Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Oblivious
At Sam's birthday party at the park, Adam was admiring a little girl in a brown dress with pigtails. She was impeccably groomed and looked very cute. We noticed that her parents were sitting on the bench right next to us. Adam said to her mother, "She's really cute." The mother replied, "She's a little bossy." And then, yelling out to her cute little girl, she said, "Just go down the slide. Go down the slide, now! Arianna, play now!"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's quite a eye-opening day when one realizes the behaviors one doesn't appreciate in her own children come directly from her. Not that I speak from experience, of course!
ReplyDeleteLynne, don't take away my moral superiority just yet. I can still laugh, for now.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of an incident when I was coaching little league baseball some years ago. I had a kid who had obvious behavioral difficulties - he wouldn't pay attention, wouldn't stop talking, wouldn't follow directions, latched onto a kid or a coach and wouldn't leave their side for an entire practice, etc. When the first game of the season came, I found out why. His mother was sitting on the side of the field and yelling at and to him, constantly, throughout the entire game. "Do this," "don't do that," "knock that off," and so on. It was the same at the second game. About half way through that game I meandered over next to her, and the following conversation (near verbatim) took place:
ReplyDeleteMe: He's a good kid, I like him a lot, but he really seems to have some problems.
Mom: Yes. He's nothing but trouble all the time. No matter what I do it never gets any better.
Me: Hm. Do you know why he's like that?
Mom: I have no idea.
Me: It's because of you.
There was not another sound out of her for the rest of the season.
Several years later I ran into the kid, now in high school. He was a little nerdy, but he showed no signs of the problems he'd had before. I like to think I contributed a little to his improvement.
Piz: wow. Just wow. I bet you helped improve the lady too.
ReplyDeletePiz, yes, wow. Good job! I didn't think it was my place to say something to this stranger at the park, but as a coach, I think you were right to say something. And it sounds like you had an impact. Great story.
ReplyDelete