[this space currently occupied by a rant]

[ciroccoj]

So I had this rant going on in my head all Wednesday afternoon, about smartmouth kids and their loving parents.

There's this girl, about 10-11 years old, in Daniel and Justin's gymnastics class. Bright girl, hard working, good at gymnastics. And rude as a close-up razzberry, to her mom, the instructor, and the other kids. Almost always has a belligerent expression on her face and doesn't appear to have any tone of voice other than snappish.

It's my turn!
Why do we have to do that?
No spotting!
Why do we have to do floor routines?
I know this one already!
I can do that one way better!

And her mom doesn't do a damn thing. Just gazes at her approvingly and smiles at everything she says. The most negative facial expression she ever has is a sort of sheepish pride, as in, "Oh well, kids will be kids, what can you do, isn't she cute anyways."

No, she's not. She's rude. She's unpleasant. And she probably has no idea that her behaviour is in any way objectionable, because the person who's supposed to tell her so has apparently decided to abdicate all responsibility for her social training.

It was parents' day on Wednesday, so the kids did a bunch of their routines individually. At one point during this kid's balance beam routine, she lost her balance, and Justin, who doesn't like her (gee, why is that?), let out a loud, mean cackle. She immediately shouted "It's way better than anything YOU could do, anyway!!"

I quietly called Justin over and told him in no uncertain terms that what he had done was unacceptable and that he owed her an apology. Asked him how he would feel if she laughed at him for a mistake during his own routine.

He went and apologized. She glared at him and didn't accept his apology, and didn't offer one of her own. Mom sat through the entire exchange with a proud little smile on her face.

Bloody hell. I know the kid was provoked, but the fact is, she's ten and Justin's six. This is where a parent is supposed to take their child aside and say "I know that was very mean of Justin, and I know you were embarrassed, but he's a little kid and you're a big girl and I think you owe him an apology as well."

Nope.

Yaaaarg.

Comments

[shiningmoon.livejournal.com]

How annoying!

The mother needs a bitch-slap.

[woffproff.livejournal.com]

This is so much why I've just about stopped doing anything with my friend S and her 12 year old. That child has never been corrected about anything! She's a complete and utter brat, and her mother finds everything she does to be either cute or funny, when in truth they're neither. The saddest thing to me is that I can see the child growing into the very kind of person that I was always grateful her mom was NOT---arrogant, spoiled, conceited about her looks, etc....

[jennifus.livejournal.com]

...I'm not a big believer in violence, but like whoa would I like to smack the mother.

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

Somebody needs a spanking, a time-out, and dinner without dessert.

And it's not the 10-year-old.

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

Is this one of those people that believe that it takes a village to raise a child? Because if she's abdicated responsibility, I say step in and show her how to discipline her kid. And when she gets in your Cheerios about it, you can tell her calmly that, "Hey, you're not disciplining your kid, and I assumed that you wanted me to do it for you. If you don't want me intervening again, discipline your damn brat."

[jenniferjames.livejournal.com]

This is where a parent is supposed to take their child aside and say "I know that was very mean of Justin, and I know you were embarrassed, but he's a little kid and you're a big girl and I think you owe him an apology as well."

A good parent would've.

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Maybe it will amuse you that my first thought was, "That's just like an episode of 'Arthur' that we saw while at the hotel!"