Okay folks, it's time for another Peachrain installment about the people out there with babies.

I'm sure there have been times when you go to your local department store and your not-so-near-mall where millions of people go each and everyday and you run up and down elevators and escalators trying to find the best bargain, those thigh-hi boots you always wanted (Tasha), and that hard to find dvd you've been looking for for ages (R.I.P. Tower Records). 

Now pause.  Inhale.  Exhale.  (Insert Woo-Sah here).

Can someone please tell me what is wrong with the parents in the world who let their children crawl across the floors of public places?  I don't have the slightest clue as to why oh why these people are allowed to procreate.  People spit, drop money, walk around with shoes containing all types of gum, urine and fecal matter on the bottom of them and yet....you still see children cleaning the mall/store floors as if it is their part time job.  (Of course they do it pro bono because there are child labor laws and ACS would be knocking on their doors soon...not in a timely manner of course...(see Nixmary's case), but because we live in the U.S. and not in some factory riddled 3rd world country where children are living in poverty and foregoing their lunch breaks just to make YOUR JORDANS...but I'll save that for another blog.

Recently I went to my godsons' school with their parents to pick them up (this is in Richmond, VA by the way) and upon entering the well secured facility (thank goodness the parents have to know a code to enter the building in the first place), I see a little boy crawling across the welcome mat.  Instinctively, I pick him up and then one of the teachers takes him from me with a slight look of disdain because I don't have any affiliation with this baby or its parent.  BUT WHAT IN THE HELL WAS HE DOING ON THE FLOOR IN THE FIRST PLACE?!  And what does he do once picked up?  PUTS HIS HANDS IN HIS MOUTH!!!!!

UUGGGHHHH!!!!!

I walked away in disgust because you know what?  As a parent you should know better.  When your child is born, you usually don't have visitors for the first couple of weeks except for limited immediate family  so the child can build up its immune system.  No one touches the baby's head, kisses it on its face or touches it without washing his or her hands.  So someone please tell me how it is okay for a child to crawl across a filthy floor 6 months later? 

Think about it.  Would they let the kid crawl along a subway platform?  Probably not, but the same people with the same shoes walk and talk and flock...in department stores and malls.

I hope at least one parent reads this.

I hope at least one parent heeds this:

Keep your kids off the floor.  You wouldn't chew a piece of gum that has fallen on it.  Why put the little ones on it?