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Hyperactively Dense

I recently tripped across Puget Sound with an interesting assortment of travel companions.  Such is the joy of public conveyance. I shared my voyage with about 35 pre-teens and their chaperons, and an assortment of other travelers that included a mother with two toddlers under the age of five.  The preteens scattered.  Individually and in small groups, they dashed from port to starboard and fore and aft, in order to see all of the shining sea they could see.

The mother sat her two toddlers down in a padded booth and told them to stay.  They immediately slithered down and tried to run with the other kids.  Mom deftly caught them and returned them to their seats, “You may not get down,” she said.  So the one promptly climbed over the back of the booth onto the other seat, slid under the table and darted for freedom.  Mom snatched her and turned to find the other child standing on the bench-seat back while reaching for an empty coat hook.  I can only assume the kid planned to swing on on the hook.  I have no clue because mommy interrupted.  However, the other child was once again free and running.

Mom hooked her arm around the waist of the smallest child and carried her over to where the bigger one was pounding the buttons on the vending machine.  She brought them both back to their booth and put them down.  “Don’t move!”  She snapped the order so loudly that half the kids on deck froze, her own included.  “I don’t know why you two can’t just sit still!”  She wailed.

I completely understand the young mother wanting her children to mind even when all of the other kids were running wild. However, I think she’d have had a much easier time getting them to sit and stay had she not given each of them their own 16 ounce can of Red Bull. I’m just sayin’ …..

33 Comments

  8. Don’t just say it Quilly Scream it! When kids act like that odds are they do it all the time and know they can get away with it and parents feed their kids the worst things and cannot figure out why their kids act the way they do. My girls gave up acting like that because if they tried we left….. didn’t matter where we were and the lost out. It changed their attitudes thank goodness!
    .-= amanda´s last blog ..Macro Monday =-.

    1. Amanda, leaving is usually a good strategy but leaving a ship at sea is a bit difficult, although if they came on in a vehicle they could have returned to the car deck and sat there. I totally agree that too many parents need remedial child-rearing classes.

  10. I am flabbergasted that a mom would even give her young kids Red Bull… but to then expect them to sit still? Ha!
    Prior to your final reveal of why the youngsters were so squirrel-y, I was busy giggling over the preteens reaction to the mom shouting, “Don’t Move!!” Yep, they know an angry mom voice –one who has HAD IT– quite well!
    .-= kcinnova´s last blog ..Reflection =-.

    1. Karen — I loved the pre-teens freezing, too. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was a startlingly quiet few seconds.

    1. Jenn — I don’t know what happened to her because I took myself off to the rest room, then choose to sit a bit further from the core of the pre-teens. I think mom probably had a really long and trying day. I hope she figured out what caused it.

      Amoeba did say he wondered of the mom had read about caffeine actually working as an inhibitor in kids and she was hiping the Red Bull would slow them down.

  12. Even I´m too scared to try Red Bull, because of all the caffeine. I can only imagine what it did to the kids! That´s one stupid mom… !

  14. ROFL!!
    I’m always amazed to get on a train or plane and see parents feed their kids Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs and offer *no* colouring books or things to do. Then holy cow, what a surprise half an hour later when the kid’s in total meltdown.
    Uh, duh??
    I’ve never tried Red Bull — I have enough stress!
    .-= Susan at Stony River´s last blog ..Microfiction Monday #21 =-.

  15. stupid woman! she deserved everything that came her way. i can’t but feel sorry for the kids, though…

    i have always admired the way you can spin a fun story out of the things others might not even notice or would annoy them. more please 🙂
    .-= polona´s last blog ..oh no, not snow again! =-.

  16. .
    Tell you tomorrow. 🙂

    I am glad you are sticking up for Thom today. He acts as if nothing bad happens. That is one other reason you can like him.
    Nobody sticks up for me. I just bowed meekly today when I was being abused.
    ..
    .-= Jim´s last blog ..Infestation ~ Haiku Bones =-.

    1. Jim — you are an intelligent and articulate man who can give as good as you get. Thom is intelligent and articulate, too — unless he is angry. When he is angry he is mean and nasty. I was protecting Karen, not Thom. 😉

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