Irony (more ferrous than ferric)

Once more on the topic of the offspring:

It was another sausage party in the pool this past Tuesday evening when Declan and I went for our weekly dip in the 'Babes and Tots' class.  There were a couple of guys there that vocalised that observation.

What struck me as even odder than that (and I've been thinking this pretty much from the beginning) is the fact that the course is being taught by a what appears to be a teenaged high school girl working evenings at the pool.  I mean, here are a dozen or so thirty- and forty-something parents, guiding our children through the water at the behest of a young girl, barely graduated from her own first sexual experience, let alone any significant exposure to children the age of those in her class.  (I fully realise I'm making a number of assumptions here, but it's my observation so I'm entitled.)

It's even more interesting to note the willingness of every attendee to follow all the instructions given.  We all wait in a small group by the pool-side shower for the instructor to show up, skip our offspring merrily through the spray when she arrives and head on in to the 'deep' end of the kiddie pool.  There, we all bob expectantly for the gal to tell us what to do first with our infants.  (It's pretty much the same routine every week.)  Just the thought of a dozen parents floating their kids around in a pool and blowing bubbles in the water at the say-so of a stranger half their age seems a little ridiculous taken all on its own.

There are plenty of other examples that can be culled from Mundania to demonstrate similar behaviour.  I don't mean to point this one out as being particularly poignant; it's not, more my own introspection on most people's willingness to be led, and moreover, the fact that we seek leadership out even if it takes the form where the roles ought to be reversed.

And to be frank, a part of me thinks that I have to write stuff like this down in order to engender a feeling of having risen slightly above that norm.  If I can consciously observe it, I don't have to be bound by it.

Comments

[Paul]

So...

Is she cute?

[Tina]

You reminded me of a time when my daughter was little, and in swimming lessons. The instructor, who looked about 16, kept calling me "Mam". I wanted to hit her. Geez, I was only 27 at the time !! Tina

[Simon]

Paul, she's still got some adolescent acne to get over. Not quite 'ripe' yet.