things that annoy me #8

When I was kid, it was absolutely verboten by my parents to play in the street. And trust me, I learned my lesson when, on Thanksgiving of 1992 (I think), I flouted this rule and ran out onto a busy thoroughfare in pursuit of a stray soccer ball, was very nearly flattened by an oncoming car, and scared the stuffing out of both me and my parents.

Nowadays parents seem to think that it's not only acceptable for their kids to play in the street, but that putting up a sign which reads "CAREFUL, KIDS PLAYING IN THE STREET" suffices as parental supervision. A sign is fine and dandy but it's totally worthless when your kid comes barreling off the sidewalk out of nowhere and I have to ruin my brakes to avoid hitting the little bugger. It's a ROAD, not a sandbox. I'm not saying parents should be those crazies who don't let their kids play in the yard (the yard! where there aren't any cars!) or climb trees. But whatever happened to instilling the fear of being run over into your children, I ask?

I'm not a total monster, I don't really mind if they want to play soccer or whatever in the street, but they should know that if cars are coming their direction they should get the hell out of the way. Now they just kinda wander about thinking that all cars will automatically stop for them, totally oblivious to the fact that there are indeed drunk/absentminded/reckless drivers out there.

Don't get me wrong, I will try my hardest to avoid hitting any of the poppets out there, if not for the fact that it would be quite traumatic, then for the fact that I don't want to be sued for all my worldly possessions (which, at this point, amounts to a sizeable DVD collection).

(My original thing-that-annoyed-me was just going to be the CAREFUL, KIDS PLAYING IN THE STREET signs, but it sort of spiraled into a generic I-hate-kids-and-their-idiot-parents rant. "Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!")