The tablet generation

It's in the media quite frequently. Screen time should be very limited for kids, and screens should be shut off during meal times. But are tablets always a bad idea?

Chili's restaurant seems to stay pretty busy, and one of their biggest customers seems to be families. Another thing about Chili's is that each table has a tablet that can be used to play games and watch videos.

A couple was out with their two children, who were tired and hungry. After making the meal selections the parents let the kids play with the tablet. Instead of whining about being tired and the food taking a long time, they were fixated on the small interactive screen.

The parents enjoyed a conversation together, and their adult beverages, with minimal interruptions. The food came, and they all enjoyed their meals. After they finished paying they left the restaurant full and with smiles on their faces.

No filter

Pre-school aged children seem to have a knack for being brutally honest. They say what they want when the see it or think it.

Five people waited in line to check out at the Dollar General. A mom stood in line, holding her son's hand. He kept asking his mom the why questions like: Why do we have to wait in line? Why do we have to pay for it? Why does the line take so long?

The mom indulged the little boy's question. Then he asked a question that took the mom off guard.

"Is that a boy or a girl?" he asked as he pointed to the man in front of them.

The mom's face froze with a shocked look.

The boy said it looks like a boy, but question why he had a ponytail.

Again, the mom said nothing.

"Mom, why does that boy have a ponytail?"

The mom finally said "Do you want some chocolate?"

That was enough to distract the boy until it the man in front of the checked out. He looked back and said, "Boys can have ponytails too." He put his sunglasses on and walked out to his motorcycle and drove off.

Kids at a funeral

A weeping family surrounded a casket during the viewing of their loved one at the funeral home. Friends and family formed a line to share their condolences with those mourning the loss.

On the other end of the room, toddlers ran back and forth, chasing one another. In a back corner some older children formed a circle and were playing the hand slap game. Every once in a while a parent would walk by and tell them to keep it down. They were able to keep the sadness of the event out of their circle.

One boy said the group that if go to the casket and knock on it three times the ghost of the dead will follow you home. Some of the others doubted his story, so he dared them to go do it and find out.

One boy, about 8 years old, stood up and walked toward the casket. He tried to sneak around the back when a family member pulled him in for a hug.

He looked at the dead body and got a worried look on his face. He walked back to the circle without touching the casket.

Clean-up in aisle 2

Two women were shopping at a popular children's store in the mall on a Thursday afternoon. They both pushed strollers each occupied by a small child. They picked through clothes asking each others' opinions, and talked about what was happening in their lives.

"Do you smell that?" asked on of the ladies.

"Did you fart?" asked the other, laughing.

"Funny," she replied with an annoyed face.

The both started sniffing the air next to their kids.

The woman who made the joke got a horrified look on her face. She picked up her daughter, who looked to be 1 years old to reveal a brown and green mess that spilled out of the diaper and spanned up the back of the child and all over the stroller.

The other woman looked over at first with a horrified look, and then a big belly laugh sounded out.

Chuck E Cheese

"Where a kid can be a kid," and parents barely make it out alive.

The weekend at Chuck E Cheese is a zoo full of children. Kids were running around, playing games, eating pizza and enjoying soda. Parents were chasing their kids, waiting in long lines and cleaning of dirty faces and hands.

It was like a Vegas casino with all the lights from the machines. The dealers were replaces with token machines, and the waiters were the parents.

It was all fun and games until someone ran out of tokens.

One little boy ran out of tokens before he go to a machine he wanted to play.

He begged his mom for more tokens, but her reply was no.

A little girl nearby offered the boy one of her tokens. The boy's face lit up, almost as much as the little girl's mom.

Ice cream king

The park was filled with families enjoying a sunny and 75 degree day. A small breeze blew, making it an optimal park day.

Children were running up and down the jungle gyms, jumping off swings and taking a ride down the slides. It was all laugher and fun. That is until a boy about 5 years old came on to the scene. His young mother sat on a bench nearby. A young man pulled into the parking lot a few moments later and joined the mother.

The little boy was visibly mad about losing his mother's attention, after she told him to go play.

The woman started playing with her hair, smiling a lot and cuddling up to the man.

The little boy decided to have a little fun and started throwing rock at the kids that ran by him.

He was enjoying getting away with it , until a toddler ran by him and cried when he was hit by a rock.

The toddler's mom confronted the boy, and told him it was not nice to throw rocks at people. The boy just looked at the ground. She looked around to see if a parent was coming for him, but no one moved.

The boy's mother, enamored with the young man, was oblivious to what was happening.

The toddler's mother, feeling bad for the boy bought him and her son an ice cream from the vendor.

A big smile came across the boy's face. He finished his ice cream and ran to his mom.

His mom asked, "do you want an ice cream?"

"Yes!" the boy answered enthusiastically.

No ice cream for you

Sunday afternoons seem to be the busiest time for HEB. The store is full of all different types of people. Families filled the aisles, as the filled their cart with groceries. Some were filled with the basics, fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy and bread. Others were filled with beer, potato chips, Gansitos, and similar foods.

In the frozen food section, a little boy cried to his mom, "por favor. Quiero ice cream."

"No," said his mother. "This is for your father."

The boy frowned, looking defeated.

As they checked out, he looked to his at the cart of another family and saw the ice cream he wanted.

"Please mom," he begged.

"Hurry up," she said with a tired look.

His face lit up as he ran toward the ice cream aisle.

The movies

The movies. The smell of freshly popped popcorn, the dark theater, the chance to get away from the kids during date night - then a baby cries out.

The mother gives her husband a worried look.

"She never wakes up this early from a nap," she ensures her spouse.

"Watch your movie," he said with a smile.

He picked up the infant and walked out into the back hallway of the theater.

The woman smiled, with a small tear in the corner of her eye.

Twenty minutes later, he returns with a sleeping infant. His wife pulls him close and snuggles him tight.

The park

Ahhhhh, the freedom! That was the expression on the tiny toddler's happy face. She giggled and ran through the open grassy area. She fell, but she wasn't stopping. She got up and ran toward the ducks.

"Leave the ducks alone," her mother shouted a few feet away.

The look on her the toddler's face went from opened mouth laughs to sour lemons. She looked back, folder her arms and sighed.

She then spotted the playground, and made a run for it, her mom following closely behind her. She ran to the jungle gym, climbed up the steps and giggled about her accomplishment, as she clapped for herself. She took the slide down and tripped as she walked off. It didn't matter; she got back up.

She examined her hand, and examined that a rock was stuck to her little hand. Before her mom could see what was happening the rock was in her mouth.

"Oh my gosh, spit that out," said the mother.

The toddler laughed, keeping the rock in her mouth and ran toward the ducks.

They left the park a few minutes later.

2nd grade

The small desks were filled. The teacher stood in the front of classroom with teaching materials at the ready. She looked over the class, but instead of small eager faces, she was met with a mixture of excited, bored and angry faces- parents.

The meeting was to inform the parents about the plans for the year's curriculum.

"Please keep your questions about the curriculum," the teacher said. "If there are questions about your child's progress, please sign up on the sheet in the back to schedule a meeting with me."

About 10 minutes into the presentation, a parent raised her hand.

"My son has a hard time learning that way, are there other ways we can teach him?" she said.

The teacher responded, "Why don't your sign up on the sheet so we can discuss your concerns one on one."

As she continued on her presentation, she received questions about how the school can accommodate individual children.

By the end, a twenty minute presentation took an hour.

The kids in the classroom next door had no problem taking direction and finishing their art projects.

The church cry room

It was like every Sunday morning at Our Lady of Sorrows church. The pews started to fill, then the bells sang out. One room located at the side of the church housed a very specific group of people. Those with small children, and those who were too embarrassed to walk into the main church late.

Although the room was filled with children, it was mostly quiet. But as mass went on, children became restless, and the real part began. A red-headed little boy, about the age of three, decided to take out his train, and began to run up and down the aisle.

Then came the sound effects, which caught the attention of every child in the room. Toddler fought their parents to get down and run to the toy. Babies started to wake up from the commotion. Older siblings tried their hardest to help entertain the toddlers for their parents.

In the end the train won and the commotion didn't stop until mass was over, and the parents quickly exited the church.