#3 - You yelled at the Zookeeper

Some time ago I took my little guy to the zoo, ‘cause I was on hiatus for a few days and I just didn’t want to do to the same park, or the same drop-in, so we decided to shake things up.  Now, one of the coolest things for kids at the Toronto Zoo (and I assume any zoo) is the “meet the keeper” where the keeper comes out and feeds the animals, the kids get to see the animals closer up and interacting with humans.  It’s fun.

On this particular day the hippo one was cancelled (the hippos were under the weather), and right beside it the rhinos were also not in their exhibit (the pond that separated them from the people was low, which made it possible for them to potentially escape – you might recall that rhinos have big-ass horns and can charge – so I was okay with this decision).  And one Dad, with small children in tact, went absolutely nuts on a zookeeper walking by.  He was furious that several animals, ones that his children were particularly keen to see, were unavailable to be seen today and that was “ridiculous”.  The keeper explained the situation, but he just didn’t give a shit.  He’d taken the day off work, paid good money, he wanted those damn animals out and on display or he wanted his “fucking money back”. 

First of all, what you just taught your kid was that if you don’t get your way the solution is to act unreasonable and throw a tantrum.  Second, you taught them that what YOU want is far more important than the health and safety of others, in this case animals.  Third, the zoo is a massive place, go see the goddamn gorillas, or any of the other numerous animals that aren’t sick.  Teaching your kids to focus solely on the negative is a good way to make sure that your kid turns out to be an asshole.