Posted on 08/02/2004 5:49:37 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
Edited on 08/02/2004 10:43:46 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Carrie is 2 years old, with curly brown hair and Windex-blue eyes. In a still-life portrait, she would be adorable. In three dimensions, she's a cross between a Gerber baby and the Tasmanian devil. Bang. Bang, bang, bang, and bang and bang.
That's the noise of the plastic water cup she is whacking against the ceramic-topped table of a neighborhood coffeehouse whose concrete floors function like an echo chamber. If she had a hammer she would have destroyed the table by now, and I'm pretty sure her parents would've let her. People look up from their lattes, squint at the diminutive figure making the big, ear-splitting noise, and try to continue with their newspapers or conversations. The banging goes on for a good 10 minutes. Normally, I would say something -- I'm not shy about these things -- but I'm curious to know just how long her parents, with whom I'm having coffee, will let this go. The answer: Indefinitely. They don't even seem to notice. Maybe they're just used to it?
On some primal level, Carrie must be offended that she's not the center of attention. There is anger in her banging, along with what I read as malice. As she grows even more restive, her father lowers her to the floor. Still clutching the cup, Carrie crawls through the room, pounding on the concrete floor as she goes along, giving everyone an up-close earful of her drum solo.
A few weeks later, I'm at a party, mostly adults with a few kids sprinkled in, among them the volcanically unruly 5-year-old son of a friend. As I squat down to greet him, he responds by biting me in the arm, leaving teeth marks through a shirt and a sweater. I am just about to spank his little behind when I realize I'm in dangerous territory. People go to jail for that these days.
AMEN!
This may be mean, but I once told a snotty kid in a restaurant that if he didn't sit down and shut up, I was going to go beat his father up.
I would have been inclined to have responded:
"You won't tell your kids "No!"???
"I See. Well, I hate to inform you, but you will be telling them NO! At the rate you are going, you will begin to tell them NO when your money for lawyers to keep them out of prison has run out and you have to say, No, I can't, I don't have any more money and mom and I have had to move into government housing."
We tend to not speak up because
A) we want to avoid making a fuss. We need to keep in mind the acting out child and wimpish parents have ALREADY MADE THE FUSS.
B) the tyranny of evil has contidioned the good to be wimpishly silent.
Good for you!
IMPRESSIVE! CONGRATULATIONS.
WELL SAID.
"Please help me find a "natural" consequence to little Johnny's offense." Meanwhile, little Johnny is pulling the cat's tail while Mom is posting for the other offense.
LOL. A (painful) lesson in consequences.
You did the dad and the kid a favor. Little monsters often end up growing into big monsters. As an adult, he would find that a people he attacks might respond with more than just a tap to the nose.
AMEN!
NOW! is a great word.
We own a 20 pound Maine Coon cat. My niece grabbed its tail once. She didn't like the scratch she got, nor the rubbing alcohol that was needed to clean it afterwards. Life is very good at teaching you lessons.
Luv it!
I have been known to look kids nearby sternly in the eye and tell them in very stern tones that I didn't like their tone of voice.
I do hope the good professor presented the parents with a hefty repair bill for the violin.
Very Good!
They’re afraid if they ever say “no” the little brat won’t like them.
Big deal - the parents job is to raise, protect, socialize and teach.
No, your son was CALLED "ADD" in school. If a whack on the head with a ruler "cured" him, he wasn't ADD in the first place.
I'm not sure sending the kids to the car would be a good idea in 98-degree Houston.
Despair mixed in with self-congratulation.
Hypothetical: Suppose your bright four-year-old had perfect "please/thank you" manners, but next Monday morning made up his mind that he'd never say "thank you" again. And, being bright and determined, persisted beyond all reason, punishment and persuasion?
What works with Son#1 will not work with Son#2--temperment, temperment.
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