How do you feel about misbehaving children in public? I'm not talking about energetic childhood behavior. I am talking about, "who's kid is this" behavior that terrorizes everyone around them. We all love it right, but what can you do. I was stuck in the airport last night for a few hours along with many other business travelers and a woman with her five year old son. We were in one of those cramped seating areas where there was barely enough room for people and their carry on luggage. Still, this little tyke zoomed across the floor with his car making car noises, honking at people to get out of the way. Not so bad at first. Then he literarly started crawling across the tops of the seats. You know how the seats sit back to back? He actually crawled with his knees on top across three or four chairs.I know you might be wondering, where was his mother? Sitting right there reading a book, calm as can be. When he crawled across a woman sitting there, she told her son that he was invading people's personal space and that was it. Oh, she did say to him that people don't like you in their personal space. He then started running at full speed around the chairs. He tried to come back and was stopped by a woman standing with her luggage. He screamed for her to get out of his way. The mother? She said, "Say get out of the way please." He added the word please and he also added a right elbow to her hip.
There was a man sitting across from me with a cain. The little boy would run and kick the cane. The cain would slide under the chair and the older gentleman had to bend down and pick it up three or four times. The little boy came through again and the cain slowed him down so he actually stood on the man's foot! My reflex kicked in and I reached out to grab the little boy (to jerk him) from the man's foot. Sorry guys, but assualting the elderly was a bit too much for me. The guy gave the boy a dirty look and he moved on.
The mother calmly said, "It's almost time to get on our plane." For once I was so glad that I did not make the stand-by flight. I can only imagine the flight home.
5 comments:
Oh my heavens. I have a 5 year old, and I have pretty strict rules about behavior. Some things are just going to happen (spills, accidental bodily functions, cringe-worthy questions) and that is to be expected, and gently corrected. But bad behavior is not acceptable. I don't even tolerate whining and crying, let alone running around, being rude, being a pest, and poor manners. Not acceptable.
I lay the blame with the mother, though. Her job is to be a mom- to monitor her kid's behavior and correct it accordingly. She clearly wasn't. Or maybe she just doesn't know what appropriate behavior is.
My daughter is well-behaved, not because of her personality, not because she is a girl, and certainly not because she was born that way. She is well-behaved because I have taught her to be well-behaved, and corrected the poor behavior. Why don't people get that?
I am so glad to hear this Grace. The mother was so calm and into her book all the passengers were rolling their eyes and whispering to each other. Appropriate behavior = Say, "Get out of the way please..."
So right Grace. My 5 year old son would NOT have done that. Like your daughter, not because he was born perfect in every way but because we've taught him better and we'd have sat on him if all else failed at that point. That is negligence as far as I'm concerned. She needs to teach him self control and respect for others.
I feel for who ever drew the lucky straw and had to sit next to that family. Of course, that was not the kid who would get thrown off the plane.
Jan
Wow!!!! I can't imagine a child being so rude and disrespectful!!! Of course, it's the parent's fault!!! I don't even like being aroung children like that. By the way, my adoption process is just getting started. I will submit my adoption fee to Gladney on 2/29/08!!! I'm hoping to get my little girl in December or January!!! Please tell me about your home study. Do you know any more single women who are adopting?
Hey Catrina. Welcome and congratulations on joining the rest of us singles on the road to adoption.
There are several single women adopting. You may want to try the Single Adopt forum on Yahoo. Also many of the women the list of blogs that I like are single.
Here is a blog post about my homestudy.
http://witheyeslikemine.blogspot.com/2007/10/get-ready-for-homestudy.html
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