This Is The Society We've Created

At the Santa Monica Pier today, with Em and her friend J (one of several one-on-one birthday celebrations planned this week), we came across some sort of trampoline/bungee jumping thingamabob. The girls only had to beg briefly to be allowed on the line to jump (at $5 a pop--insane); I was a pushover today.

In front of them were several kids, including a young boy...maybe 4. When he entered the enclosure, the teenager running the show weighed him (to make sure he made the 20 pound weight minimum, and to see which harness to put on him) and then strapped the harness around his waist. The teenager then began to try to get the kid to reach between his legs to pull the two hanging straps through, so the he (the teenager) could attach them to the belt part of the harness. The kid was NOT getting it. The teenager kept trying to explain; the kid kept staring at him blankly.

Finally, the mother came over, clearly annoyed, and picked the kid up, pulled the straps through, and finished the job. As she handed him back over to the teenager, she was scowling.

As she passed me, I leaned over to her, and said quietly, "Quite a world we live in, isn't it, where it's no longer OK to reach between a 4-year-old's legs to pull a strap through?"

She stopped. "Dear Lord. You're right," she said, her scowl turning sad. "Quite a world."