Micro-Managing your children
While eating at my aunt's house in Derry I saw a typical suburban family taking a stroll around the neighborhood. A little girl, maybe 8 years old, started chasing after her younger brother. Father yelled to her, "You don't run like this! (imitating her flailing arms). Tuck your elbow in!"
If I cared more about those yuppie slugs I would have run out there and dope slapped the guy for giving his kid a hard time about her stride. But I don't care enough. Unfortunately, these suburban kids are growing up in a world of dreadfully boring wealth and eerily quiet neighborhoods. Their parents micro-manage their lives in an attempt to make up for a lost childhood or a lifetime of unfulfilled dreams. It's an urgent rush to cram everything into their little lives as possible -- ballet, football, baseball, pony rides, basketball, karate, music lessons, ad nauseam.
For once I was happy to return to Lawrence, to return to sanity.