I have actually had a child walk up and kick me out of nowhere, in a Dr.'s office no less. Thankfully the mom was mortified and I refrained from smacking the strange child, but that memory reinforces why I dont care for most children.
Yes, call me a horrible hag, but I dont like about 95% of them. I agree they should be seen and not heard, except in certain circumstances and there is nothing guaranteed to drive me more insane than being somewhere with screaming, unruly children.
If I'm at the park, or a playground, I dont mind, but if Im in a restaurant or the grocery store I dont want your ankle biter running around my table, hollering for attention or crying loudly, running in front of my basket, or bouncing off of me or darting in front of me, and I definitely dont want to hear it from 3 aisles away! GO OUTSIDE ALREADY!
Whew. Fires me up. I admit it, I'm going to be a friggin Hitler as a parent, but you can be damned sure my child wont be annoying anyone other than me!
Ironically, I'm the person that children want to walk up to and be held by. I think its like cats. If you dont want to be around them, they force themselves on you...and of course the parents think its sooooo cute.
These are the same parents that lost their kid in the first place, it found me, and they were okay with letting a total stranger haul their kid around while they did their shopping. It's happened, in a mall of all places. And we wonder why children are the way they are...