You are “mom” to those three stunning mixed race kids with beautiful dark curls and sweet faces. Your son said something to you and you barked at him “I don’t give a shit what you do!” Then he asked for your help in taking off his warm jacket and you were enraged…then proceeded to help him by yanking his jacket off so hard I thought his shoulders would dislocate. I made sure to smile at him and say “Hi!” when I came over to take an application form. He just stared at me with sad, empty little eyes as if he had never seen a kind face or heard a kind tone of voice before in his short little life. And to “grandma” who had also tagged along for the lovely day trip… “How could you stand there and watch your daughter treat her babes this way?” I think of how you treated your children today, IN PUBLIC, without a care in the world, and it truly made me sick to my stomach to think of how you must treat them in the privacy of your own home. Oh how much worse it must be! But of course, when it was your turn to go up to the counter, you changed into your best self and were sugary sweet to the clerk. You disgust me and everyone else who had the misfortune of seeing you today in the crowded waiting area. And trust me, everyone was watching – and LISTENING. You need to give your head a shake, wake up to the reality that your kids are a gift and I don’t care if you were treated that way as a child, and blah blah blah. Time to break the cycle! You only get one chance to raise them right so please! Shower them with love and kindness and for God’s sake, smile at them and give them hugs! And if you can’t do these things, then get your tubes tied so that no other child is born into your care and lives a sad life full of hatred and misery. —I Love My Two Boys and They Know It
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2013.
There is a Louie CK bit written juuuust for you, OP.
he is a funny guy
Furious, that skit was funny as hell, CK is a hero.
OP, you are making assumptions about a persons entire life based on your single observation. While she did sound nasty perhaps she was having a bad day or maybe her child was misbehaving before you entered the scene. Also, why need to mention the mixed race?
Because to some people, kids are just another word for cheque. Child Support, Family Allowance or whatever it’s called now, the $100 under 5 cheque, and of course a welfare cheque.
To some people kids may just be a cheque and those people are, in fact, scum bags. But to conclude that this person is among that class of individual based on one encounter is senseless.
That’s why I said “some people” to the question of why people have kids. I didn’t say it was necessarily this person.
Oh, I see what you’re saying now, thought you were talking about something else. My bad!
Parents who mistreat their children most likely were mistreated by their own parents.If they were never taught to do any better with their own children,they don’t know it’s child abuse.
It is illegal not to report child abuse.
I love children.Every child is a gift. 🙂
But Boru, all the worst people in history were children. 😛
Nature or nurture or both?
Ploopy beat me to it but why the mixed race mention? It would be less offensive if they were white? Aside from that, you’re probably right OP. The mom is an acidic bitch who has her kids and her mom tongue-lashed into submission.
I’m curious why someone disagreed with my comments? Disagreed with”nature or nurture”?
Don’t worry Boru, even some of my brilliant insights get dislikes. 😛
I never pay any mind to the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’, Boru, some people pick ‘dislike’ just for the hell of it.
OK, everyone…OP here!
The only reason I made mention of the mixed race is simply so that if this woman happens to read the bitch, she will be able to identify herself as the person I’m writing about. Lots of people have three kids, but fewer people have three mixed race kids and that is the ONLY reason I mentioned it. She was white and I am white, and it would have been equally offensive no matter what colour they were. Race is not the issue here.
Ploopy, she may have been having a bad day or yes, perhaps her little boy had been misbehaving before I entered the scene. But I too have had bad days and misbehaving children and would never dream of talking to them that way, swearing at them and being physically rough with them. A parents, we are our kids’ first teachers and for the most part our kids learn how to behave by watching and listening to us. As a parent, I will always “give a shit” what my kids do and will never swear at them and berate them.
Ploopy and Reg, I’m just speculating, but maybe the OP mentioned the race of the children in hopes of the mother reading this and realizing she is the one being bitched about. Just a specific deatil to make it ever so slightly less anonymous.
Ha ha. Yeah. What OP said several minutes before my speculation. And I didn’t see. (Foot in mouth)
Perhaps she was a babysitter, OP – there’s some real crackers in the biz. Still, there’s no excuse for treating little ones so badly. Makes me think of all the childless couples out there who would do just about anything to have a child in their lives.
FrayFray, weird timing in our comments, but yes! thanks for recognizing where I was coming from ☺
White trash
Don’t get me wrong Jusmucks, I like kids, though I don’t have any. Perhaps being a parent would give me a different perspective. I like to think I’d never lose my temper with my kids but can’t be certain. I know I’d never be physical with them or put them down, the way you describe and I don’t think it’s good parenting. Still, when I was a youngun my mom wasn’t afraid to give me a paddlin’ on the bum with a spoon or raise her voice in public and I don’t think that made her a bad mother.
With regard to the mixed-race thing, I’m really not trying to dispense morals – I don’t think you’re prejudice or racist or anything like that. But for me it kind of set the tone for the rest of the bitch. Like, I was agreeing with what you were saying but also wondering if MAYBE your opinion was swayed because of it a little bit. You could have mentioned other details like the woman’s hair color or style of dress or something she was carrying instead.
Please don’t think I am trying to accuse you of anything, or attack your character, I am not. Just explaining why I asked about the statement. Thanks for clarifying.
~:'(
Again I have to agree with Ploopy (I feel like I’m riding his coattails the last couple of days) the first sentence kind of rubbed me the wrong way “the stunning mixed-race kids with beautiful dark curls and sweet faces”. It wasn’t clear whether it was the kid’s looks that made this behavior seem that much worse to you.
OP
Are you sure you didn’t get the wrong impression from an isolated incident?
Dan you seem to be quite the optimist,aren’t you?
Great minds think alike Regdon, it would just seem I’ve got more time to waste on the internet lol…
OP here again…
If I had known how much my “mixed race” mention would have become such a distraction from the entire point of my bitch, I never would have written it. Alternately and more ambiguously, I could have described this woman as an overweight white woman with greasy brown hair in a ponytail, with a perma-scowl on her face and wearing something white. But really, that description in itself is offensive and could describe any number of women. And based on a couple comments made here, I’m sure I would have then been accused of judging her parenting skills based on her unfortunate appearance. In my opinion, mentioning the race of her children seemed a better choice in terms of more clearly identifying the person I was talking about. I also referred to the children as “stunning” and “beautiful” because they were, as most are, and again, this incident would have been equally offensive no matter what colour the kids were or how ugly or attractive they were! The fact that this all needs to be explained is disturbing to me because it’s taking away from the point that these kids were mistreated and are most likely mistreated on a regular basis by the person who is supposed to love them the most.
But, Daniel, you’re probably right…I can’t be sure that this wasn’t just some isolated incident. Just like I can’t be sure that the guy who beats his wife isn’t an isolated incident. Just like I can’t be sure that a cheater caught cheating isn’t an isolated incident. Just like I can’t be sure that an aggressive driver in a psychotic fit of road rage isn’t an isolated incident. It’s possible that this has never happened before and won’t happen again, but I doubt it. If you too had been there and seen the dejected, expressionless little faces on these kids, it would all become very clear.
http://www.theonion.com/video/republicans-…
I do see where you’re coming from jusmucks and I in no way think you’re racist or elitist or anything else. This is a very valid bitch and, unfortunately, is not all that uncommon. Any mention of race raises red flags with me and I overreacted to this. Sometimes you can’t win no matter how you write something.
Boru
I act on sufficient information, and put energy into asking the right questions, especially when suggesting something serious about someone. I don’t just go on impressions of grammar usage, job titles. Not to get too personal but I have a lot of scarring from a skin disease. I’ve had employers send me for drug tests because “they can’t figure out what causes that” when I bike 20km to work and back everyday and don’t have a gas guzzling truck with an empty cab, they think something is “wrong”. I don’t have a car, that’s how I afford a house. I’m sick of armchair reasoning people who really just want a story for the coffee shop. In this case I can see how OP would have been concerned I was just making sure the intuitive aspect had enough information going into it.
OP
I see what you’re saying.
Dan Insulting you wasn’t my intention.I’m sorry if you took it that way.
I wasn’t insulted, I’m just explaining why I’ve become more rigorous than the average person when it comes to determining a proper perspective of what a situation is. Seriously I wasn’t insulted at all.
It just really frustrating to be someone on the other end of accusation when you are definitely more than innocent. People who blend in well with the norm tend to experience less of these situations than someone who most people “can’t figure out”. Unfortunately the “can’t figure out” can be something as trivial as shoes that are too bright for a fucking outfit.
oh op.. this made me so sad. Every mom has a bad day. I hope this was just one of her bad days…
Op.. perhaps because i am in a mixed race relationship and we are planning kids ourselves I saw your mention as a hat-tip to “beautiful mixed kids” which obviously i agree with. And i also got the sense you were saying “You have these stunning little mixed kids that most people would see as precious” or you were just trying to identify her in the hopes she’d read this and smarten the fuck up.
I dunno.. It didn’t bother me.
Dan I find it hurtful when people are overly judgmental and/or critical towards me because, i am different or usually on the outside looking in at everyone having a good time.I mentioned before on this board that i’m a bit of a social freak…Not that i’m a punk or wear freaky clothes or a lot of piercings but,i guess i’m not exactly well socialized.
It’s not racist to mention what race someone is whilst describing them, any more than it is to state their hair or eye color or whether or not they had freckles. I hate when people focus on one stupid irrelevant part of the bitch.
I hate it when people mention race when they don’t have to. Imagine the mother of these kids actually reading this bitch and OP’s plan working (ie. she can identify herself because OP mentioned her kids race.) Do you think she’d think it was an irrelevant part of the bitch? I also hate it when people get butt-hurt after you ask a simple question. I never called her racist, in fact I explained quite clearly WHY I asked that question in the first place. Defensive reaction like this to a simple five word question doesn’t help your case.
jusmucks was being descriptive. i think the essence of the bitch is empathy for the kids