Annoyance #1

People who say, “You’re a vegetarian? So do you eat chicken? Do you eat fish? …Ew then what DO you eat??”

Children in Public; Another Reason Not to Reproduce

My stance on children in public is the following: If they are quiet and polite, I have no problem with them. If they get loud or obnoxious but respond appropriately when their nearby parent disciplines, I have no problem with them. However, I think it is the duty of all adults to somewhat step in when a child is in public and acts in a disgusting and/or offensive way and the parent is too lazy, jaded, rich, etc to do anything about it.
This week and last I’m working at a camp for privileged white kids whose parents are too busy working in Silicon Valley to spend the summer months with their kids. Most of the kids are fine enough, insecure maybe, and some young girls are clearly already forming eating disorders because of the lack of love in their lives. But mostly the kids are fine. Except for one. Michael. He is the only 10 year old at camp who acts like a drunken 5 year old. He would get up on a bar dancing to “I love Rock and Roll” if the counselors would let him. He’d drive home drunk, giggling around the bends, and climb into bed with a stripper with obvious herpes just to get the ensuing stares of attention that come along with having that STD.
There is a counselor in my group named Alex who, in general, wants to seem like he’s against hybrid cars, vegan food and everything else “lax” or seemingly hippie-ish. When it comes to disciplining though, Alex is the epitome of “lax.” Let the Kids Have Fun is Alex’s motto—which is awesome when the kids are playing tag, making lanyards, or teasing each other about videogames. It’s not awesome when Devil Boy is eating random camp materials, giving sass to anyone with ears, and generally making a mockery of the human race. At that point I say, yeah this kid would have fun with a machete too, but are we really willing to go to extremes to ensure his happiness? Alex thinks that because Michael’s parents pay for Mikey to go to camp, that Michael then has the right to do almost anything he wants. This is the problem with Americans. Dad makes money; power transfers to son; son has rule of camp and soon, world. Camp shouldn’t be so capitalistic; it should be more like socialism: Make sure the rest of the kids are having fun too and not being scarred by an unruly tiny tyrant. Their parents pay for camp too after all, though Michael is the only one that actually says, “You can’t tell me what to do. I have money.”