So I was waiting for some food to go last night at a rather busy place, sitting in a chair reading when this kid who was around 11 asked if the chair next to me was used.  I said no and he sat down and started playing a racing game on his Sony PSP.  I was impressed with the graphics so I said “Cool.”

He looked over at me and my book and said:

“Books are cool too.  They just aren’t as interactive“.

He then proceeded to chide his mom for reading Danielle Steele chick lit garbage, his quote being

“I don’t know how you can read that drivel.”

The kid was ELEVEN.

Okay, so I am stealing from Naughty By Nature’s song “OPP” from back in MY college days, but in this case it is “OPC”, as in Other People’s Children.  And regardless of the lyric, I am often NOT down with it.

Don’t get me wrong; I think kids can be great. You know, when they are well-behaved, charming, wide-eyed, curious and when they are on a “time out”. What gets me is how the public behavior of OPCs is getting worse over time; I know if I had thrown a fit in a grocery store when I was a kid, that shopping trip was not going to last very long. It seems like most parents “back then” placed a priority on NOT BOTHERING THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYONE ELSE AROUND THEM and so they would leave the store and shop another time.  The same for movies or restaurants; so what the hell happened?  I say we go back to old school:

Thoughts?