Where to start… hmmm… how about with this:
Parents who grocery shop with their iPods cranking while their five kids under the age of 10 are running around, screaming, yelling, eating grapes directly from the display, hacking up a lung on mounds of fresh apples and pocketing individually-wrapped caramel squares from the bulk candy bins. The entire store is staring in disbelief at the chaos the kids are creating, but the mom is too busy jamming to “Mambo No. 5” to notice.
Parents who watch for a couple of minutes while their kid has a full-on meltdown in the middle of the LEGO aisle at Target, and then proceeds to walk away when the child doesn’t get up from the floor, but before departing says, “Come find me when you are done crying.”
Parents who use the public library as free day care. Okay, not a huge peeve, unless the abandoned kid turns the restroom into his “office” and bullies innocent young patrons into giving them whatever change they have so he can get a soda from the vending machine. True story.
Parents who are constant complainers. I will tread lightly on this one, as it is a peeve that is not exclusive to parents, and I am guilty of doing it too, though far less than others I know. Yes, raising kids is not a piece of cake. There are some (okay, many) days that are incredibly challenging. Yes, it helps to vent, but keep things in perspective. Instead of wallowing in your parental woes remember that your flesh and blood has redeeming qualities. On your worst days consider the moms and dads who dream of being able to whine about their son or daughter’s most annoying habits, but they can’t, because their child was brutally slaughtered by a monster posing as a human being, run over by a drunk, struck dead by lightening, or died at a school dance.