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BUMP!
Yesterday live-in and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to celebrate my birthday. Yes, I realize that I turned 25 and we don't have kids, but I like zoos and I have made a point to at least try to go to the zoo in every city that I've lived in. Plus it's free and money's tight right now and the weather was beautiful yesterday.
So, on to what pisses me off. There were SO MANY people there who had little to no control over their rugrats. I mean, I realize a zoo is a family place and we're going to run into kids and some of them will misbehave. That's fine. But we couldn't get over the sheer number of a-hole kids and a-hole parents there!
1. Children pounding on glass and screaming at the small mammals exhibits.
2. One child throwing peanuts into the seal tank while his father looked on and laughed. Never mind that there are 30,000,000 signs all over the park that say "Our animals are on very strict diets please do not feed them."
3. One mother with her three kids who left them outside one of the cafes so that she could go in and get napkins. While the children are climbing all over OTHER PEOPLE'S TABLES birds swoop in and snatch all their food. Should I mention that the boys were probably twins (no older than 3) and the little girl was no older than 6. Later the mom was too into talking on her cell phone to keep her kids from climbing on a statue. This statue is a sore point with me because there were NUMEROUS children acting like a-holes on it.
4. Children climbing on statues while their parents looked on. I about had a heart attack while one boy was STANDING ON TOP of an artsy looking statue that didn't have a level point on top and he was a good ten feet in the air.
5. One child threw a gatorade bottle at the black leopard cage. The sign said that black leopards are nocturnal, it even explained what nocturnal means. Now, this may be me, but I would never want to wake up a sleeping JUNGLE ANIMAL. Cage or not, I'm sure that leopard is freaking scary when it's pissed.
6. Children climbing on railings, specifically the ones around the Lion's little outdoor area. The railing is there, then there's about 3 feet, then a really steep drop to the floor. I suppose the lions can't come right up to the railing but they certainly can get to that bottom drop thing (their water dishes were down there). Do you really wanna let your kids climb on that railing? What are you people doing, trying to make the 5 o'clock news?
The one common thing between all of these misbehaving kids was that their parents DID NOT stop them from doing what they were doing, and (as far as I could see) they didn't discipline their kids for pulling these a-hole moves. I understand you don't wanna punish your kid in public, people, but seriously there's a point where they're endangering themselves, the animals, and other people by doing what they're doing.
There were other kids pulling a-hole moves but their parents swooped in and disciplined them. Kudos to them for having the balls to stand up to their kids. Specifically to the mom who smacked her kid's hand as she was pushing and shoving other kids trying to pet the snake (when the keeper specifically said one at a time), THANK YOU. I know you don't wanna hit your kid, but smacking a hand is hardly abusive.
Live-in and I debated about whether or not we should get our tubes tied, then decided that if our kids are going to misbehave at the zoo, they're not going to get to go to the zoo or they're going to have to leave. It's a free zoo, people, it's not like you lost any money!
tl;dr: People are jerks and so are their stupid kids.
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