Stuff From an IT Slug

My son is six and really likes music. I really want him to enjoy music and listen to it when he can, but I am having a real problem figuring out what to let him listen too. There is so much out there and so much of it just doesn’t seem appropriate and I don’t feel like answering 20 questions about each song. There are alway kids songs but they often mechanically suck. Disney channel? music is ok, but I don’t like the “perfect person” standard they are setting.

Perhaps I am just being to hypocritical and need to chill out. I don’t know, I just don’t want to force feed my son into the “perfect” world of Disney TV. It really is commercial shit.

Are there any suggestions out there that wont bore the hell out of my son or make me wonder how it’s twisting him?

I would like to coin April first, officially, the Onion Day.  Since the Onion is dedicated to our news enjoyment and most people could never write to their unique standard, we should let the best be the best and celebrate their crafty pen.  There isn’t a better news source and there isn’t a better day to dedicate to them.  All rejoice and cheer for the Onion and their new special day.

A day or two ago I wrote about and incident my wife had at the mall in RainForest Cafe. I had emailed Landry’s Restaurants, owners of RainForest cafe, and actually received a quick response back (today).  I have emailed my phone number back to them, lets see how this progresses.

Emailed received:

My wife took our sons to the mall today to get them out of the house on spring break, they are 2 and 5. As often when visiting the mall, a visit is made to Rainforest Cafe were the kids like to look at the over priced nick-knacks and motorized alligator. Being spring break, it’s very busy in the mall today.

Anyone who has or watches kids knows how incredibly quick they can be at time. I mean Einstein said nothing can reach the speed of light, did he study children?

So my wife turns to locate the five year-old, turns back and the two year old is gone. I mean out of site and she is super worried. First thought for her is always somebody snatched him. Hey she’s a mom, I have thought it before too.

She approaches the associate, (host I assume) standing at a podium greeting new customers, informing her that her son is missing in their store. The associate says something in her little microphone/headset thingy and tells my wife that the store will keep a lookout for him. Of course at this point my wife tells them what my son looks like and what he is wearing. I am not sure if this information was translated through the headset. After the associates brief interaction with my wife she quickly returns to her conversation with a delivery-type person.

So now my wife is really starting to panic. My older son is running around in side the restaurant trying to find his brother while my wife stands outside scanning the mall and the entrance to the place.

My wife locates my son who is currently running right across the path of the associate at the podium who was on “lookout.” As I am sure you can guess, the associate notices nothing. Which pisses my wife off even more. Thankfully my son was located and unaffected by the experience. As you can guess, he was running around having fun.

I really don’t understand why the procedures at Rainforest Cafe suck so bad when there is a lost child in their restaurant. Take Toys R Us for instance, a few years back my eldest son ran off and we couldn’t locate him. We proceeded to tell an associate that our son was lost in the store and the associate announced this in his walkie-talky thin. Immediately the store was locked down! I kid you not, all the associates sprang into action, covering the doors and sweeping the store looking for him. I was really impressed.

With the severity and constant fear of assholes snatching kids I am really surprised when places of business handle such sensitive situation so poorly.

I contacted Landry’s Restaurants, Inc., operators of Rainforest Cafe, let see if they have any response to the very poor handling of a very sensitive situation.