And then I hear screaming. “HE HIT ME!!!” “SHE WON’T LET ME PLAY!!!” “HEY, GIVE THAT BACK!!!”
My kid, your kid, it doesn’t matter. I will use my very-serious-mommy-means-business voice to control the situation and lay out the expectations of kindness and manners.
When I’m volunteering in the classroom at school and one of the kids pushes me in the back with both hands because I’m unknowingly standing in her way, I will give her the hairy-mommy-eyeball and quietly say, “Perhaps the words you’re looking for are, EXC– USE ME?!” However, I will resist the urge to cuff her upside the head, I promise.
Child to child or worse, child to adult, if they’re rude or snippy or full on belligerent, in my presence, I will not be able to contain myself with a smile and walk away. And frankly neither should you. I mean it.
We all come across bad adults who cut lineups, don’t hold doors open for people, don’t say Thank You or Excuse Me and yell at servers. Perhaps if all adults, not just their parents, held them accountable for their bad behaviour as children, they would have better manners as adults.
At the mall recently, I held open the door for my family to go through and I smiled and waved on the stranger behind them as well saying, “after you”. He walked through the door with not so much as a smile on his face. He didn’t look at me and he didn’t thank me! My response was a very annoyed, “oh you’re very welcome, I don’t get paid to stand and hold the door open for strangers y’know.” I bet he was THAT kid! He was the one that got away with his poor behaviour at home and on play-dates. Don’t let your kid turn into THAT guy.
Lets make a pact, I’ll yell at your kids if you yell at mine!
What do you do when you see other peoples kids with bad behaviour?
5 Comments
Thank you for yelling at other people’s kids! I do it all of the time, as do my best girlfriends. In fact, that’s partly why they are my best girlfriends. They say it takes a village to raise a child and they didn’t mean a village of permissive, silent people. They meant a village of engaged, verbal people. Kids behave way better when they know anyone and everyone around them will call them on their crap at the moment it happens. Way to go!
Before we moved i used to have slmost daily playdate swaps with my neighbor and we lived by the “I will yell at your kid” rule. Who are these ninnies that want you to pander to their kids anyway?
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS!!!!!
I too am that person, mother, friend … who will say something to your kid if he/she is being rude…. no matter where we are. I think we should all call out bad behaviour when we see it! If more people were called out for being rude then maybe they would think twice about doing it.
Agree! It takes a village to raise a child, we should all raise our expectations of manners in our society!
I have realized lately that manners are important to me, but less so to some of my friends. When our kids play together, I work the ‘manners’ angle with both kids and I am sure my friend works other angles with them. We aren’t all the same or have the same priorities. Working together can produce well rounded children and members of society.