with your car, the one that says WARNING! and explains the dangers of air bags? Did you bother to read it?

I wonder what you are thinking as the two in the back, both of them young enough to still warrant car seats, are jumping around the car. I wonder if it ever occurs to you how selfish your inaction is. Nevermind that it's the law, and the law that says children of a certain age must be buckled up or in car seats carries a hefty fine. I'm sure that you, with your expensive car and fur coat and cell phone attitude wouldn't care abou a sillly fine. But think about how you would feel if you were in an accident. If the car rolled over or was hit broadside, or head on. I wonder how you would feel if your children were thrown from the car or through the windshield and you are lying there in a mess of broken glass and twisted metal and you hear a police officer sadly remarking that it's too bad the kids weren't in seat belts, they may have lived. How could you go through the rest of your life knowing that your laziness and apathy played a part in killing your own children?

Don't tell me I am exaggarating. Your type always does. You cite statistics and say that the claims of death and grave injury in these situations are blow out of proportion. I can tell you they are not. My brother in law has this job where he takes pictures of car accidents. I have lost count of the number of times he has witnessed an accident where there was unecessary injury or death to a child because that child was not strapped in.

How long does it take to snap a seat belt or put a kid in a car seat? How long will you drive around for thinking that you are invincible, that nothing bad will ever happen to you? I am apalled at the selfishness of parents like you. I hope you never have to realize the effects of that selfishness.

I'm done. Thank you.

Comments

right on.
i see it everyday myself

well said...very well said.

A-men! I couldn't have said it better myself.

royal tenenbaum RIGHT ON!

I always hated my mother forcing me to buckel in. Now that I look back, I realize it was a good thing. Too bad I never did it.

This sounded almost like a threat... "Dear parent, are you fond of your children?" like you were going to deliberately ram them to show them the error of their ways...

You wouldn't. Would you?

very well said.

Here in the South, we often see kids piled in the back of the open pick-up truck. While mom or dad is driving down the 6 lane highway. Makes me cringe. But ya'll have pick-ups up there too, eh?

don't waste your energy frettin... let 'em die. it's just gene pool chlorine, i say.

Umm...Mikey? Did you just wish death on children? I will have to pound your head into dust if you did.

Unfortunate truths...

Mikey was sort of right.. (That's three of us 'Mike' like names in a row... Weird...)

Everyone makes the mistake that we're so much higher up than the animals. That's nice and re-assuring but not hardly true. For all of the wonders we produce we are just as suject to Darwin's Theories as the meanest species that we haphazardly exterminate.

Thus while I feel sadness for the loss of those so young, I would rather mourn for those who do follow the rules and are 'impacted' by this person's stupidity.

It's weird that way... The guilty often walk away from the traffic accidents. I have three girls, from seven to two and we don't even go from Park to any other drive setting until all are buckeled into their respective seats.

I know forwarded emails are horrendous, and that frankly, we all hate to get them, but check the following [it has to do with this post]: (long excerpt)


Have you heard about the next planned Survivor show? Three business-
men and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school
classroom for 6 weeks. Each businessperson will be provided with a
copy of their school district's curriculum, and a class of 28
students.

Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with
A.D.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three
will be labeled as severe behavior problems.

Each businessperson must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in
advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify,
organize, or create materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement
technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework,
make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document
benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.

They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addi-
tion, they will complete drills for fire, tornadoes, or shooting
attacks.

They must attend workshops, (100 hours), faculty meetings, union
meetings, and curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor
those students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English
speaking children proficient enough to take the Terra Nova and EPA
tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show. Each
day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social
studies into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide
an educationally stimulating environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the
weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford
it anyway. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them
out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes. On days when
they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted
to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is
supervising their class. They will be provided with two 40-minute
planning periods per week while their students are at specials. If
the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials
at this time.

The business people must continually advance their education on their
own time and pay for this advanced training themselves. This can be
accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying someone with
money.

The winner will be allowed to return to his or her job.

And there's always the reverse of what you're saying Michele -- my sister and her husband regularly drive around toegther without seatbelts, while their kids are securely strapped in.

HELLO? ORPHANS? HELLO?!!!

Makes. Me. APESHIT.

further notes to Expedition drivers:

Oh, and turn on your goddamn headlights, it's raining. Signalling before chaging lanes would help, too, not after you've sideswiped me and wedged my car into your wheel well. But it's a good thing you ran that red, if you'd stopped you'd have flipped that infernal beast of a vehicle, and then you'd wish you'd strapped the kids in. Now if you would kindly go park in a regular parking spot instead of taking up two of these Compact Only spots... thanks.

i don't wish death on children... hell, i don't wish death on anyone. i'm just saying that i'm not gonna worry if some dumbasses don't care enough about their kids to strap 'em in...

That's enough out of you, Jessica. You need to save that for Saturday's QOD!

THANK YOU! This is one of my biggest issues. I have 3 cousins who were in a car wreck as children -- two are now mentally handicapped and one is physically handicapped and required massive amounts of plastic surgery. All 3 children were "normal" pre-accident. My mom gave us one of the biggest life-lesson gifts of all that I plan on using when we're parents. She had my sister and I completely convinced as toddlers that the ignition key couldn't turn until the seatbelts were locked -- before it was even en vogue (or required by law) to be that way. By the time we got old enough to know better, it was already habit. And we never move the car without buckling up.

If we even start to back out of the driveway before the kids are buckled in they start screaming at us to stop the car.

What I can't figure out is how I ever survived childhood never wearing a seatbelt, never owning a bike helmet, skatboarding without a helmet and pads, etc.

I also had my kids convinced for a while that the car wouldn't move without the seat belts buckled.

I made a post about two weeks ago about almost falling out of a car when I was a kid. It's amazing how some of us survived those days when safety wasn't even an issue.

I was one of the early indocrinated ones too. To this day I automatically reach for the seatbelt as soon as my ass hit's the car seat... Kinda embarassing if you're trying to make out in the back seat... ;)