{"id":328,"date":"2009-02-22T08:21:20","date_gmt":"2009-02-22T15:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2009-02-22T08:21:20","modified_gmt":"2009-02-22T15:21:20","slug":"other-peoples-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/other-peoples-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Other People’s Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

“All unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ….sign in a shop window<\/strong><\/p>\n

I sympathize with the owner’s wry sentiment.\u00a0 It’s a tiny store with narrow aisles and plenty of kids roaming among the\u00a0knick-knacks. I’ve been known to avoid stores entirely until the kids go home.\u00a0 It’s not their fault.\u00a0 Kids are doing what comes naturally – testing the rules, wandering away from their parents, bumping into things\u00a0 and picking up breakables.\u00a0 If their parents look away for a couple of seconds, kids will leave the store with the goods.\u00a0 That’s how they sometimes behave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was always the person annoyed by screaming babies on the plane.\u00a0 Sure I knew they couldn’t help it, but since I’d pretty much raised mine, I deserved a break, \u00a0so whenever possible, I changed seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I like kids but I was never anybody’s Universal Mama.\u00a0 I didn’t try to befriend every child I met and didn’t ask to hold every new baby.\u00a0 I enjoyed raising mine more than anything else I’ve done so far, but after she took her own steps into the world, I was content getting back to my own life.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, sitting in the boarding area at San Francisco International, a baby screamed\u00a0and the parents couldn’t comfort her.\u00a0 Something inside me shifted.\u00a0 My first thought was not the usual – I hope they don’t sit near me on the plane.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 This time it was\u00a0 – why aren’t those parents taking better care of that poor little thing?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0small town I live in is full of children.\u00a0 Every other person in the checkout line is attached to a stroller.\u00a0 One day I found myself making direct eye contact with a spiky-haired toddler with a messy face.\u00a0 I don’t know what manner of sticky cookie had attacked him while his mommy shopped, but he grinned at me through the gook and I grinned right back at him and felt a pang when he left the market.<\/p>\n

One day you’re minding your own business, steering clear of noisy kids and all of a sudden every child\u00a0 – everybody’s child – becomes\u00a0precious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe the universe prepares a whole bunch of us for on-call nurturing duty because a new batch of vulnerable beings arrives\u00a0every day.\u00a0 Nature has been known to turn unusual species into willing caretakers so that babies and puppies and kittens and all manner of helpless creatures will find care when they need it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00d3<\/span><\/span> Anita Garner 2009<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“All unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ….sign in a shop window I sympathize with the owner’s wry sentiment.\u00a0 It’s a tiny store with narrow aisles and plenty of kids roaming among the\u00a0knick-knacks. I’ve been known to avoid stores entirely until the kids go home.\u00a0 It’s not their fault.\u00a0 Kids … Continue reading “Other People’s Kids”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[361,366,362,358,364,365,356,355,363,360,359,357],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-airport","tag-behavior","tag-caregiving","tag-caretakers","tag-childcare","tag-crying-babies","tag-kids-on-planes","tag-noisy-kids","tag-parenting","tag-travel","tag-universal-mama","tag-vulnerable-kids"],"yoast_head":"\nOther People's Kids – Anita Garner | The Aging of Aquarius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/other-peoples-kids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Other People's Kids – Anita Garner | The Aging of Aquarius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“All unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ….sign in a shop window I sympathize with the owner’s wry sentiment.\u00a0 It’s a tiny store with narrow aisles and plenty of kids roaming among the\u00a0knick-knacks. 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