I recently attended my father's funeral out in California. I experienced about five children that are under the age of about seven. Three of the kids closer to seven and two that were closer to two. Some were well behaved and others were what I consider anything but. I'll point out that none of these children are from single parent homes.
Friday evening was the viewing.
I'm told that the parent of two of the less than well behaved children was asked to consider keeping these two particular children at home. No such luck. The whole family showed up for just about the whole viewing. I'm glad they were there but I wish they would have been more under control. For most of it these two children were running around the funeral home laughing and playing. My sister and sister-in-law joined forces and created two poster boards depicting Dad's life in pictures. Several times during the viewing one or both of these kids were knocking over the stands that the poster boards were sitting on. At least once they were grabbing the entrance door preventing friends of the deceased from entering the funeral home. Where were the parents of these two kids? Chatting and joking around with some of the family members inside the chapel area where the body was. They had no clue about the antics of their children.
Meanwhile there was another child in attendance that to me seemed well behaved, or at least under control. There were a few times that this child seemed to start acting up. It was at these times that one or both parents took the child outside. I might add at this time that the child never was out of visual range of at least one of the parents. This one never had the opportunity to knock over the poster boards. This was on the same day that the child flew in from Minneapolis.
Another child was a bit rowdy but at least the parent or grandparent was nearby to maintain some control.
They say practice makes perfect. The other child that was close to seven gave quite a bit of appearance of being very well behaved. This one had four older siblings. Three of which were in attendance.
Saturday was the graveside service.
My father was buried next to his aunt Jesse. The arrangements were that the coffin was to be placed above the grave prior to any of us arriving at the cemetery. This was not quite the case. It arrived in a van about half an hour after we did. We arrived a bit early but only by about fifteen minutes. The van arrived with only the driver and he was a scrawny lad. When asked he didn't know which end of the coffin was the head. Most people reading this know the size person that I am. My two brothers are at least my size. It took the three of us as well as four other guys to get the coffin to the grave. Then when we found out which end was which we had to rotate it.
At the hotel before leaving it was discovered that one of the above mentioned less than well behaved children had put his pants on backwards. When mom started to resolve this situation it was discovered that the child wasn't wearing any underwear. Once we reached the cemetery both kids were allowed to run around where they wanted. As the last of the people gathering at the gravesite were arriving the child that had no underwear and the pants on backwards stepped up to my aunt Jesse's grave and started to unzip in preparation of relieving the bladder. His pants had been fixed by this time. Yes, relieving his bladder on the grave.
The other sevenish year old was barely seen much less heard.
The Minnesota two year old was kept in the back with Mom. Dad was there except for the period that he needed to be a last minute pall bearer.
The other two year old was fairly quiet but running around some. At one point came up to me and allowed me to pick her up. Then she sat quietly in my lap for the remainder of the service.
Sunday was the memorial service.
The two less than well behaved kids were not in attendance. Maybe mom arriving too late to sit with the rest of the family had something to do with that but I didn’t want to ask.
The Minnesota two year old acted up some so mom and child went off to a side room for the service.
The other sevenish child sat with mom and was close to perfect all day. After the service the other two year old went missing long enough that her mom and grandma started running around screaming for her. When found she was in the arms of the sevenish year old.

Now what is the point of all this? Why were some of the children well behaved and others not? Could it be that the well behaved children were the ones that the parents paid attention to?