while waiting in line at the airport to get coffee before a flight recently, I had the wonderful exprierence of watching over parenting in action. despite the fact there was a line ahead of them (giving ample time for food selection and a thourogh rehearsal), and a line behind them, all of passengers who clearly had places to be in a limited amount of time, this mother decided that CLEARLY the best way to parent her children was to wait until it was their turn at the counter to ask her brood what they would like. when the two small tots did what all small tots did and look up confused at their mother, she then proceeded to perform a 15 minute routine of ‘waht would you like sweetheart? no you can’t ahve that. what would you like? no you can’t have that but you may have this. don’t want that? well honey what would you like?” followed closely by a ‘tell the nice lady what you’d like. come on honey say what you’d want. come on say it, tell the lady what you want’ parade.
meanwhile those of us in line were watchign the minutes tick past as her small children blushed and cried and griped and demanded chocolate which she didn’t apparently want to give them. I feel sorry for the poor cashier- what was she to do when that child finally mumbled somethign that sounded like peerfecebagtal and the mother looked at her expecntantly, as if her perfect little angel should be applauded for his verbal prowess.
at last, order in and I’m saying a big thank you that yuppies are finally finished WHEN: mommy decides now is the time to teach jr manners. ‘say thank you. thank you darling. if you don’t say thank you you can’t have any’..whats the cashier to do? ring in the order and begin preparing it? or wait another 5 minutes until jr sputters out a satisfacory thank you on the off chance mom makes good on this threat?
listen up parents: for the love of god not all of us think your little blessing is such a genius. not all of us are delighted by their childish antics, or have lots of time to spare while you attempt to make said spawn perform like the trained monkey you clearly wanted. and not all of us think it’s oh so cute when we end up leaving said line, no coffee, in order to meet our plane, but hey, we did get to hear a child learn and isn’t htat the greatest thing of all? no. it’s not.
you’re not teaching your brat anything here except that the world will wait for them, which it own’t. order for them, go over the rules ahead of time as to what they want, and if you must make them order, rehearse it while you wait in line- and stop wasting everyone’s time before someone neuters you.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2008.
This is a good one, but you should have come across a rude and abrasive. It would have been funny, and, helpful.
I like this one too. It was long, but very descriptive. I felt like I was there, punching the mother in the back of the head.
Yeesh. I heard someone say on the radio: “our children are precious, but mostly only to us”, which I can appreciate. That’s not to say that you should have a hate on for other people’s kids….but you shouldn’t expect others to be as indulgent as you would be.That’s just an example of a self-centered person teaching her kids to be the same. I agree, that was neither the time or the place.
my brain exploded while reading this. I think we’ve reached a point in society where we are too polite to strangers. I would have liked to be behind this woman- and then I would have liked to butt in front of her and made my order, paid, and gtfot while she was still working on her kiddies can/cannot haves. It blows that 10-15some people would have just stood behind this cow and just watched her little “parade”. bullshit. I’m getting meaner from now on.
OK then… or you could… um, I don’t know, NOT?Lighten up, dude. Inconveniences happen. It’s not an excuse to be a prick.
While it is an inconvenience for you, I think the mom was doing a great job with her kids. She was teaching them independence (ordering on their own), healthy choices (suggesting one option over another), and manners (saying thank-you at the end). The choices the parent makes when the children are young affect what kind of adolescents they become. I’d rather wait a little longer at Tims and have those lessons be instilled in children than have parents do everything for their children (and have them become spoiled) or nothing for their children (and have them beating the tar out of me in the commons in 15 years).In a bitch a while back about young teens running wild, beating people up, etc someone posted that it takes a community to raise a child. Well, I think we first need the community to tolerate the child, then work from there.
The mother might consider a more appropriate venue for her life lessons… other people do exist in this world, and their wants are as important as anyone else’s.
I agree that kids need to be taught independence and manners etc. but there’s a time and a place. The mother should have been courteous enough and observed the line. Obviously these people had somewhere to be as they were at the airport. That’s an expensive coffee if you miss your flight because someone is taking his or her sweet ass time (although you’d be a dumbass to miss your flight and not leave the line). If the line had only been 2 or 3 people long, then yeah, go ahead and teach your kids some life lessons but if you’re holding up a butt load of people trying to go about their business, save it for another day.
I’m wondering why the whole line didn’t chime in with the alphabet song to help Mom teach her tots? Maybe a puppet show?Yes, most of us think it’s important to teach certain values to our children; one of those values is to be sensitive to other people around them. I don’t think the OP was suggesting letting the kids rum wild or to use the server as their punching bag, but to insist on using so much time to order meant that others did without. But at least the kids said thank-you.
I guarantee this was a big act for everyone and these kids are talked to like shit at home. I see it everyday. Save your fucking “Mom Of The Year” routine for someone who gives a fuck and let us have our fucking coffee. You think if they were brought up to be “independant” and yada yada that they’d have been so fucking whiny?? Spare me. NEVER fuck with a coffee lover. Or I should say, a coffee NEEDER.
Have you ever thought about taking your kids, sitting them down, and hitting them?