Laziness

OK, this post has nothing to do with my athletes, but it's about physical activity...close enough right?! While taking my extremely cute niece and her BFF trick or treating on Halloween I noticed a trend. A new trend. I have never seen this before. It is the epitome of laziness. We were in a normal Sandy neighborhood, trick or treating on a nice Halloween evening. It was not overly cold, not stormy, there should be no complaints.

Apparently there's no need to actually walk with your child as they go door to door begging for candy. This started with a cute little girl walking down the street. She was about 3 years old, so cute. She was pushing a doll stroller down the street, as she got closer I realized that her pug was sitting, actually strapped, in the stroller. Her pug was dressed as a princess. I thought this was so cute. As she walked away from us I noticed that she was dressed as the horse (or unicorn - not sure). I thought this was soooo adorable. What is cuter than a 3 year old dressed as a horse and her favorite 4 legged buddy as the princess? Then something struck me. Where are her parents?! She was all alone walking down the street.

As I turned around to watch this cutie pie walk down the street I noticed a white SUV creeping along behind her. My immediate reaction was to fear for this child. She was being followed by a creepy person. She went up to a door, rang the door bell, the car stopped in front of the house. She moved on, the car followed. Then I realized HER PARENTS WERE IN THE CAR!!! WTF! Are you kidding me?! You are too lazy to actually take your child trick or treating that you must make her walk alone down the street as you sit in your SUV?!

I was shocked. As a "part time mom" (that's what my cute niece said about me one day) I would never make her walk down the street alone and go door to door talking to strangers. I would never pass up the opportunity to share a special day with her. The joys of taking kids trick or treating are that you can make memories. Put them in their wagon, pull them down the street, joke with them, laugh with them, let them feel grown up by going to the door by themselves, but stand at the end of the driveway making sure they are ok. My niece is 8 years old, this little girl was 3. I walked side by side with my niece, but these parents let this cute little girl walk alone.

I was astounded, I was hoping it was just this lazy parent that didn't walk with their kid. A few minutes later, I noticed another car doing the same. Then another. Then another. WTF people! Now this neighborhood does some extremely fun activities, don't miss out parents. There's a family that barbeque's hot dogs, another house provides doughnuts for the parents, another house has a haunted house in their garage, the headless horseman rides through the neighborhood. Why miss out on the festivities?! There's hundreds of kids running around, zig-zagging across streets comparing candy and running to "the best houses." There's no way I'd drive my car and miss out on the hot dogs and doughnuts, but more importantly there's no way I'd drive my car with this many kids running around the neighborhood. I would be afraid to hit a child.

Parents, this is my plea. Please don't teach your children that it's ok to sit in your car while they go and knock on stranger's doors. Please don't miss out on the opportunity to play with your kids. Please don't teach your children that being in your car is more important than walking down the street. Please teach them the value of good ol' fashioned exercise. Yes, trick or treating is considered exercise! I know, exercise CAN be fun! Who knew!