Kids

I made mention before of the children who follow me around when I am walking the property. I sort of collect them as I go, so by the time I go from 1 end of the property to the other and back to my office I feel like a mother dog with a litter of pups hanging off of her.

These kids don't follow me around because I like kids or I invite them along, or because I am nice to them, they follow me around because they are STARVED for attention.

Saturdays here are the worst: if the parents work they have 1 of 2 choices: send their kids outside unsupervised and shut them out of the building until they get home, or leave them home alone in the apartment unsupervised. This is because they don't have jobs that pay them enough to be able to afford childcare.
The parents that don't work send their kids outside to play unsupervised so they can watch TV or do drugs or sleep off their hangover.

The kids are the only people here for whom I have any sympathy. What hope do they have for a better life? Right now they are young and impressionable- and all their little brains get is yelling, swearing, adult TV, and adult role models who don't work, commit crimes, do drugs, drop out of school, and have 3 kids by the age of 18. No wonder the cycle is so hard to break.

All these kids get is negative attention, so as soon as you say hello to 1 little kid playing on the hot asphalt on a Saturday afternoon you have a leech stuck to your leg for the rest of the day. In order to get any work done, I have to be strict with them. Which is hard, because all they want to do is "help" you. I will let them come into the office and help me with one thing (like "help me with this sign" which usually means they end up drawing a picture on the back of scrap paper while I make the sign) then I make them leave.

I took 1 little girl (we'll call her "Jane") to a neighborhood festival last weekend - it was 2 blocks away in a park and I was going in order to hand out fliers for the apartment complex. They had free food, live music, basketball games, and an art booth and bouncy house for kids. The festival was from noon - 5 pm, and after Jane bugged me all morning in the office I told Jane's mother about it and gave her a flier with the information, hoping they would go to the festival and Jane would leave me alone to get work done. But mom was too busy sitting in her new boyfriend's SUV in the parking lot listening to music to take her daughter there. Mom is unemployed, has used up her lifetime supply of public benefits (like welfare, etc.) and lives with HER mom.

I budgeted an hour of my day to go to the fair, so I told Jane I would take her with me when I went, the last hour of my work day. I told her to come back at 3 pm and we would go. Of course she spent the whole afternoon running to my office every 10 minutes asking "Is it 3 o'clock yet!?"

Finally it was, so I ask Jane's mom if I can drive us there, and she says sure. We drive to the festival, and after an hour of bouncy house, playground equipment, a free stuffed animal from the police department, and a sucker, I had to pry Jane away because she was having a great time and even ran into some of her friends from school. It was killing me to go. I told her to ask her mom to take her back, and drilled her on the location. She couldn't remember the street name to save her soul, and I knew her mom couldn't find it. The park is only 2 blocks away, close enough to walk, but not for a kid without an adult. She didn't get to go back, of course, and every time I have seen her since she asks "can we go to that fair again?"

Man, people suck.

Also - I don't care if you don't want to take care of kids, but if that's the case, then DON'T HAVE THEM. Birth control looks spendy now, but it's WAY cheaper than a kid, trust me.