Are there really any social norms that we all can agree upon? I mean, what might seem socially acceptable and “normal” to me, might not be acceptable or “normal” to you. Who’s to say or judge or make the call?

Well, sometimes I do. And sometimes I think maybe I’m the one who is abnormal and just doesn’t get it.

We see a whole lot of humanity in our business. We see families interacting all the time. More often than not we witness great examples of parenting. Occasionally we see parents making head-sratchingly questionable choices. (Things like – but maybe not as freaky as – the viral video of the girl playing with the dead squirrel.)

Other than a few bizarre isolated episodes, this past weekend we rode the overwhelmingly positive waves of joy that were generated at Jiggle Jam – now the nation’s largest family music festival. Thousands of kids and their parents rallied at Crown Center Square for a rockin’ good time.

Whenever you get that many people together in one place, it becomes, by default, a minor sociological experiment. There were a few situations that have left us scratching our heads. Please, tell me if I’m on or totally off base.

First, my wife, who was managing the main stage, encountered a mother with a toddler daughter who was standing guard as her six-year-old son peed in a restricted area backstage, behind the performer’s hospitality tent. In order to accomplish this feat, the mother and two kids had to either go around or over the barricades, sneak past the folks milling around backstage, duck behind the tent (where there was nothing but pavement – no grass or trees to absorb the urine), and drop pants.

When my wife came around the tent and spotted them “finishing up,” she was dumbfounded. All she could say was, “You can’t do that!”

The woman just responded with a snort saying, “Well, we just did.” As if she were entitled to be there. And, of course, there was no apology.

Now, I suppose the woman had a point. Technically she can do that, but she just shouldn’t. She obviously thought it was perfecting acceptable for her kid to pee wherever she wanted him to, even though there were about a dozen port-a-potties within sight and bathrooms with real indoor plumbing right around the corner.

Is it just me, or does this violate a social norm or not?

Then there was the other mother who was caught sneaking into the festival with her 5-year-old. One of our volunteers spotted the woman lift her child over the waist-high fence, then climb over herself. When the volunteer trotted after the sneaky duo and told them they had to pay to get in, the mother was indignant, but ultimately bucked up. And, again, no apology.

And in the middle of my performance on Sunday, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air and stopped the show in its tracks. An eight-year-old girl had slipped while dancing and hurt herself. She continued to scream in pain in the New York-minute it took the paramedics to arrive to help her. I asked from the stage if mom or dad or some guardian-type person were around – nothing. It ends up the girl was fine – more frightened than anything. The paramedics helped her up and walked with her to the first aid station, where eventually a parent showed up.

Now, I understand about letting your kids experience some independence, but if I’m at a festival with thousands of people, my girls are within my sight or, at absolute minimum, within earshot at all times.

It’s clear to me this was not the case of a distracted parent who got momentarily separated, because about an hour after the screaming incident, this same spirited child and her younger sister were found reaching up onto the stage during Choo Choo Soul’s performance tugging on cables and banging on the speakers.

Where were the parents?! It was like the Man in the Yellow Hat telling Curious George to stay out of trouble and then leaving him all alone in a foreign environment with lots of cool things to tinker with.

Every story has two or more sides. I don’t know all the circumstances; maybe something was going on that I just didn’t understand. But, what I wish most is that these things didn’t bother me.  

I wish I had the patience and the grace of the late, great baseball legend Buck O’Neil, who would have just smiled upon these folks and said, “Maybe they were having a bad day. They just need a little love.”