YOUR KIDS AREN'T MINE.

Photo from this article in city kids. 

We are now living in a rental 'community'. It is a sprawling 288-unit behemoth, a full city block in size. I haven't lived in a large rental complex for some time. I am catching up with the new reality of housing in metropolitan Boston. 

We chose this particular place because the rent gave us smaller nose bleeds than rents closer to the center of Boston. We could have paid what we are paying now for a much shabbier place closer in. Here we have services. Trash chute, full size washer and dryer, a limited concierge presence. It isn't luxury on the level of a luxury condominium or gated community by any measure. But it is very quiet generally and relatively safe. That matters a lot to us.

I say it is generally quiet. This brings me to one difference that has become obvious between the 'then' of buildings like this and the 'now': Many young people are raising children in these two-bedroom apartments. I am not talking about the occasional child. 

Our quiet Sunday lunch was disrupted yesterday by screaming children in our corridor. Our neighbors appear to have three, all under the age of 5. When I finally opened my door to investigate, someone quickly ushered the three into the apartment next door. It came as a surprise to me that three children live next to us. I guess this is evidence of well insulated common walls. That is certainly encouraging.

Why would a parent subject three small children to this kind of apartment living, far away from any amenities for children? This place is far more expensive than living in a condo or modest house. There is no neighborhood here. No yards. No playgrounds. No nearby schools. We live in a busy commercial area by major highways. It is convenient for us at the moment, but even we feel confined by dependence on driving a car. How would a small child's vision of the world be shaped by this environment?

Sunday's intrusion by high pitched screaming spoke of an assumption by the parents of these unfortunate children that the hallway is free range for unsupervised children. They were in the stairwell at one point. A fourth floor stairwell with minimum railing. They could easily have found the elevator down the hall. I get lost in the maze of corridors connecting the nine large buildings in this complex. How would a five-year-old navigate his way home? 

I am sure some Hillary types might read this and shake their heads with pious condescension. "It takes a village..." Well, I am sorry. I do not live in a village. I live in an expensive apartment building where I pay for peace and quiet. Your kids are not mine. I did not ask you to have children. On the contrary, I would hereby advise all intelligent young women or men who might read this to avoid having children if they wish a more prosperous and relatively carefree life. 

Our planet is choking on too many of us. Only a moron would deny the simple fact that human ecology is diminishing in quality. Air, water, soil ... all are diminished and depleted by human overpopulation. A natural or produced correction is inevitable. If you decide to have children, you are making a decision to introduce them into this world, in which they may have to struggle horribly as the environment collapses. I do not see a sober understanding of this in most parents I encounter. 

Holding children accountable for the rudeness or stupidity of their parents is indeed unfair. However, those who have children in these times generally do not seem to hold their peers accountable for bad parenting or socially irresponsible behavior. They are more likely to join in the socially irresponsible behavior. I have observed this on many subway train rides. I would encourage those without children to be more vocal when the children of others intrude upon their lives. While I try to practice generosity and kindness toward all, I refuse to be abused by the few. Allowing the abusive few to set the standards for human behavior has always ended very badly in any society where this becomes a mass phenomenon.