Silence. I hear silence today while riding the commuter rail this week. Last week there was no silence. You want to know why there was no silence last week? Children.
Last week for those who don't have children was February vacation. All day, everyday last week there were multiple children riding the train with their parents to go into Boston. Some were going to the Children's Museum, while children were screaming at the top of their lungs if they were there yet at the Science Museum.
Now what did not bother me was the screaming at high levels. Nor the look of confusion on parents who normally do not ride the commuter rail needing help on what to do. (Those of you who ride the commuter rail or T know that look I'm talking about, the look of staring off into nothingness because they don't know what to do.)
What bother's me when these children take over a train, because they do, is when the parents allow these children to wander around.
They run up and down the isles bumping into oncoming passengers making it difficult for the regulars to actually take a seat. Or they are blocking the isles and so you freak out because you don't want to miss your stop.
The best is when you try to tell a child to please move out of the way politely. I had a very young mother, I would say a brunette in her late 20s, tell me not to talk to her daughter who was obviously playing in the isle.
The conductors try to make the kids sit down, but they don't listen to them because their parents aren't telling them to sit down so why should they.
My solution to this disturbance is to simply strap the kids down right next to the parents. Now the parents who normally don't like to lose sight of their children will have a new restraint to use that's better than the leash, and those parents who don't care where their kids go will have the pleasure of spending more time with those darling children on their train ride.
This problem would then be solved, or we could simply just banned all children under the age of 12, but I think too many parents who normally don't ride the T/commuter rail would be upset because now they can't go on their normal once or twice a year ride. Oh well at least texting is now banned on some trains!
