Playtime for Parents

Yesterday I took the boys to the Natural History Museum at University of Utah, since it's free Mondays.

There were tons of kids, everyone going nuts over puzzles and pictures and books and bugs.

At the play area downstairs there is a wall with a magnetic dinosaur puzzle, and a middle aged man was pulling all the pieces off of it. He called for his daughter to come and do it with him, which I thought was cute.

Then, Keegan, the 3 yr old I watch, went up and started to do it with them. The dad turned around and saw that I was taking pictures of him, and gave me a dirty look, as if to say "hey we totally have dibs on this puzzle right now." Three other little kids came up to do the puzzle (this is in a large public area, full of children) and the man's little girl started grabbing pieces away from them rudely, showing that she felt the same way. When I say little I mean around 9 or 10, old enough to know better.

Keegan just keeps doing his thing, since he is obsessed with puzzles and very little can distract him from solving them.

I'm thinkin maybe this guy is just weird and try to forget about it.

Then, his wife rolls up, and picks up a puzzle piece that was under a chair. Keegan goes up to her and looks at it, pointing at where it goes and he is all excited that he knows. The mom goes "yeah, I can do it." and goes over his head and puts the piece up on the puzzle!!!!

Seriously lady? Lame. How old are you? This is obviously a kids puzzle, and you freaking stole his puzzle thunder. I grabbed Keegan and we went and played with some little toys in the corner.

Of course, 5 minutes later, they all end up playing in the same toy area as we are.

I see the Dad has another kid (around 2 or so) who was freaking adorable and sweet with the other kids. She saw that her dad was holding a little toy. He was arranging the colors on it so they went from lightest to darkest. She went over to play with it and he was obviously annoyed, saying "Let me finish it" and pushing his little girl away!!! Then when he finished he showed his wife like HE was the 2 year old.

I've seen parents do this before. Why are they like that?! They have a strange desire to prove that they can beat games meant for 3-5 yr olds, and then they feel proud. Congrats. You are weird, and your kids probably will be held back in school since they never got to finish anything on their own.