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Barney Goes to Breakfast???!!!???

Date published: October 3, 2004

The Scenario: Sunday morning, a family restaurant in my community. A nice mixture of hungry people eating traditional breakfast favorites, with their families in tow. I was with my husband and our friends, all ordering 'heart attack on a plate' variety of breakfasts.

It Begins... I heard a radio or something with tinny sound coming from somewhere nearby. Someone is listening to a radio at a restaurant? What is going on here? Then I spotted it. A screen. It was only 9 AM, so football isn't on yet...what the--and the situation unfolded. A couple and their baby were settling into their booth. They brought a portable DVD player and placed it in front of the baby with a Barney episode on it. It was cranked up nice and loud so we all could hear it.

What kind of parenting is THAT? I admit it, I am not a parent. I have never been a parent. But, parking a kid in front of an electronic babysitter - is that how you discipline a kid? That kid is going to have mush for brains and probably will be a lazy couch potato for the rest of its life!

I get mad enough about cell phones and how people are totally inconsiderate to talk on cell phones wherever they happen to be - but this was just amazing. It is astounding to what depths of inconsideration people will sink to.

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