I'm So Disappointed In You
Thank God for the Blackberry. Really: you may never hear me say it again but thank God for the Blackberry. Here's why...

I'm sitting in the foyer of a restaurant waiting for my order (blackened shrimp and New York strip) when a young mother comes past. I'm playing Brickbreaker on my Blackberry...when I don't have the little one with me I find I'm just passing time. Anyway, this woman comes through the foyer with a small child in her arms. The little girl is about my daughter's age...

"I'm so disappointed in you!" she hissed. Whispering, but fiercely like a hissing air leak.

Man, I'm playing Brickbreaker like a fiend now. I'm saying to myself, "don't look up, don't look up." But I do, and she looks at me and passes on...

Hey lady--she's not trying out to be your daughter. It's late at night; what do you expect dragging a kid in here with all this going on? Are you expecting her to be an adult? That's your job. It starts with not putting your kids in these situations...they can smell pressure.

Of course I didn't say any of that. It's...not...my...place. I know that. I just wonder what today's parents expect from their children. When I was a child, I was allowed to be a child. We didn't go out to dinner much. Maybe that's the difference, now that I think about it. I remember a lot of family dinners at home and few dinners out. That's certainly changed in the past thirty years.