Sunday, Truett and I ate a late lunch at The Cracker Barrel in Lake City. I tell you right now, they need to build more of these restaurants. We arrived at 1:30 PM, and I just knew church traffic would be gone by then; however, since I-75 goes straight through Lake City, the place was jammed-packed. We didn't leave the place until 3:00 PM. But while we waited and waited and waited for our table, then the food, I was astounded by a set of red-haired grandparents who obviously were baby-sitting their red-headed 11 month old grandson. These grandparents were younger than me, probably. Even I've been known to do some ridiculous things when Madeline was a toddler, like sit on her, or give her chips and dip (which set a pattern for her at all meals. Dipping, that is) These grandparents didn't have a clue. I only hope they were returning the fat little red-headed cherub to his parents, for their sake. Here are the rules they broke:
Rule #1: Do not give sugar to an 11 month old.
They did. The granddad poured sugar in the child's hand and tried to show him how to lick it off. That didn't work, so the granddad poured sugar in a teaspoon and gave the spoon to the child. Well, we know what happens when a toddler can't even hold a spoon correctly. Sugar flew everywhere and some went in the child's mouth.
Rule #2: Do not give an eleven month old jelly.
But they did. The granddad scooped the grape jelly out of the container into a teaspoon and gave the kid the spoon. Guess what happened. You got it!
The whole time I'm trying to eat my fried chicken dinner and I told Truett, "I can't watch this."
Meanwhile the red-headed 11 month old turns into a maniac. He grabs the spoon and they allow him to bang on the table. Bang! Bang! Bang! So loud that I couldn't even hear Tammy Wynette singing "Lord Unto Thee". Plus, the whole time the child is whining. "Aarr! Uuaaar!" I hurriedly ate my meal even though I wasn't finished with my cornbread muffin and jelly.
Rule #3: Take your baby outside so it doesn't flail into anything.
They did not do this. Instead, they wandered through the tight aisles handling things. Meanwhile, the child is squirming almost completely out of the granddad's arms. Then we hear it. CRASH! Sure enough. I see the red-headed grandparents, with their chubby red-headed grandson calling for a staff member. Did they pay for the glass frog? Probably not.
In the end, I felt sorry for those two grandparents. I hoped they were returning the child to the mother and father or either/or. But if they were just picking the kid up for a stay at 'Grandaddy's"; then I pity them. They'll definitely be a lot older after the baby's visit.
P.S. Maybe I won't buy Maddie a milkshake the next time I pick her up from school...and as of today, Oliver will never know what jelly tastes like, or sugar. He's gonna' be tame.
Not good....but I do remember when you and Dad would give Clay sugar packets to keep him busy and quiet while we waited for our food in restaurants. He'd suck on the packet he got to the sugar - no sugar ever went flying off a spoon.
Posted by: tina | July 15, 2007 at 06:42 PM
Why do you think I'm a better grandmother than mother. I learned my lesson.
Posted by: Merry/Nana | July 16, 2007 at 04:10 PM
:)
Posted by: tina | July 16, 2007 at 04:13 PM