Parenting

Far be it from me to discuss parenting as if I know everything about it. (Obviously with that intro, you know I will.) I know that having a child is a harrowing experience, and that it can be (if not is) one of the most difficult jobs around, if for no other reason it is a 24/7 gig.

However, I have come to the conclusion that my neighbor is the absolute worst mother. I used to think this a while ago, but really I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. But let's talk about why.

First, once a month (roughly, I'm not here every weekend but this has occurred at least three times since I've lived here and I feel like it's more often), she has an all-night party that involves ridiculously loud music (and saying something to her does nothing and calling the cops does nothing; I guess stopping murders is more important than a little noise). Luckily these have always occurred on Saturday nights, and often when I was getting home very late myself, so whatever. But I always wondered what she did with the child during these parties.

I found out the day after one of them. As I was coming inside with Dante, there was an older (and stress the "er" part, she was maybe in her early forties) woman with a child in a stroller, slowly bringing the kid up the stairs. I offered to help, and she at first declined because (a) I had the dog (and thus only one free hand) and (b) she was going to the top floor. Since that's where I was going, I insisted and helped her. Turns out this was the grandmother of the child of my neighbor.

Now, at this point I understand that parents need time off. Having the kid go to grandma's house is almost required on a regular basis if she lived nearby. But the problems here are primarily with the fact that the (very hungover, I could tell) mother did not go pick up her own kid, nor did she go downstairs to help her mother carry her daughter up five flights of stairs! Bad mother? Not really, but bad person? To some degree, yes.

But after that I started noticing how often she went out pretty much every weekend, with her mother staying with the kid (yes, I'm that nosy neighbor, but only when my neighbors make a lot of noise that is easy to listen to). The other night she went out and for over an hour the poor daughter just cried and cried. I felt bad for her. In addition to her mother just wanting to party all the time (the mom is probably something like 20), her mother just looks at her with detest it seems, when I run into them in the hall. Kind of breaks my heart.