parenting

Sometimes when I'm here overseas and think about America and I only remember the worst of it, like, for instance, the horrible, obnoxious people. Then I'll go somewhere here and remember that, oh yeah, Korea has those people too.


While there are certain unsavory subsets of American society that aren't duplicated here, some of them are alive and well. Namely, dickhead parents who let their kids run rampant while a nice couple is trying to enjoy a damn meal.

It's happened several times before, and it's always infuriating. A group of parents sit at a table, eating a meal and gulping down soju while their kids run wild throughout the crowded restaurant. A lot of restaurants have kid's rooms full of books and play-sets and whatever the hell else a 5 year old kid is supposed to be entertained with. But those rooms can never contain them, and the madness spills out into the restaurant as the kids race back and forth.

This past Sunday evening was my most recent encounter with this. The girlfriend and I went out to get some gamja-tang, the pig-spine soup that I once told you about. I knew it would be bad when we walked in and I spotted a table of 3 couples with about 8 kids aged 3 to 8. I knew it would be worse when we were seated adjacent to the kid's room. Like most restaurants here, this was a place where you sit on the floor to eat. As such, you're pretty much on eye level with little kids, which makes them so much more annoying.

For the entirety of the meal we endured these maniacs running circles around out table and screaming, while their parents said idly by drinking soju and neglecting their kids. At one point one of the little shits was repeatedly slamming a sliding wooden door open and shut for about 30 seconds until his dipshit mom finally told him to stop.

That was like 3 days ago, and as you can probably tell, it's still pissing me off. I guess the ability to annoy the hell out of me is the most cross-cultural thing I've found.