Short Vent

Over the past few months as I have made the daily trip to the RCH with C and I have been forced each time to enter the hospital via a 2 stage set of pedestrian lights out front. I’ll be honest one set is painfully slow. You have to wait for at least double the time of the other set. What amazes me though is the amount of people who J-Walk WITH THEIR CHILDREN. I’ll be the first to admit I have J-Walked in my time, but never with my children beside me.

Witnessing parents committing this act has also made me look out for it more. Its not just parents and older children, its toddlers and even once I saw a man and woman jog across as cars approaching carrying what appeared to be a rather fresh baby. I then had to pick my jaw up off my lap 2 weeks back when I watched a mother and her 2 young boys cross all 6 lanes of the highway I commute on. They ducked and weaved between cars waiting at the red light then ran across the next 3 lanes in front of on coming traffic, the 2 boys ran at their own pace as the mother tried to keep up.

The thing I don’t get is if you asked someone to carry their 50” plasma screen or their Mac book pro and J-walk across the road they wouldn’t do it. Why do people do it with their children? Surely people value their children higher than material possessions. I’ve always been a hoon in the car or on the bike but with my children in the car I’m a transformed man, I have my life’s work sitting in the back seat, my most valuable things that mean more to me than anything materialistic. Yet you see people driving & speeding, smoking, tailgating cutting lanes etc etc all with Children in the back seat o the car.

Anyhoo that’s more of a vent than anything else. Until next time I’ll be pointing J-Walking parents out to my children saying “What are they doing wrong?”