Outdoor excursion

Today I decided that if I'm going to sink so much money into an automobile, I should at least let it take me somewhere nice. I had another free day, so after doing some reading, I decided to go on an excursion.

I'd just been reading some essays about parenting, and I noticed that I did not really feel like being around kids. Almost as soon as I got there, a quiet moment of reverie was unpleasantly interrupted by the sounds of a large group of children chanting something that sounded horrifically similar to a group of college boys yelling "Chug! Chug! Chug!" at a fraternity party, but the voices belonged to grade school students of both genders. Whenever I saw this group in their matching red t-shirts, I made sure to avoid them.

I even noticed myself getting annoyed on a walk when a mother right behind me talked incessantly to her kids about what they should see next. What is wrong with you? I asked myself. They are not a loud group of chanting schoolchildren. She's teaching them about nature. That's good! Nevertheless, I was relieved to get away from them.

It was hot. Even though I'd eaten a salad for lunch I got hungry while I was there, but subscribed to the "sometimes when you think you're hungry, you're really just thirsty" philosophy, and drank water.

tadpoles eating a leaf

At one point I noticed some kids running through sprinklers and thought that was kind of cute. I didn't have any more annoying encounters. I lost myself in my own meanderings and took pictures. And then came the baby peacocks. How hard-hearted would you have to be to not think that baby peacocks are adorable?

peacock and babies

It was a very satisfying excursion. At the end of it, I rested on a bench and looked through my photos. A short distance away, a peacock with impressive plumage pecked at something in a flower pot.

a peacock showing off it's feathers

Some parents and little kids admired the peacock, and then wandered off to see other things.

Then two adults and a little girl came along.

"Mommy, stop. I want to see the peacock!"

Mommy didn't lock back. Daddy(?) looked back for just a second, but then he followed Mommy.

"I want to see the peacock, Mommy."

"You can SEE the peacock," Mommy said, and kept walking.

"But, I don't want you to leave me!" the little girl wailed, running after the two adults. "I want to see the peacock, Mommy..." They kept walking and she ran after them, crying about not being able to see it.

They really made me sad, and kind of mad. I mean, who knows. Maybe they had important stuff to talk about. Funeral arrangements, perhaps?

Why not take five seconds to spend time with your kid and look at a peacock?

I wondered if I was being too judgemental. Maybe it was just because of the contrast between them and those kids with the other parents, who had actually taken the time to admire the peacock with their children...

When I exited through the gift shop, a woman and four children (boys and girls) were in front of me, speaking in a mixture of English and Spanish. The children started to make noises about wanting to go in the gift shop, but they were on the verge of leaving because the woman said they couldn't spend any money.

But she hesitated in the doorway. Did they want to look? They could look, they just couldn't spend any money.

I'd fully expected her to push them all out of there--at once! But they came back into the store, just to look around.

"I like your idea. It sounds very scientific," she said to one of the little girls, as the other kids calmly wandered around the store. They looked around briefly, and then left. It definitely seemed like she was in the gifted and talented category for parenting at that moment....