That One Parent

My younger brother is an amazing wrestler. He has a skill that many kids would kill for. Hes a double-jointed, fast, keen wrestler and I love to watch him. It is the highlight of my year. I go to his practices because I love to watch the K-6 kids grow as wrestlers and watch the moves. Last year I was mortified by one of the parents that signed her children up.

The woman was very, very young. She walked in with nine children. Some screaming, some crying, and some that were sick and coughing. She said she wanted to sign up seven children to wrestle. She could pay for three now and four the next practice. The wrestling coach totally understood because he loves to get kids involved in sports and is glad to see new faces. The woman had her very young children, some younger than kindergarteners all run to the mat even though the girls didn’t want to. They all ran around screaming and shouting and taking drinks onto the mat. Still, it was good to see the couple older kids really enjoying themselves.

The woman had an infant that was sitting in a car-seat in the middle of the floor and also a toddler who was crying hysterically because he wanted to be on the mat with his siblings and was coughing violently. The woman sat on her Iphone 5s and put on her Beats tuned out her children.

The wrestling coach was trying to instruct the moves over her screaming toddler and was getting frustrated. She finally noticed that he was screaming so she took him to the car leaving her infant in the stroller on the floor and the other seven kids running around without a purpose. The woman came back with the boy who wasn’t crying ON A LEASH CARRYING A BOTTLE OF MOUNTAIN DEW. She put the leash on the bottom leg of her chair and the kid cried as she played on her phone. The baby sat there quietly the entire time.

The wrestling coach let it go on for a while. She never payed for any of the children and she didn’t take the kids to the meets. She never attended another practice and I feel bad for her kids who were enjoying themselves. Don’t be the parent that plays on their phone instead on taking care of  your sick child.