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Parents Taking Care of Children

My ACLU friend has completely flipped out with our debate about the kid doing a report on Harvey Milk. I hate to say she's acting like a typical woman, because that will just get women on here snapping at me. But she's done everything but start crying. She's yelled that she's done debating the issue, yet we had been discussing it civily.

Her last comment on my cell phone was something along the lines of: I never wish to discuss this issue with you again. You never change your mind on things."

I think she may have used a few curse words, too.

But it was that last line about me "never changing my mind on things."

I admit, some people say I'm an opinionated a**hole. But, I hate when things happen like my girlfriend and I arguing once and her saying "You don't listen to anything I say. It's like talking to a brick wall."

My response was, "I'm listening to you. I'm just not agreeing with you."

People immediately seem to think if you don't immediately agree with them, you're not listening.

Well, I was all set to blog on something, and was talking about the issue with my girlfriend over dinner. She said I was completely wrong. And after hearing her points, I agreed with her.

It was about Mike Tysons 4-year-old dying. I said that if you have young children and an accident like that happens, the parents should be charged for being negligent. I said the same thing when Eric Clapton had a 4-year-old fall from a balcony and die. I wondered how a kid gets out to a balcony to do that.

But as my girlfriend went on about accidents, I started realizing that...even if you did child proof your house, a bookshelf could fall. Something could be stuck in an outlet. Too many accident scenarios to even list. And as she said, "You can't just stand there with your eyes glued on your kid all day long."

And I remembered when my sister was a baby and stuck one of my Matchbox cars (a tiny forklift), into the socket on the wall. My mom was in the kitchen and heard a boom. My sisters hand was black, and she had been sent half-way across the room. I'd hate to think, had my sister died, my mom would be considered a bad parent (although she once took a bath, and my brother and I were playing in the front yard and I wandered out onto Clairemont Mesa Blvd, at age 3; she got a tongue lashing from a woman driving by and felt horrible).

But I digress.

My girlfriend mentioned that at her work, there's a treadmill with a chord that hangs, similar to the one that Tysons kid was strangled by. But I mentioned the fact that there aren't children at her work place. But it did make me realize, that if I had 4-year-olds, that wouldn't have been something I would catch and feel was unsafe.

I know somebody in Las Vegas that had a beautiful pool and Jacuzzi put in their backyard. They took in a foster kid that was 10, and they were ordered to have a special fence put around the pool. It looked completely idiotic. And what made it more bizarre is the fact that the foster kid knew how to swim!

So, I guess I was just amped out about this topic because the government can be so strict about things like that, or car seats and seatbelts, wearing helmets...yet I seem to hear about adults having kids fall from balconies. And instead, we just award Clapton a Grammy when he writes a song about the experience.

Although, I heard a woman today on the news that had her kid disappear. They mentioned something about her dating a sex offender.

And I thought about that guy who had his girlfriends baby disappear from Balboa Park. He claimed he left the kid alone for 15 minutes, and although police suspected him, no charges were ever filed.

I still think idiotic parents like that should be charged with something.

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My ACLU friend has completely flipped out with our debate about the kid doing a report on Harvey Milk. I hate to say she's acting like a typical woman, because that will just get women on here snapping at me. But she's done everything but start crying. She's yelled that she's done debating the issue, yet we had been discussing it civily.

Her last comment on my cell phone was something along the lines of: I never wish to discuss this issue with you again. You never change your mind on things."

I think she may have used a few curse words, too.

But it was that last line about me "never changing my mind on things."

I admit, some people say I'm an opinionated a**hole. But, I hate when things happen like my girlfriend and I arguing once and her saying "You don't listen to anything I say. It's like talking to a brick wall."

My response was, "I'm listening to you. I'm just not agreeing with you."

People immediately seem to think if you don't immediately agree with them, you're not listening.

Well, I was all set to blog on something, and was talking about the issue with my girlfriend over dinner. She said I was completely wrong. And after hearing her points, I agreed with her.

It was about Mike Tysons 4-year-old dying. I said that if you have young children and an accident like that happens, the parents should be charged for being negligent. I said the same thing when Eric Clapton had a 4-year-old fall from a balcony and die. I wondered how a kid gets out to a balcony to do that.

But as my girlfriend went on about accidents, I started realizing that...even if you did child proof your house, a bookshelf could fall. Something could be stuck in an outlet. Too many accident scenarios to even list. And as she said, "You can't just stand there with your eyes glued on your kid all day long."

And I remembered when my sister was a baby and stuck one of my Matchbox cars (a tiny forklift), into the socket on the wall. My mom was in the kitchen and heard a boom. My sisters hand was black, and she had been sent half-way across the room. I'd hate to think, had my sister died, my mom would be considered a bad parent (although she once took a bath, and my brother and I were playing in the front yard and I wandered out onto Clairemont Mesa Blvd, at age 3; she got a tongue lashing from a woman driving by and felt horrible).

But I digress.

My girlfriend mentioned that at her work, there's a treadmill with a chord that hangs, similar to the one that Tysons kid was strangled by. But I mentioned the fact that there aren't children at her work place. But it did make me realize, that if I had 4-year-olds, that wouldn't have been something I would catch and feel was unsafe.

I know somebody in Las Vegas that had a beautiful pool and Jacuzzi put in their backyard. They took in a foster kid that was 10, and they were ordered to have a special fence put around the pool. It looked completely idiotic. And what made it more bizarre is the fact that the foster kid knew how to swim!

So, I guess I was just amped out about this topic because the government can be so strict about things like that, or car seats and seatbelts, wearing helmets...yet I seem to hear about adults having kids fall from balconies. And instead, we just award Clapton a Grammy when he writes a song about the experience.

Although, I heard a woman today on the news that had her kid disappear. They mentioned something about her dating a sex offender.

And I thought about that guy who had his girlfriends baby disappear from Balboa Park. He claimed he left the kid alone for 15 minutes, and although police suspected him, no charges were ever filed.

I still think idiotic parents like that should be charged with something.

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