People really piss me off sometimes. No, I really mean it. I got this new summer job recently, which is pretty much a day care for kids between 2 and 14. Most parents don’t even bother to come in and meet the staff that they’re entrusting with their children. For all they know, I could be a demented child molester who gets summer jobs like this so I could abuse their kids . . . but they don’t even know my name. Complete and total apathy is going to ruin this country. People just don’t care, and it reflects in their children’s attitudes.

There is one particular child who is among the oldest in the classes, yet he acts like the most immature child. There are times where I just wish I could bust out some duct tape and not only tape his mouth shut (it would be the first time it would ever be closed in his life) but I would also duct tape him in a chair in the corner. He refuses to listen to any request or order, threats remain empty, and his sole response is, I don’t care. And that is the ultimate crime in my opinion. His parents have taught him that punishment is passing and that nothing he does will endanger his happiness in any way. He thinks of everything as a right that he must be granted, not as a privilege to be earned. As to his intelligence, I am unable to gauge his properly because he has not shown even a glimmer of brain activity that has a positive purpose.

Another child is amazingly bright and very well behaved, when in the presence of his mother. As soon as the door closes behind her, he runs around like a maniac and is incapable of listening to simple instructions. For the majority of one day, he fought furiously with a set of twins. Never before have I wrestled a child to the ground in such an oft-repeated manner. Instead of tying them to a chair in the corner, I would be interested in finding out if it would be possible to hang a child by their thumbs (much like my father was in many of his tall tales of his youth).

It would not be such a difficult job if we loaded these kids up with depressants at lunchtime instead of sugar. And all the staff should chow down on stimulants, just to try to even out the playing field. I find myself yawning at 2 in the afternoon, and that with ten hours of sleep! I swear, IF I ever have children of my own, they’ll be girls. . . little boys are NOT worth all of the effort. [Keep in mind, this is just after four hours a day with the little terrors.]