Two days ago Eva brought us another piece of news regarding the areas childfree, in Castilian "child-free zones", this time created by an airline, and as this seems to be going to more, as I get the impression that there will be more and more of these areas and that we will seem more and more Normal I want to make clear my current position so that in the future, when I see them as normal, I reread my words and take my own moral colleja.
It is not normal, it is not logical and it is unethical that children are currently marginalized as if they were second-class citizens. No one, absolutely no one, should be discriminated against because of their sex, because of the color of their skin or, it would be missing more, because of their age. It is amazing to see that we fill our mouths every day talking about equality and respect for all the citizens of the world and then that we are such tyrants, adults, of being able to offer services or areas without children because we assume that they bother, almost As if being a child was a disease.
But there are children who bother a lot
Yes I know. I know it because I am the father of three children, I know it because they have colleagues and friends, I know it because I work in pediatrics and I see dozens of children every day. I know. There are children who bother a lot and with them parents who educate very little. But as it is usually said, they cannot pay just for sinners (Is this phrase not engraved in stone yet?).
Children are that, children. They are small people, in training, in the learning phase, in the education phase. This means that in terms of coexistence, as far as social norms are concerned (those norms that we have all invented and that we admit as good because we accept the majority), they are still inexperienced.
We parents know this and that is why we take it into account (or should we) when we are in public, playing with the children, explaining stories, listening to them and talking to them and whatever it takes to avoid disturbing others. Some scream will always escape, some laughter and even some crying, which are logical because, as I say, they are children. Up to this point all adults must understand.
Sometimes children will be more tired and irritable and sometimes they will be more annoying to others. I do not say no, because it happens, but that is not a reason to create areas where they cannot be or go because if they "bother" it is a criterion to exclude people, I do not know where we should start and where we should end.
Not only do children bother
I have traveled with young people by my side with the music of the mobile phone at full speed, music that I did not like and that also sounded sad, because a mobile phone is not an appropriate element to listen to music. I have traveled on the bus with people who should be sitting, not because of being older or pregnant, but because when they are standing they are forced to raise their arms to hold on to the bar and no vehicle sensor has detected anything strange to drop from Roof hundreds of masks.
I have traveled with people who have begun to sing, people who have wanted to explain their life to me, people who have cut their nails next to me, people who have fallen asleep supporting their head ... and surely (and hopefully explain it, because I love these stories) you who read me also have been with people next door, traveling or in a hotel (the hotel rooms is also for writing a book) that has bothered you a lot or a lot.
Then what do we do? Well I don't know, we may have to wait for the airline on duty to offer trips pestefree, where they assure you that people the snuff will not smell. Or maybe wait for a hotel to be declared free of bitter people, to avoid people laughing and sulking that are more aware of what others do than enjoy. It would even be nice if the zones existed oldfree, free of old, that many smell of dried urine in the underwear and cheap creams and colognes, that women collapse hairdressers to end up doing all the same hairstyle (more volume, baby) and men collapse the toilets because the prostate makes yours. It even occurs to me that there could be child-free areas with mobile phones, we would avoid having to hear the constant WhatsApp warnings, their absurd laughter when reading nonsense, the unbearable music with tin noise, the ringing of their fingers when touching the touch screens and even chewing gum that has been knowing nothing for hours.
It could be, but it would be absurd, because in the end we would be alone. Intolerant, disrespectful and alone. It would be so absurd that instead of selecting us by zones free we would have to group ourselves by pro zones, so instead of doing limited services and hotels, they would have to do them by offering: come to my hotel, that here we all smell like tobacco. Get on my plane, here we all speak out loud explaining our sorrows. Trip to my town, that we have parties here every night until 6 in the morning, we throw up anywhere and wait for him to fall asleep in his hotel room to run through the halls and continue with our party. Oh, and if you want, come to our hotel "sound sex", where only couples whose decibels when making love enter exceed three or four adjoining rooms.
They are children, they are people, they are citizens of the world
If you have seen the movie "In Search of Happiness" you will surely remember the scene in which Will Smith tells his son the following:
Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something. Not even me, okay? If you have a dream, you have to protect it. People who are not able to do something will tell you that you can't either. If you want something just go and get it.
Well, nobody, as I said at the beginning, absolutely no one should discriminate against children simply because they are children, nobody should tell children that they can't do something (we don't talk about safety, eye, we talk about being able to stay in a hotel and to be able to travel with adults). My children are children and I don't think they ever bother anyone (And if someone feels upset about your presence, the problem is yours). That's why my children and surely most of them should have the same right as others to fly on any plane and stay at any hotel.
The problem is that they do not complain, they do not say "you are discriminating against us, you treat us like scum and you are taking it for granted that we are going to bother you." It would be different if there were women-free trips, elderly-free trips or disabled-free trips. Surely there would be hundreds of complaints, but they don't say anything and that's why there are more and more children-free areas.
I remember that the first time I heard about it and that I talked about it to everyone, it seemed crazy. Now time has passed and more and more areas appear childfree. Now it is not new, now is normalizing, now we all know the existence of these areas and, as no one has removed them, it seems that they begin to have some logic (for people who see that they continue to function).
As I suspect that over time I will also fall into the trap and be absorbed by the normalizing inertia of society, that in which children are second-class citizens, I hope that day someone will remind me of this entry and that day I hate myself for having let my guard down and being able to be a child-minded.
