RedSuiting

The second of three Santa Outings is done, and as always, I am pleased to have done it, and to have done with it.

The touchstone for how we view other people's child-raising styles is always how we ourselves would do it. I noticed that if a child was some combination of intelligent and friendly, I was more likely to get along with them. The best candidates seemed to be somewhere between five and eight -- younger, and they were either frightened, mute, or incomprehensible; older, and they were beginning to suspect. At lease two kids, around 9 or 10, were almost certainly in on it, but they were there to keep their parents happy; I was able to tease the boy, but the girl was having none of it -- though she was one of the two who came back later to give me a hug. I held more very young children than ever before; most people deposited the child gently, though one fellow gave me his son as if he were lobbing a football. Most parents were cheerful and interested, and a couple even said, relative to a crying child, that they didn't want to push them. I mentally gave them points for that. On the other end of the spectrum was the grandmother who grabbed the arm of a crying boy, yanked him over, and said through gritted teeth that he would SMILE...I am NOT kidding around here. Boy, talk about a joyous experience.

One more to go, possibly the most grueling. It will be almost as long as today - about 90 minutes versus today's two hours, about 56 kids versus today's 175 or so, but all of these will be homeless, and some don't speak English. Should be interesting.

As for me, I am still wasted. I slept for almost two hours, and now I'm thinking that it wouldn't be all that hard to fall asleep again.