Don't Be Dumb!

Many of you may have already seen this picture but for those of you who haven't I will try my best to explain it to you. There was a newspaper article discussing the noise level of jackhammers in a neighborhood. There was a lady who was pregnant and she was concerned that the loud noise would have a negative impact on her unborn child. So far this sounds some what reasonable. Well, let me continue. The newspaper took a picture of this lady standing in her front yard looking toward the direction of the noise. She is standing there with a lit cigarette in her hand heading directly toward her nicotine craving lips. When I first saw this I thought "Are you kidding me?" Is this lady knowingly unintelligent or does she really think she is playing with a full deck? Actually forget a full deck, she hasn't even opened the pack of cards yet. Perhaps she would have an open deck if she wasn't too busy opening her packs of smokes instead. Is this what our society is coming to? We focus on the extreme and forget the obvious. This lady is going to make a great parent (sarcastic drum roll please). Let's go ahead and take a look at her child's future.

This child's bottle will most likely contain beverages with alcoholic content or large amounts of caffeine, basically whatever can be found in the refrigerator. Her food intake will be fueled by candy and other snacks loaded with that wonderful nutritional substance known as sugar. These items will be given to the child as a technique for quieting her down. I am sure that sugar rush will get them quiet. Great idea (again with the sarcasm). Their evenings will be spent sitting around the television watching the most inappropriate shows possible while listening to their parents describe their day with colorful adjectives. Every now and then they will go on a drive. Their car will be easy to spot because it is the one that has kids crawling all over the seats because seat belts are not worn. Maybe the seat belt was uncomfortable or maybe the parent is trying to tell their kids that they don't care about them or their safety. Who knows? Surely they have a great reason for endangering their children's lives. Do you all see where I am going with this?

If the child is still alive and functional, then she will get to experience the teen years. This will include no-curfews, drugs, alcohol and quite possibly the opportunity to become a parent. This is when the parents feel that their child is simply experimenting and trying to find her place in the world. I'm sure they will find their place in the world, it is called prison. This pregnant teenager will then shortly be spotted standing in their yard complaining about loud noises affecting the health of her child all while sucking down a cool Joe Camel.

Not all kids from sad environments are going to end up like this, but the odds definitely are not in their favor. Sometimes these kids can come from good homes as well, but it is a lot less likely. It is so easy to get caught up in all of the crazy things in this world that we tend to forget the obvious. Why do we spend countless hours obsessing over what the government needs to do with their money when we can't even budget well enough to make our paycheck last a week? We complain about crude humor in a movie that our kids watched but pay no attention to the language we use and jokes we tell in front of our children. Let's focus on the obvious, and sometimes not so obvious, and worry about the other things later. Let's make sure the odds are in our kids favor by doing our job. So all of us parents need to remember today's lesson: Don't be dumb.