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[this space currently occupied by a rant]
Jun. 9th, 2006 04:42 pmSo 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.
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.
