294 The Older Moms

When I watched the mothers come in with children today at Panera's (after 11 a.m.), I sometimes was unsure if I was seeing young grandmothers or older mothers. They appeared to be in the 40-50 age group but had toddlers.

There are many safety precautions in place today. When I asked at the grade school about the traffic tie ups, I was told no one lets her children walk to school nowadays--it's not safe. When I asked about the draconian child safety procedures at our church, I was told child safety is a top priority. My children never wore bicycle helmets or were strapped into child safety seats as infants--they sat on my lap. Today I would be severly reprimanded and ticketed for such a lapse.

So have all these safety regulations that don't require exercising common sense addled the brains of today's mothers? Here's what I saw today. I like to sit next to the open fire. One middle-age-mother-of-toddler was letting her little girl dance on the 18" concrete raised hearth of the open fire place, next to the white hot glass doors. Another older Mom let her 3 year old lay her coat down on the floor so she could put it on "like a big girl" without help, as people stepped around and over her with their hot soup and coffee. Another Mom set her infant seat down on the floor so she could put her trash in the bin where people were walking up to the counter to place orders.

After watching this, I decided there were no grandmothers, only older mothers in this crowd. Women who had grown up saying, "someone should do something about this."