Sophia is taking a "nap" in the other room, although frankly there are a lot of clanking sounds coming from that direction. And now someone, I can't imagine who, is rattling the door like an unjustly accused character in a bad prison play. Hmm.

So here's this, about bisphenol A and how the powers that be are kinda sorta waking up to how awful it is. Props to Canada too. May we look forward to a world in which we are not assaulted by hormone mimickers at every turn. Amen. And thanks to Sonya and Ann for the tip.

Um, what else...well, I have just a couple things to do (complete project outline for class tonight, prepare for LLL meeting, go to store and buy #%@&! goat milk that seems to be out of stock everywhere, make supper, clean house just a teeny bit) by 6 p.m. so I'm gonna run, but I'll leave you with this note that I have written in my head to the usually awesome parental denizens of our neighborhood park.

------------------------------

Dear Hipster Dads, Devoted Mothers, and (one hopes) Adequately Paid Nannies:

When I am watching three children under age 3 at the park, and one of them drops a truck that one of your kids left at the top of a play structure, narrowly missing somebody's head, despite my shouting and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to prevent aforesaid, it is absolutely unhelpful for you to shoot dirty looks at me and my charges and mutter obviously nasty things in various languages. It is also charmless when you see me (shortly thereafter) strap the kids into the stroller and 1) roll your eyes and 2) heave theatrically obvious sighs of relief at each other. I can see you, you jackasses.

Thank you.
&c.

Side note to random daycare ladies we passed as we left the park:

Saying "my, aren't those children big to be riding in a stroller!" will earn you no points with me. (Or, I imagine, with the empathetic crowd at the park.) I hope the gaggle of children you're guiding across the trolley tracks get in a Sharks-vs.-Jets altercation with the kids already in the park. Then every last adult in the goddamn place can blame the others for their out-of-control children.
Best &c.

Comments

[Menita]

Oh crud.

[Jo]

Yeah, Menita, we actually did have a pretty good time -- just gotta hate the haters, is all.

[Summer]

"Too big to be in a stroller?" You've got to be kidding. Yesterday, while I waited for a glimpse of the Pope, I was standing next to two moms who each had one son in a stroller. These boys were big. Old enough to be carrying on a conversation about professional wrestlers. Big enough to be wearing adult-sized Pope Benedict t-shirts. I'd guess they were at least eight years old. And you know what? I wound up thinking that those moms were SMART, as I stood for twenty minutes holding my exhausted 42-lb five year old, waiting for the police to open up the barricades to let us leave. The irony is that earlier yesterday, I'd sold our stroller to a friend. I sold the stroller, then three hours later had to CARRY my "too big for a stroller" son. My shoulder is telling me this morning that maybe the boy isn't too big for a stroller... he's too big to be carried for long distances.

[Jo]

Har har.

Yeah, I'm a big believer in the use of stroller as Tiny Crowd Control, when necessary

[Sherry]

I love it. Crowd Control. I'll be using that one next time I get looks about horkin' my kids into the stroller.