Chuck January 27th, 2008
Before I start my ramble, let it be known that I am not a “neat freak” nor someone that feels the need to tell others how to act or live their life (unless it is my own kids or immediate family, where I may have to speak my opinion). I don’t care if you curse, drink, smoke, drool, gamble, preach your religion… just don’t let any of it try to influence people in my family, or our surroundings. So if you haven’t gotten the hint yet, I am pretty care-free to how others decide to live or act… for the most part, as long as it does not impact my well being or my family’s.
One thing I cannot stand, is people that deliberately toss their garbage without any regard to others, the environment or just self image.
Today (Sunday) is one of the days of the week that I can do things that need to be done, such as errands and things with my entire family. We decided to take half the day and do any errands and shopping that needed to be done so we may make it through the next week to payday. It is sometimes difficult running errands and doing “boring” things with 3 kids that get tired of it pretty easily. We try to make things interesting for them so the trips are not so unbearable for both them and us (the adults). Anyways, one of the things placed into the trip was to stop by Mc D’s to get everyone a nice cold drink… something simple, but also something we all enjoy from time to time. While paying for our order, the people in front of us were receiving their items through one side of the vehicle, and in return, they were tossing half empty items out the other side all over the parking lot. I saw that and could only comment to the person collecting our payment “What the hell is their problem? Who would do such a thing? That is just ignorant and rude.” The person at our window said, “Yeah, it’s ok though, they probably know that eventually someone will come through and clean/pick it all up”. I just shook my head and proceeded.
Honestly I was just outraged as a human being, seeing this in front of me. What kind of lesson does that teach my children? And as far as the comment made by the cashier (who of course was just a teen-ager himself), when did something like that just become acceptable and no big deal? If I had to work there, I would be completely pissed if I had to go out there to clean up someones trash… just BECAUSE they felt it was a good place to dispose of all their garbage. Is this REALLY acceptable to most people these days? Am I just getting old!!?? Part of me feels I am just over reacting, because I guess since I don’t work there and I don’t have to clean it up, maybe I should just ignore it. I don’t really feel I want to ignore it though, because what is to stop them from doing it in front of my home? Or down the street and then the wind blows all their crap into my yard, and then it DOES become MY problem just because somebody else was too lazy or just didn’t give a !@#$ where their trash may fly.
I pity those that cannot get off their ass to walk 5 feet to put their trash in a garbage can. I feel for those that are stuck is crappy jobs that have to clean up after all those that feel everyone is beneath them, even if they are just poor ignorant slobs that need a lesson in how to dispose of things properly.
I value my morals, my image as a person and a parent. To me, doing something like that out in the middle of the day, in a public place… where FOOD is served and others are watching is just total lack of everything that makes sense. I do not want my kids to become slobs like that, as I find it as a direct result of MY parenting. But the reality of it is that people doing things like THAT in front of them, may have just as big an influence as Rae’s and my raising them. I think that is the part that bothers me the most.
Children are open to everything that goes on around them. We could train them the best we could in everything, but yet something like what we saw today could make them think, “oh it’s ok, I can toss my trash anywhere and somebody will come clean up after me”. Most kids are used to being lazy like that anyway because mommy and daddy do a lot of the cleaning up after them and depending on the age or how spoiled a child may be, the world does not need future kids all becoming slobs just because it is acceptable by most younger people of the population.