Let Your Kids Run Wild Week

This week is Spring Break and it ranks right up there with Take Your Children To Work Day as a time to be endured with gritted teeth and earplugs. The rug rats are out and you see them everywhere…playing in the street, and parking lots, and just about any location except a park or playground. It is impossible to avoid them or to hear yourself think over the noise of bouncing basketballs and crashing skateboards.

Oregon got a jump start by having teacher conferences all last week to segue into the main event. By now the little folks have run out of things to do and are resorting to the time-honored Boredom Eliminators which include blasting loud rap music, throwing rocks, writing obscenities in chalk on the public sidewalks, and “hanging out.”

Where are the parents, you ask? Well…if they work that is where they are hiding out. If they don’t work, they’re watching Oprah and have the door locked. Either way, they are uninvolved and apparently under no obligation to supervise their offspring. Thanks to budget cuts and other school priorities, most of the “Latchkey” programs have been cut.

I’m hunkered down in The Hideaway nursing Little Buddy who is still recovering and catching up on my reading. And waiting until it is safe to return to civilization.

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