For any of you that have followed this blog, you may remember that back in the msn spaces days, I had a feature called, "There goes the neighbourhood." It was a feature that I used to rant about stupid/unsightly/outrageous/un-natural ongoings in and around my home/neighbourhood. Well it won't be a regular segment, but here we go again.

In the past 5 days, on 2 separate occaisions, I have witnessed parents encouraging their children (PRETEEN AGE) to pee in public. The first time was in Niagara Falls where a woman tried to shelter her son as he relieved himself on the corner of the restaurant my family had just eaten in (Tony Roma's). Not around the corner out of sight. No, in broad daylight, as people and passers-by walked down the street.

The second time, happened just last night. Neil and I were walking down a street that dead-ended and turned into a park pathway. As we walked along we came to a bridge of sorts -- at the end there were stairs leading down to another trail that ran under the bridge. There were many walkers, joggers, families out enjoying a crisp summer night. I had just finished indicating to Neil that I'd like to look down the stairs to see how far down this trail went when a couple (husband and wife) appeared at the top of the steps. They were looking down at the steps -- but I thought nothing of it until I turned to step down onto the first step and there was their 10+ year old peeing right beside the steps. I sort of swerved back onto the main path, shaking my head and kept walking away -- but many thoughts sprang to mind:

1) Why didn't the parents say (at the very least and in no way condoning this behaviour) -- "hey, ummm, don't go that way -- umm," and stall until their kid had finished?
2) Why didn't they teach their kid to use a bathroom -- or in the event of an emergency, at least inform the kid that he should take cover behind a tree.
3) Why are parents today allowing their kids to use the great PUBLIC outdoors as their personal BATHROOMS??

Now I love to camp -- and when you are in the bush -- away from civilization, there are exceptions to the rule. And I am not unfamiliar with having "emergencies" -- but I'd rather die a slow death than have someone watch me pee on the sidewalk. People are resilient -- I have had to "run" in the past and "run" to a BATHROOM I did go -- but short of a medical condition (and if you have one, wear the appropriate protection) find a bush, tree, backalley, country road, port-a-potty, AND STOP PEEING IN PUBLIC WALK WAYS!