library observations

Jul 01

Posted by: Rachel in: blog, caleb isaiah, just another day in paradise, me myself and i, memories, parenting, rants, you might be a mom

Today was library storytime day. I woke up late, started slow, and left late, but I made myself/us go. I’m glad we did, because we got a HUGE stack of books (perhaps even so many that I feel okay skipping next week! Ha!), and we even re-checked out On Top of Spaghetti. To go along with the nationwide summer reading campaign, “Catch the Reading Bug,” we made butterflies today. So there actually was no storytime, just a long hour of waiting for the three librarians to come around with the box of foamies to select the butterfly parts and put them together. It was a cute project, which all of the kids loved, but of course it made for a rather chaotic and time consuming event. There were probably 75+ people there today, we graduated to two rows of chairs around the edge of the room! Since we had plenty of time on our hands, I began to look around me.

To my left there was a girl with strawberry blonde hair, her son looked exactly like her. He was perched in her lap, and as she tried to talk to her neighbor, her son repeatedly headbutted the wind out of her. Each time she corrected him, he snuggled and nuzzled up under her chin. As soon as she began to talk again, the process started over.

Over to my right, I noted that the lady with four kids (from last week) had returned. The newborn was sleeping peacefully in the stroller, despite all the noise. Her older child was very attentive and still overall. The two middle children were a handful again. The older boy was whining and whimpering as they came in. She finally got him settled and he and Caleb exchanged silences about the monster trucks on his shirt. But the younger little girl seems to be having a most difficult time adjusting to no longer being the baby in the family. She constantly demanded all of her mother’s attention with a wide assortment of antics, cuddles, whines, and cries. She climbed on the table and jumped up and down repeatedly, threatened to jump off the table, threw herself all over the ground, cried over everything, and climbed right back on the table to jump some more. The picture frame above the table was about to fall off the wall by the time they left.

I looked around the room at all of the faces, and we all seemed to have at least a one thing in common. Everyone had this glazed look in their eyes, as if to say, “If only I had the energy, and I weren’t so tired, I might just be pulling my hair out right now.” The few faces that didn’t say that were full of creases and wrinkles that said, “These aren’t mine, I just get to spoil them and then, thank goodness, I get to send them back home to their parents tonight!” I kind of laughed to myself. It is nice to know that no one is super mom every day.

We gathered up bag full of books and headed up the stairs to check them out. I always remind Caleb on the way up the stairs that we use our whisper voice up there. When we reached the top, he eyed a boy playing a computer game with a monster truck on it. I noted the game to him and told him to come along as I went to get in line. The line was no more than 15 feet away, and Caleb is often pokey and slow about these things. I knew exactly where he was, and that he would be along momentarily. By the time I reached the line area, and turned back around to check on him, there was a guy dragging him along backwards by the upper arm!!! Caleb was starting to whimper because a person he did not know was pulling him by the arm. I don’t think he had time to figure out what was going on, and I was so damn stunned, I didn’t either. The guy said something like “I got him for ya,” and as he walked away, he said to himself “library child saver.” I think I muttered ‘thanks’ or something like that, but I just felt like saying “excuse me?!” The more I think about it, the madder I get! When I told Scott, the first thing out of his mouth was “what time does the library close?” I *think* the guy worked there, I’m not sure. He started fiddling with the books on the shelf to go back out and be filed away, straightening them and such. I know he probably had the best of intentions, but you do not drag someone else’s child. And certainly not even giving the child a chance to turn around and walk forward, he had to walk backwards about 15 feet. He was not being disruptive, and I knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. I couldn’t have gotten five steps in front of him before the guy grabbed him by the arm! Not cool. If there is ever a next time, I will get my wits about me faster and let him and his boss know that it was not appropriate nor necessary. Am I overreacting? What would you have done?

Comments

3 Responses to “library observations”

Jen
July 1st, 2008 2:46 pm

Are you kidding me?? I would have been like, “EXCUSE ME- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??”
NO ONE SHOULD EVER PUT THEIR HANDS ON YOUR CHILD!!!!! Especially not a weird library guy… I am always weary of weirdo’s lurking around the library- guess I’ve seen one too many news stories about sex pervs hitting on kids in libraries! But that aside, it is totally inappropriate for him to drag your child. If it happens again, I would report him to the head of library & let them know that it is not ok to handle a child like that.

Julie
July 2nd, 2008 6:50 am

I love your posts. You’re so observant of other people- it’s interesting to me because I’m not!!

As far as that guy “saving” Caleb- I think I would have been just as stunned as you. And then I would have gotten mad!! Sitting here, the first thought was, “What the hell?!” It’s not ok for someone to grab a child like that. Ugh! I’m just sitting here sputtering because I can’t get the words out…

I apologize in advance for my library rant, so here goes…
What Jen says about weirdos in libraries is true. I worked in a city library for 2 1/2 years. I don’t know what your library is like, but if there were 75 people there, I’m assuming it’s big. Where I worked, there were perverts there ALL THE TIME. I wanted to scream at parents not to leave their kids unattended. It wasn’t so much that the kids might mess up the shelves or be a disturbance, but that creeps hang out in libraries. Most of the time there was nothing we could do except stand back and make sure that one of us was keeping an eye on things and knew what was going on. We knew who to watch, but you can’t call the police until they do something. There was one man who came in often and he always watched little boys. We had his picture sent around in an email and we knew what to do, but he was allowed to keep coming back because all he did was look. There was a teenager who tried to get little girls to go back to the large book section (back corner) to be tickled. That guy was kicked out because he made contact. The reason that library finally got the security camera is because a guy was watching one of the other girls who worked there. He brushed up against her and left a wet spot on her pants. Then two weeks later he did the same thing to me, but I had been kind of squatting in front of the copy machine (right across from the main desk) and the wet stuff, whatever it was dripped down my back. Disgusting. We had no footage to show the police, so we got one right after that. It’s unbelievable how many things happened there. I’m not trying to scare you away from going to the library, but, seriously, as nice as libraries are, BE AWARE.

That’s all. Sorry.

Val
July 2nd, 2008 11:15 am

Julie: Ugh…Is there any safe place anymore!

Now I am freaking out because my daughter goes to Library school every Tuesday. I am definitely going to be extra cautious now.

Its always easier when looking back, but when you are in the moment, I totally understand how you just wanted to get out of there.
I would mention it to someone next time you go back though.

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