What Kind of Parent Are You?

We were at Topgolf recently. In the bay next to ours: what looked like family and friends with two young boys.

In between trying to hit golf balls, I watched the two brothers. The older one — about five or six — was happily occupied. He ate. He moved around a little. He hit the golf ball when it was his turn. But mostly he was content on the couch with his iPad, with a few breaks in between. He didn't ask for much. He was, by every parent's standard, being very good.

The younger one was different.

The young one, about four, had his iPad, which he watched on and off, but he was more intrigued with his surroundings. He wanted to hit the golf ball himself and was given a chance to do so. He would pick up the golf balls, play with them, all the while being told to stay behind the red line. He did, mostly.

When he got bored with that, he looked at his surroundings and saw the tall plastic water glasses on the low table by the couches. Six straws and six glasses. One glass was empty.

He took the straws and played with them. Then he placed one in a glass that still had water in it and started blowing air through it. Bubbles. He added a second straw, then a third. At one point he was blowing through all six at once — giggling as water bubbled out of the glass and down the front of his shirt. He was pretty pleased with himself. He had the most fun with that glass of water.

He experimented further, adding a piece of paper to the water and some crumbs he found on the table. That wasn't so cool.

Then he added another glass. He was now blowing bubbles into two glasses with six straws — the bubbles overflowing, of course.

Then he poured water from one glass to another, slurping some of the water through the straws and pushing it through to an empty glass. You can see what happened next — he started pouring water back and forth between the glasses. All the while getting his t-shirt wet, but entertaining himself quietly, without disturbing anyone or making too much of a mess.

I saw this and thought: nobody is noticing what this child is doing.

Now some parents would look at that and think that child needs to be told no. He shouldn't be doing that with restaurant glasses.

Others would be busy having a good time with their friends, and the child gets to keep going.

What kind of parent are you?

As a parent, it might have stressed me. As a grandmother, I was watching closely — and I thought he was pretty smart.