That said, I have the feeling that a lot of them may well be there with completely understandable motivations – little kids do make good subjects for photos and, beside that, they’re fun to watch.

In Chicago I have never seen the strange guys with the cameras and no children. I do however, see strange guys with no children that just “watch” children play.

I actually never thought to take a picture of them. I think I am going to go that next time.

And I do also notice people not interacting with their children. Not necessarily like the jerk with the monopod. But more like people who are off in their own world not paying any attention to their children.

I always see people sitting around having some kind of annoying conversation on their cell phone. They almost never know where their children are. The children always try and play with my daughter and I end up having to baby sit 2-3 kids. This is annoying to me. Once I also had a child try and follow us home. The parent did not know and was no where in sight!