On 7/28/2015 6:42 AM, jmcquown wrote:
> On 7/27/2015 8:54 PM, sf wrote:
>> On Mon, 27 Jul 2015 19:14:47 -0400, jmcquown >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> When I was in my 20's I had a friend who had a 2 year old. She brought
>>> her adorable child to my home one day. The "adorable child" started
>>> pulling books out of my bookcase and tearing pages out of them. Her
>>> mother blithely ignored her. I yelled at the girl. "STOP THAT!" My
>>> friend had the nerve to get angry at me for yelling at her kid. She was
>>> destroying my books. Would you have put up with that?
>>>
>> Is that the only child horror story you can trot out? It's getting
>> long in the tooth.
>>
>>
> I've got plenty of them, thanks. I loaned another friend a hardback
> book and she let her kid scribble all through it with a pen and crayons.
> I met a different friend for lunch one day - I was on my lunch break.
> She let her kid dip his fries in ketchup and throw them at me. Rather
> than take the fries away from him all she did was say "Gary, quit" over
> and over. Of course he didn't. I had to go back to work wearing a
> ketchup-stained blouse. I've been seated in a booth in a restaurant and
> had kids kicking the back of the seat on the side where I was sitting.
> Another instance, a kid throwing food over onto our table. As usual,
> the parents seem to think there is nothing wrong with this behavior.
>
> Jill

And parents who permit their toddlers to do that end up with adults who
feel enabled. I once loaned one of my textbooks to one of my students
because I noticed him sitting in class without a book. He claimed that
he could not afford a book. That was believable--the books cost well in
excess of $100.00, even though I tried to limit the cost by selecting
books that could be used for two semesters instead of only one. The
book was in mint condition when he received it. When he returned it, he
had marked throughout the book. Granted, I marked books when I was a
student, but I never marked books on any other occasion. The only good
thing about it was that it did show he was studying, but it showed
complete lack of appreciation for someone else's property.

MaryL