Parenting Is Not For Wimps

What is it with parents who don't want to be parents?  I don't mean people who never wanted kids and had an oopsie, I mean people who have kids and don't want to deal with the responsibility of raising them.  People who are so caught up in their own self interest that their kids get the short end of the stick.  Yesterday I had a woman and her little boy sit in my section.  She was on her phone when she came in and didn't hang up for 10 minutes.  At first, I thought it was an important call and didn't want to interrupt, but it soon became apparent that she was just gabbing with a friend while her kid sat there bored to death, fidgeting.  Finally, I was able to get an order when she did hang up.  Instead of engaging her child, she pulled out her ipad and played with that until they left.  As they were leaving, she was back on her phone.  Really?  You can't talk to your kid for just 20 minutes?  Once, I was shopping at a large store and there was a pack of unattended kids racing around shrieking and throwing things at each other.  After getting hit, I told them to knock it off.  The oldest little girl informed me she didn't have to do what I said because I wasn't her Mother.  Turns out, they were all siblings and Mom and Dad were shopping for themselves and left the kids to their own devices, where they terrorized everyone else.  Had that been me as a child, there would have been an unfortunate incident in the bathroom. (Or maybe the car, where equally unfortunate incidents occurred.)  Mom and Dad, when confronted about the antics of their offspring, seemed amazed that other people didn't let their kids run around like monkeys on crack and that none of us wanted to be pelted with their crap.  "But, they're just having fun" they kept saying.  Yeah, and horseback riding is fun for me but I don't do it in a store.  Last week, I watched a Dad and three little (and I mean little) boys come in for lunch.  Dad was so busy watching sports on his phone, he couldn't get the baby in his highchair, or watch him so everything from silverware to crayons to the salt shaker to drinks were thrown in the floor.  (Such a delight for the table next to them.)  When the oldest one had to go to the bathroom, he left the baby and the 3 year old at the table by themselves!  Of course, the baby started screaming.  Another server and I sat with them until Dad came back, amazed that a baby and a toddler couldn't be left alone for 10 minutes.  Seriously?!  This guy couldn't even tear himself away from ESPN long enough to help the server with passing out food to his kids.  (Guess where the baby's ended up?)  Buddy, you helped make them, it's your job to take care of them.  I found myself wondering how this guy got up in the morning, got dressed and made it to work without his wife's help. He probably didn't. People behaving badly.