Christina Chilin
Writer
“Those people should so not be parents.”
Come on, admit it, you know you’ve thought this before. This exact thought popped into my head as I stood in line at the grocery store and read that Snooki was going to be a mother.
Um, hello, have we not all watched or at least heard of Jersey Shore? Maybe they’ll place the baby’s crib next to the duck phone and wait until the baby’s asleep to sneak out.
Admittedly, I could just be passing harsh judgment, but after watching five seasons of Snooki’s inebriation and incarceration, I believe we’re all entitled to an opinion. Just how well will Snooki parent? I think we can all agree that having Snooki take a parenting class, explaining the basics of child safety would be a good idea- both for her and the child.
Having people take an obligatory parenting class may seem a bit over the top and even though the more optimistic side of me would like to believe that it is common sense not to put one’s child in a potentially hazardous situation, evidence points to quite the contrary.
Scouring the Internet for horrendous parenting stories, I actually stumbled upon a site in which women actually confess to being bad mothers and post their confessions online. Most confessions simply involve mothers who simply don’t know what to do with their screaming kids.
News articles from CNN or the New York Times report parents who willingly give their children medications such as sedatives or cold medicine-to make their kids fall asleep- who then try to justify themselves by explaining that they (the parents) need a little rest or quiet time away from their children’s crying or nagging. Along with those reports came the ones we’re all more familiar with: parents leaving their children in cars (even in the summer) while they run into the store to grab groceries because taking the kids with them “takes so much longer.” As I was reading these articles, I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not these people had ever heard about kids dying of hyperthermia (overheating of the body) because they’re left in hot cars.
However, the most disturbing thing I found was a video that’s currently going viral on Youtube. It’s that of a father in New Jersey who, while playing a game with his son in a Laundromat, picks up his small child and places him into a washing machine and shuts the door. And here’s the kicker- the washing machine starts and the door automatically locks. Frantically, the parents try to open the door before running off to find the Laundromat manager who comes to the rescue by cutting the power to the machine and getting the child out.
For many of us (or so I hope) placing a child in a washer (or any sort of household appliance), is unfathomable and undeniably stupid, there seems to be a lot of parents out there that don’t see the danger in doing so. The aforementioned situation of placing a child in a washer is not unique; people have claimed that they sometimes place their children in dryers or washers as a “punishment” for bad behavior. These parents definitely have a screw loose up there, and need to be told so.
If people make the decision to become parents, then they should also be obliged to know how to care for the human life they’re about to commit to, for, oh I don’t know, about 18 years. Even having a class as general education requirement in high school or college would be a good idea for future parents. Having a class that outlines the basics of childcare and welfare would greatly benefit all the kids that each year are unfortunately stuck with people who really should not be parents. A bit of preventive action (in other words, a class that shows people how to be good parents and keep their children from harm), could go a long a way in preventing parents from making very senseless choices and perhaps even improve the lives of some children with irresponsible parents.
Who knows, maybe a class like this could even benefit Snooki.
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