A youngish couple pushed a stroller through the grass, gazing this way and that as they slowly moved along. A glance into the seat in front of them revealed to me a little girl, probably just shy of her first birthday. She thoroughly ignored the pandemonium of the county fair around her.
Instead, she focused her attention on the world inside her stroller. Her curly brown hair bobbled over her forehead as she sucked fiercely on a straw, taking in gulp after gulp of dark liquid. Her tan little legs were wrapped around the tall, 44-ounce clear plastic cup from which she drank. Her hands, so tiny with their minuscule fingernails, were dwarfed by the sheer size of the cup they attempted to hold.
Her brow furrowed as the liquid stopped flowing. She removed her lips from the straw and replaced them with her fingers. Her hand rose and fell, poking the ice. I marveled at her skill, knowing that if my own 15 month old daughter faced the same obstacle, poking ice with a straw would not be her first course of action.
The stroller came to a stop next to my 4 year old daughter and I as we waited, ever so patiently, for our turn on the merry-go-round. The little girl’s face lifted in acknowledgment of the stroller’s pause, and our eyes met. A smile revealed four little teeth.
She shifted the cup in her lap and returned to her task. At last, the straw reached through the ice to the bottom. The little girl happily sucked brown, bubbly liquid into her mouth once again.
As the stroller began to move, I spied the label on the side of the cup. It read: PEPSI.
9 replies on “Do People Really Do This?”
YES. And don’t you just want to smack them upside the head? My step sister in law gives her 2 year old DIET COKE for every meal. Seriously. DIET. My mom put her foot down when they visited last and said absolutely NO soda. I was proud of her!
Yes, my parents used to put soda and hot tea with sugar and cream in my bottle as a baby. I hope them completely responsible for my caffeine addiction.
Wow. I am a freak about giving my kids juice. They wouldn’t know what to do with soda pop. I hope it’s lack of education and not lack of caring!
Seriously? What parent would give their kid caffeine? Not to mention all the other stuff that is in soda. Crazy.
I try to hide my Diet Pepsi addiction from my kids. So far they think it’s yucky and no better than to ask me for a sip.
Methinks those people will get exactly what they deserve after jacking the kid up on Pepsi.
I saw this once too and didn’t quite believe it was happening.
I am not sure what I would consider a comfortable soda drinking age? We occasionally have a caffeine free diet coke at dinner and we tell the kids it is “Mommy and Daddy drink” just like beer or wine.
Now of course they are old enough to notice other kids their ages drinking “adult drinks” (talking about the soda obviously, *not* the beer and wine!).
That is messed up. Sometime ago on my site I posted the lyrics to a Juliana Hatfield song called “Scary Breeders” which was all about her fear of weird parents one line was “Put some pepsi in the baby’s bottle to shut it up.” Sounds like she was singing about these weirdos!
Yikes! I’ve done a fair few things that other parents wouldn’t, trying to get Erin to eat but would NEVER give her coke or pepsi! Sheesh! She has teeth people! I’d much prefer she kept them!
I honestly saw that coming as soon as you mentioned the straw… So sad though. But my aunt gave her grandaughter BigRed at 6 weeks old!!!! No joke. My cousin was not happy…
My husband and I are addicted to soda’s, but we’ve decided our kids won’t get them until much much older (like around school age and starting w/ 7up or Sprite at that point) to try and help them avoid that and be healthier.