Kids

First of all, I am slightly dismayed that everyone focused on Rich and my break up yesterday, and no one commented on how rad Mable's glasses were. Now on to the topic at hand.

I am never having kids. I have known this since I was very young. However, I love kids. My degree is in Child Development, and I have always found human development to be fascinating. What makes one person compassionate while another becomes a sociopath? How much of our behavior are we born with, and how much is learned?

I always get a little uneasy around people who say they hate children. Hating any whole subset of the human race is strange to me. Making broad, sweeping generalizations reminds me of sentences like, "Black people frighten me." If you say you hate children, I hear you saying something akin to being a racist. It's the same. Now, I get not liking bad children, or loud children. Just as I don't like blatantly ignorant people. But I don't get hating kids period. I respect if you don't, but I can't say you won't make me tilt my head a little 'cause I don't get it. Everyone was once a child. Do you hate a whole portion of your own life? Or is it just other little ones you despise? Okay, I've proven that I don't get it. Let's move on.

I have only in my life ever come across two children who were horrible, despite having great parents. So maybe we should be focusing on bad people raising kids, rather than "bad kids." Does a 3 year old really know any better? You will never see me more angry than someone telling a toddler, "You know better than that!" Umm, no they don't. Maybe you shouldn't have had kids if you don't even have the slightest idea of brain functions at different ages. Why do we have to have a driver's license to drive a car, yet any idiot can have a child?

I mentioned on another blog how I think there are people who are born to be parents, and those who aren't. I think a huge portion of those who aren't give in to societal pressures because it's not "normal" in our society to be childless. Those are the horrible parents. They didn't want a kid in the first place and you can tell by their interaction with their little ones, that they know they made a terrible mistake. But instead of bucking up and being responsible, they treat the child like it's their fault the adult wasn't strong enough to stand up and say, "I don't want to be a parent. I wasn't built for it."

Last night my friend Kel came over with his son Nathan. Kel was obviously born to be a daddy, and it shows in Nathan. Nathan's mom was not born to be a mom. At 36 she still goes out drinking and dancing, bringing men home, and Nathan is not her priority. Kel fought for years and finally has custody. It took a lot of convincing and hardship on his part, but now he's a full time daddy. They are moving back to his home town in Washington on the 21st of this month, and I'm going to get in as much time with them as I can before they leave.

Hi, I'm Nathan and I was not asked to pose like this. I'm just that awesome.

The kid had me when the first time he came over, he ran straight for my USS Enterprise and Star Trek episode guide. He's definitely a nerd in training, and I love him to bits. He's going through a growth spurt so last night he ate a grilled cheese, two corn on the cobs, and half an apple at my house. I just wanted to put him in my pocket so Kel would leave without him. He's one of the coolest kids I've ever met, and Kel really deserves credit for raising the future generation of rad.

We made a video of him playing my Wii dance game last night, but I'm not even sure if I can imbed video in Blogger. I'll take a few stabs at it, as it is hilarious and will make your day.

We giggled the whole time. Kids dancing is one of my favorite things in life to witness. I wish we all could just let go and dance like this once in a while. So awesome.