Parenting class...
I was in town on Saturday. Standing next to me in one of the packed shops I visited was a woman with her two kids, the older of whom was trying to attract her mother's attention.
"Stop it, child'sname," barked the mother. "I don't care. Nobody cares. You'll realise that when you get older."


She must be the kind of mother who wakes her kids on Christmas morning to show them what Santa hasn't brought them because he doesn't exist.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 12:17, 14 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Good god that's depressing
:(
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 12:31, Reply)

I didn't
realise my mother was up in manchester this weekend.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 13:33, Reply)

@al
She wasn't. But half of Manchester was up y...


Oh, sod it.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 13:37, Reply)

Santa does....doesn't exist?
*machine gun sobs*
( Lisette von Falcon, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 13:40, Reply)

Frustration with kids
is difficult to contain at times. I can recall times when I had my kids in tow when I was trying to get something done (going to the hardware store, for instance) and having to talk to someone to get information, only to have my oldest clamoring for my attention so he could then say something like "Did you ever see a frog stick his face in the moon?" and giggle. When you're trying to converse with an adult for a couple of minutes and have a child yammering at you for something trivial, it can be tempting to snap at them and tell them to STFU, that no one cares if they've just come out with a new flavor of Kool Aid that they've never had before and want to try. Resisting that is very hard at times.

The way I handled it was to instruct the kids that if I told them I was busy and I'd get back to them, to just hold the thought until I was done and was able to pay attention- and then made sure that I did so. They quickly learned that if they could just hold on for a couple of minutes that I would then hear them out patiently, but if they persisted then I would get snappish.

It worked surprisingly well...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 8 Dec 2008, 13:58, Reply)

I just tell them that if they don't behave I'm going to cunt them in the fuck.
Works every time : )
( girlinthehole, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 14:49, Reply)

I'm not a parent
But I do find myself wanting to shout the same thing at other people's kids.
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 14:52, Reply)

Loon's nailed it
My daughter knows she'll get my full attention if she's patient and lets me deal with whoever I'm talking to first.

Parents who don't instil this in their kids at an early age deserve all they get :)

/smug
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 15:09, Reply)

bet that mum had
a mum who cared...
( tickle I was away, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 15:21, Reply)

Another parenting class...
I was going to post this on Thursday last week, but forgot. Enzyme's just reminded me.

I was in the local co-op, picked up some milk, and joined the queue for the tills. I had been aware, whilst browsing through the shop, of some unholy racket, but thought it was just kids having a tantrum, and forgot about it. Until I got to the tills, and saw who was making the noise: three haggard, scrawny women, who looked about 45 each (but were probably in their late 20s/early 30s at most), pissed off their tits, shouting obscenities at the confused (and slightly worried-looking) boy on the tills. They weren't abusing him. Oh no. They were making approving comments, in screechy, ear-bleedingly shrill voices, about the suspected size of his manhood, comparing it to a 1litre bottle of rum (which is what they were buying, incidentally). They were singing. They were swearing. They were dancing along in the bloody aisles, unsubtly speculating on the sexual prowess of all the men in the queue (which was quite long by this point, as they were taking such a long time to buy their rum), and generally acting like the worse kinds of drunken chavs one sees on Channel 5 "Binge Britain"-type documentaries.

They were each pulling a small child along by the hand (between 4 and 7 years old I'd guess), and had a pram amongst them as well. They were swearing, and joking about noshing the till boy, in front of these kids. At 8pm on a Thursday. Eep.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 16:05, Reply)

Reminds me
of an incident from about 12 years ago.

I was at work and one of the other drafters came by my desk. "Ya know, last night I was in Wal-Mart getting a few things, and as I was going down one aisle I could hear some woman raising hell on the next aisle, yelling at her kids. I went to the other aisle and found your wife."

I should have included that in the Cringe question...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 8 Dec 2008, 16:23, Reply)

But were you upset
that she was shouting, or caught shopping in Wal-Mart?
(Bazongaloid, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 17:03, Reply)

I was upset
that she made such a huge scene that other shoppers were taking such note, and that at least one of them knew me.

I told her about it when I got home, and a large row ensued. She couldn't understand why I was upset at her public display of bitchiness, and basically said that she had no other choice as the kids were so badly behaved. I responded that that was a complete cop-out, that I never have such problems with them.

To this day she still has mad cow disease...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 8 Dec 2008, 17:36, Reply)

*whisper*
Al, because it was Wal-Mart

;)
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 19:18, Reply)