I'm Sorry if Our Happy is Louder Than Your Misery!

I've never really noticed this before, but it turns out I may be kind of freakish.  

I only say this because the past few days I have been getting strange looks from other parents when I am out and about with the boys.

At first, I chalke d it up to my fly being unzipped or something, so I, not so suavely, checked to make sure my pants were in proper order, which, understandably, garnered me more weird looks from  the other parents and an embarrassed sounding "Daddy!  What are you doing?!"  from my three year old.

OK.

So, if it's not my fly, then it has to be something else.

But, what?

Well, I think I figured it out yesterday while we were at Chuck E. Cheese with the boys.

As usual, whenever we go someplace where the boys can play, I like to play with them too.  When we're at the park, I'm the big guy going down the slide with the toddler or racing the three year old to the swings.  I've even stroller raced a teenager before, and when we're at the zoo or the science center it's much the same.  You'll see me playing with the boys, having fun.  

Mama Bear's the same way.

We're a great pair that way.

Anyway, I kind of figured that it was the same for all parents.

I mean, the best part of places like the park, zoo, science center, and even Chuck E. Cheese is that you get to go out and play with your brats right?

Well, apparently not everyone thinks so.  

While we were all playing and having a lot of fun yesterday I noticed that a few of the other parents and grandparents in the restaurant were giving us those same strange looks I just started noticing I've been getting a lot a few days ago.  So, I nonchalantly checked my fly again.

Nope, not that.

Then I realized I was making a lot of noise, which made me a little self-conscience.  I looked around, hoping I wasn't the only unruly parent there, and was glad to see that there was another father and at least one other mother doing much the same as we were.

The rest of the adults were either looking like they were being tortured, or they had their noses stuck to a smart phone, doing their best to pretend they were anywhere but where they were.

Those were the men and women doling out the dirty looks like candy tossers at a parade.  I guess our fun was disrupting their Words with friends or Angry Birds or whatever they were doing on their phones.  

This made me kind of sad.

Why bother even taking your children someplace if you're not even going to try and pretend that you're enjoying yourself too?  

Then, I got a little miffed that they were giving me and the other parents that were playing like kids strange looks as if we were some kind of freaks because we were actually having fun.  So, I made it a point to ignore them and continue on as usual.

I'm not going to let their misery be louder than my happy.  

The way I see, I only have so much time left before neither brat wants anything to do with me anymore.  I'm not about to waste any of it.