Most Unbelievably "Out Of Character" Thing Your Child Has Ever Done

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I don’t have kids but I was watching this movie… Well anyway , the jist is the kid did something totally 100% out of character and shocked the mother and father.

So my question to you mums and dads is what is the most unbelievably out of character thing your child has ever. Something he/she did that totally took you by surprise and just blew your mind, 'cause you never thought he’d do it.

In the case of the movie it was bad, but for my examples it could be something good.

Like bad things would be “I can’t believe my kid, murdered his grandma, I thought he was kidding.” Or “I can’t believe my child gave another kid his teddy bear because the other child was sick. He loved that bear.” Or “I can’t believe my kid cheated.”

Whatever, just something so out of consistancy or character that you were actually shocked.

#2

When I was in middle school, I was on the basketball team. (I sucked.) Our coach was a total jerkface, and would rather yell at us than try to teach us the basics. His idea of coaching strategy was to teach us a move he called, ever so creatively, “shirt”. I don’t remember the specifics of when it was a “good idea” to use but it had something to do with the game being close, the other team breaking away and heading for the basket. If he yelled “Shirt!” you were to… yank the shirt of the girl with the ball. The point was to get a foul called, so they’d only get one point instead of two? I don’t remember. Anyway, it was ridiculous and we all knew it and figured we’d never use it. I was the fastest on the team so it was usually me chasing down any breakaways. So one game, I’m chasing a girl down court and he yells “Shirt!”

WIthout thinking, I grabbed the girl’s shirt. It didn’t really stop her, but she was so surprised she pulled up. Everyone’s jaw just dropped. I could see the wide-eyed confusion on the people in the stands like “What was she thinking?” I was so horrified! My parents were there and were mortified. I was a good kid, a bit rebellious but well-behaved, and certainly not unsportsmanlike. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. No one but me and my team knew that I didn’t just randomly grab this girl’s shirt and try to stop her, they had no idea our jerk coach taught us to do that. They thought I was just some punk kid being a jerk.

Even after telling them that the coach had told me to do it, my parents were shocked. It was just so out of character for me to do something so … against the rules, I guess. It’s just a stupid thing and really meant nothing but I still vividly remember it to this day and am horrified that I followed his directions. Ugh.

#3

Not my child, but instead my sister when I was a child. My sister was about 11 years old at the time. She was generally not an engaged sort, no hobbies, or activities that she was involved in, more of a slug. So, for a home economics class she was supposed to cook a meal at home, and get the parents to sign off on it.

Well, she had never shown any interest in cooking or helping around the house much at all. Totally unexpectedly, she went wild. All on her own, she made a roast, with sides, baked a pie from scratch, baked biscuits! It was awesome! She was a child possessed! She got a glowing review from my parents and got credit for the assignment.

She never cooked again. Shows what the right motivation can do, eh?

#4

Not my kid but I coached a little league indoor “gym soccer” team years ago. My son was on the team and in the 4th grade. The teams were randomly picked with 3rd and 4th graders on each team.

One of my third graders, Matt, had some form of autism. He occasionally would kick the ball if it came by him but he seemed to be incapable of focusing on the action. In fact it was often a challenge just getting Matt to come off the floor with the shift changes.

I told the kids if they wanted to that each one of them was to play goalie for at least 1/2 game during the season. Matt wanted to play goalie.

The second to the last game of the season we were up by two goals and I announced at halftime that Matt would play goal for the second half. The other kids all gave me an “OH NO!” look but I said that I would put two 4th graders back on defense and they could help Matt.

The two 4th graders never had a chance to say much of anything. The opposing team picked up right away that the “slow” kid was in goal and set up a fast break to the goal. From the edge of the box one kid fired a monster hard shot to the corner of the goal.

I swear Matt didn’t flex a muscle during the fast break. In fact I’m not even sure he was looking in that direction…until the shot.

I have never in my life seen a kid react and move so quickly. Matt sprung to the ball scooped it up and threw it out to the other side of the box where another opponent took another shot. Matt dove back across and made another stop.

By then the 4th graders got his attention and he dumped off to one of them who took the ball to the opponents court.

During Matt’s tenure in the goal he made 8 more saves. Two others, like the first two were killer shots that most kids couldn’t handle. He finally got scored on when one of our 4th grader defenders didn’t intercept an easy roller which Matt stood and watched go into the net.

We ended up winning by 1 goal.

At the end of the game the spectators were all applauding, our team was jumping up and down, the opposing team coach was ribbing me about not being aware of my “secret weapon” and Matt was still standing in the goal.

All of our shouting didn’t get his attention. One of our kids had to go get him and bring him to our sideline and join the celebration.

#5

Bubba - that’s a GREAT story! Did you keep him in at goalie? I’d think if I were that age, I’d vote for him to stay.

#6

Huh? Intentional fouls to stop the clock are part of the game, you see it at every level. And tugging on a shirt is not even making contact to draw the foul. It’s only unsportsmanlike to foul away from the ball, in which case it’s a flagrant foul, and the victim’s team get two free throws and KEEP the ball.

Now if your response to “shirt” was to tackle the girl with the ball, or pull her hair or somesuch, yes, that’s way over the line and would surely be a flagrant foul as well (on the ball or not). Or if your team was so far behind it would make no difference. But from your description, you were your team’s fastest runner, and you caught up to the person leading the break and committed the most tic-tac foul imaginable. For the coach to call the play at that point (however much of an overbearing jerk you thought he was) probably means the game was still in reach. Had you been my daughter and NOT done so I’d have asked you after the game, “Why didn’t you foul to get the ball back?!”

This is not just a men’s B-Ball thing either, intentional fouls to regain possession are simply basic strategy for the real point of playing, which is to win the game, not to run around the court for a little while.

#7

That is awesome!

It made me think of the sci-fi epic “Dune” (for the first time in years), where personal force-field type shielding devices exist and people are trained to use close-range weapons (like knives) and juuuust the right distance and slowness in their attack to not trigger the shield’s motion sensors (typically calibrated for bullets and other projectiles or fast moving attacks).

#8

My rule was, unless the kid was wanting to get out, they got to play the entire half.

Some people don’t realize that there is a noticeable skill/ability level between 3rd and 4th graders. Many of the 3rd graders were reluctant to play goalie but usually settled in when they realized that the 4th graders on their team would help out.

Matt played the entire half at goal. I had our “best” goalie play the first half and he got scored on 3 times. No biggie. The game is played on a basketball court and there is usually a lot of scoring. The games were usually scores like 10 to 7. So it was a very big surprise that Matt only got scored on once.

The next week was our last game and I still had two kids who needed their chance at goal.

#9

It’s funny, when the ball was rolling up to him I realized that he didn’t even acknowledge it and I thought of the Dune shield effect too. The ball wasn’t moving at the speed his mind needed to react and it just strolled on by him.