You Still Have To Behave Like An Adult Around A Bratty Kid

mother-yelling-at-sonWe’ve all met that kid at the playground. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that you just kind of cut eyes at because they’re being either annoying or downright horrible and killing your buzz about being out in public.A fact of life (and parenting) is that when you venture out into a shared space like the playground or library, you’re going to meet some other kids that suck a lot. They are usually accompanied by parents that suck a lot, but the two are not necessarily entwined. Still, the shitty thing about becoming an adult is that you can’t just deal with this stuff however you want – you have to be a grown-ass human about it. If you do what this Reddit parent did instead, then I have bad news for you: you are doing it wrong.

I brought my daughter to a giant park during the day. There were already 2 young girls there. A 4 year old and her 7ish year old friend. They were playing while their “dad” sat on the bench and read his iPad.

As we walked up the 4 yr old says loudly to her friend, ‘we don’t want to play with THAT baby’

After pointedly remarking that the little girl, or “lil miss 4year old” appears to be following them around to “hog” the equipment while her father neglects the shit out of her on his iProduct, she moves on to the main event:

The 4 year old says again for the 15th time “we don’t want to play with that baby” We’ve made ZERO attempt to play with these kids, my daughter was oblivious to the rudeness, so we kept playing. Except, I didn’t ignore it this time. I bent down into that 4 year olds face and said, “GOOD. You don’t need to worry about that. My daughter doesn’t want to ever play with YOU.” I won’t lie, it felt good. But wait there’s more.

This little girl had a ratty old beanie baby with her. She puts it down and says real loudly, “I don’t want anybody to steal this” I look around to see if there are burglars hiding in the bushes wearing face masks with black and white striped shirts. Seeing none, I can only assume this comment was for us. She then repeats this 5 times “Nobody steal my bear”. To which I finally snap, “Nobody wants your stupid bear, we have our own toys”. The dad continues reading his iPad.

You really showed her!

Most of the comments acknowledge that she handled the situation poorly and should have said something to the dad. Frankly, I don’t know that she’s capable of adult conversations, so who knows if that would have helped.

Can we remember for a half a second that the kid that she bested in this stunning display of wit is four-fucking-years-old? My daughter isn’t always perfect, and I hope that people would let her know that her behavior is unacceptable if I’m not around or, sure, not paying attention for whatever reason.

I would also hope that they would do so with a voice of rational authority, and not the voice of petty butt-hurtedness. If I knew an adult spoke to her like this, even at seven, it would probably hurt my heart.

She does say that she feels bad, but she also said that she found the interaction funny. It isn’t. All she managed to do was stick it to a four-year-old kid, while modeling the kind of behavior that will probably turn her kid into a rude little pitmonster at the playground later.

Presumably some stranger will tell her kid off, and the circle of life will continue.

(Image: fotofeel/Shutterstock)

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