What Kind of Parent Are You?

We were at Top Golf recently. In the bay next to ours: what looked like a family and friends, a party of six with two young boys.

In between trying to hit golf balls, I watched the younger one — maybe four years old. He had his iPad, but he kept setting it down. He wanted to hit a ball himself, and got a turn. Then he picked up the golf balls and rolled them around. Then he was told to stay behind the red line.

When he got bored with that, he looked around — and noticed the tall plastic glasses on the low table. Six straws, six glasses. One was empty.

He took a straw and placed it in a glass that still had water. He blew 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 tried dropping a piece of paper in. Not as interesting.

So he started pouring water from one glass into another. Then he slurped some up through a straw and spit it into the empty glass. Then he poured it back.

He wasn't damaging anything. He wasn't making much of a mess. He was running his own science experiment in the background — and nobody was noticing.

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

Others would be busy having a good time with 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.