Well, I’ve confessed to not being an expert in child care, but if all it takes is one lesson and a kid will be perfectly behaved forever… that kind of still makes the mom look bad, no?
I’m not really outraged by the mom, I’m just not a fan of the mind set that a parent has no responsibility for their child’s public behavior because being a parent is hard, man.
I just thought it was funny that you had to specify that Scylla telling the kid he wouldn’t buy him a lunchbox was not, in fact, the real issue here.
Forget about being an expert on child care. You can’t judge the mother just on the basis of Scylla’s self-serving narrative. Of course he’s going to portray her as a bad parent. But for all any of us know, the mother has pulled out all the stops with her son, day after day, and he still hasn’t figured out how to behave in public places. That’s not unusual in the preschool cohort.
No one is advocating irresponsibility. Maybe the mother is bad, shit I don’t know. But that doesn’t justify acting like a fuckwad to a kid that probably doesn’t know any better.
You reduced the whole issue to Scylla saying no despite it being more than that. So of course I’m going to point this out as a mischaracterization. If that’s funny to you, can I have whatever it is you’re smoking? Because, like I said before, I’m in the trenches of parenting right now…
Yeah right, I cannot remember a single instance in which I was upset about Miller, but in this thread he’s an ass. I’m not so good with children either and have none (and am glad about it!), but this is pure assholery.
Sure, that’s definitely a possibility, and if that’s the case, she has my sympathies. Up until the point where she’s castigating other adults for telling her kid “no” when he acts up in public.
He told the kid “no” and gave him a sharp look. That’s not being a fuckwad.
Sober as a judge prior to this post. High as a kite from here on out, though.
I’ll leave it up to you if that makes me more or less douchey.
I acted the same way to my children when they threw tantrums. I ridiculed them and laughed at them theatrically.
I let them know that not only did their tantrum not upset or coerce me, but that I found it humorous, while making it clear that it was never going to get them anything.
Kids are actually pretty sensitive and have an aversion to being made fun of. So, when they acted in ways worthy of ridicule, I laughed at them. They seemed to catch on quick. I vowed a tantrum as an attempt at emotional coercion and I thought it a good thing to make it clear that it would not get them sympathy or positive attention or be a means to their getting their way.
I didn’t believe in spanking, and I never yelled. Yelling was reserved only for actual danger or dangerous behavior.
I don’t think anything in this world is more alarming than the cry of a child in actual distress. I, and I think most adults are programmed to respond to it automatically. I would never ever ridicule a child who I thought was in genuine distress.
It is very easy to distinguish genuine distress from a coercive tantrum. A coercive tantrum demands a strong and disdainful negative response, which is what I gave.
The woman failed to correct her child when he was attempting his tantrum on me. As I wrote in the thread she actually moved a little past me and seemed to be pointedly ignoring it.
I thought that was bad parenting, and I think it I’ll-advised that she would put her child in a position where it might get corrected by a total stranger. Irresponsible.
My response to her was too rude and snarky, but she too me by surprise by being polite and soft spoken in her objection. It wasn’t what I was expecting.
I think I left several cues in the story to demonstrate that I did not think myself a hero, and that my behavior was not necessarily admirable or the best possible(the over the top description of my sneer, which I Then characterized as a mask, and the wondered if that was the mask or the real me, my cowardly retreat. Etc.)
Not my hero. Therefore not our hero. Ergo minimally 6 lies. How many to qualify for “full of lies”?
Usually when an asshole tells a tall tale he tries to make himself look good in it, so I guess this shit arguably had novelty value.
Also, holy shit, this is like the second time I’m in complete agreement with LHoD in under a decade, meaning those guys selling doomsday bunkers are on to something.
Perhaps you can dig up some quote where we conflicted in the past and we said mean things to each other, but I remember our early interactions when I first joined and your very funny threadspotting piece. I like the way you think and write.
Generally, it doesn’t bother me at all when somebody I disagree with calls me a douchebag, because I consider that an intellectual shortcut “he says things I don’t like, therefore he’s an asshole.” People that engage in that generally are doing me a favor by identifying themselves as people not worth dealing with.
But, I haven’t noticed you doing that. I genuinely don’t recall the source of your animus, and generally think well of you as a poster, so it does actually make me unhappy that you think poorly of me.