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Also, sometimes a walk is the only thing to calm the baby down. There were a few nights that my husband or I talk our youngest out walking in the wee hours because calm him down--one can only walk the twenty feet (or so) in our tiny house so many times, especially with another young one trying to sleep.
Until they are school age, there is not a huge need to conform to the societal norms for sleep patterns, just as long as the children are getting enough sleep and enough exercise throughout the day.
Okay, I apologize for not providing the link in the initial post. That was my fault.
I'd also like to add that when I said "hanging out on the streets at all hours", I meant loitering more so than actively walking to get somewhere. I know I said "pushing babies in strollers" but it's more like they're just standing around with the strollers with babies or toddlers in them.
I'm sure everybody has their reasons, but when you see a group of people hanging out in front of a corner liquor store at night, and among said group are a couple of females with strollers containing babies/toddlers, one can't help but think, "Really though?"
People on meth will stay up for days. Sadly, some of them are mothers. And fathers. Their children "keep" the same hours. First thing I thought of when I read the initial post.
Okay, I apologize for not providing the link in the initial post. That was my fault.
I'd also like to add that when I said "hanging out on the streets at all hours", I meant loitering more so than actively walking to get somewhere. I know I said "pushing babies in strollers" but it's more like they're just standing around with the strollers with babies or toddlers in them.
I'm sure everybody has their reasons, but when you see a group of people hanging out in front of a corner liquor store at night, and among said group are a couple of females with strollers containing babies/toddlers, one can't help but think, "Really though?"
I do understand what you're talking about. I live in a city neighborhood that varies in dodgyness from block to block. It's actually pretty safe (not being the actual hood), but it is in the city nonetheless. I've seen the same thing, when people are out late at night being loud (occasionally having arguments) - that there's usually a toddler or baby out on the street with them. I'm not sure why that is either.
I did notice when I lived in LA that a lot of the stories of little ones getting shot were happening when the adults were up late at house parties, and things got out of hand and violent when rival gang members gatecrashed and bullets would go flying. Seems like the baby/toddlers were at the shindigs with their parent/s, and other assorted family members.
Okay, I apologize for not providing the link in the initial post. That was my fault.
I'd also like to add that when I said "hanging out on the streets at all hours", I meant loitering more so than actively walking to get somewhere. I know I said "pushing babies in strollers" but it's more like they're just standing around with the strollers with babies or toddlers in them.
I'm sure everybody has their reasons, but when you see a group of people hanging out in front of a corner liquor store at night, and among said group are a couple of females with strollers containing babies/toddlers, one can't help but think, "Really though?"
I've lived in low income/high crime areas most of my life. You can tell when the parent is just out for a quick trip to the store or trying to get the baby to sleep. However, in these areas that isn't usually the case. There are many reasons why this is. One reason is drugs. Another reason is that they don't want to go home. There are many other reasons, too.
Why is it that in shady high-crime areas, you see mothers with babies and young children hanging out on the street at all hours? Mothers pushing babies in strollers at like 1 and 2 in the morning. And the majority of them aren't homeless; they live in the neighborhood.
I think that's why. Many of these mothers are teens themselves, and teens like to stay up late. It's not as though anyone in these neighborhoods has to get up in the morning to go to work. Having babies is what brings in the welfare handouts.
[quote=3divina;16604831I'm sure everybody has their reasons, but when you see a group of people hanging out in front of a corner liquor store at night, and among said group are a couple of females with strollers containing babies/toddlers, one can't help but think, "Really though?"[/quote]
I was walking our dog late one night, and there was a group of guys at the park drinking and carrying on... and a crying baby. Left alone in its stroller to cry. It was all I could do to not offer to take the baby for a few hours, even though I didn't know anyone in the group. I almost went back out to do that after I got home, but when I walked back down the block, the group was breaking up.
Sigh I realized I wouldn't know what I was inviting into my home if I offered to watch the baby, or what I would be setting myself up for. I hate to even think that way, but reality is reality. Poor little thing.
I've been at midnight showings of R rated movies and there are groups of girls with their 3 and 4 year olds. I am just like "I am tired, how can those kids not be"
I wouldn't say a mother in Walmart, or pushing a stroller at 1am is a bad mother with no other information. I know when my sister was a teen mother she would have to walk 2 miles one way to the babysitters, then 3 miles the other to work. Sometimes she worked late and was walking at around that time with a stroller. Now she's VP of a company, makes more money than most people posting here, and my niece is taking all college prep classes at 15.
Funny how when I read this thread I knew exactly what the OP was talking about. I didnt need a specific link. If anyone is a fan of the comedian Dave Chappelle he jokes about such a thing in one of his stand up shows. He said something along the lines of you know you are in a bad neighborhood when you see a baby standing on a street corner at 2 a.m.
Forgive me for not being PC but in a lot of poor neighborhoods this does go on due to the lack of proper parenting skills. Kids need schedules and some people fail to realize this. Now this sort of thing is not exclusive to just the poor. My brother and SIL were like this with their kids. When I had my child my brother often teased me that I became a dud. I didnt stay out late and turned boring. I told him he would understand when he had children of his own. He laughed and said no way. Well the joke was on me because after their children were born, he and my SIL did stay out late with their children. It stopped once the eldest started school and only after the teacher called home to find out why their child would fall asleep during class. Now their kids are on a better schedule, not completely but a far cry from the previous all nighters.
Basically it boils down to lack of parenting skills. I think it obvious when a parent is out needing medication and so forth verses just being a nightowl with toddlers in toe.
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Now their kids are on a better schedule, not completely but a far cry from the previous all nighters. 
