Last night, D, N, Mamaw and I went to the fair. The weather was rather cool for August and so comfortable, so we decided to visit the midway like we did last year. N had such a blast in 2006 we thought she would enjoy visiting again.
Like last year, we asked if she wanted to ride the ferris wheel, and she was gung-ho. I wasn't able to ride due to the pregnancy, but that was ok because I got to people watch, and there are few things more entertaining than watching people at a state fair, especially in the midway.
I saw your standard teenager groups....all girls, all boys, boyfriend/girlfriend groups, but the really interesting ones to watch were the pregnant couples and the parents with young children.
Let me backtrack for just a second:
For a long time, I worried about whether D and I should have more children given my OCD/GAD and medication needs. Was it fair for me to subject my child to the genetic predisposition to anxiety disorders? Does taking meds make me not a very good mom? I fretted over these question endlessly, but just let me just say that after seeing some of the people at the fair who have elected to reproduce, I know that not only should D and I reproduce in an effort to balance out the freaks with normal people, D and I should have at least 15 kids because it looks like the freaks are winning out.
I saw moms and dads there with infants so young it looked like they were just discharged from the hospital and decided to make an elephant ear stop at the fair on their way home. I saw pregnant moms who, from the look in their eyes, were possibly on their 6th or 7th cup of Miller Lite. The men with these preggo gals (I don't want to assume these dudes were the babies' daddies) had that thug blend of saggy clothes, tattoos on most of their appendages, and very pissed off looks on their faces. This is the fair, guys....SMILE!
The couples with youngish kids (6 and under) were all nursing beers as they strolled around. Whenever a kid, usually a boy would do something even slightly annoying to a parent, there came a SMACK of the parent's hand followed by a scowl and yell or at least a grumble. And I think I'm a bad mom when I even think to myself, "Child would you knock it off" whenever N is being particularly difficult.
Anyway, this year I didn't see anyone with a large python-like snake around her shoulders or have to dodge a drunk, so it wasn't too thrilling but I saw enough to make me think I need to be a little less hard on myself when I don't live up to my high standards of parenting. I could be like a whole slew of people and have no standards of parenting.
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