On 28/07/2015 8:33 AM, MaryL wrote:
> 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
>
Non-fiction books from the public library are similarly marked.
Mind you, I am often tempted to correct grammatical errors but that
would reduce me to the level of the book vandals.
Graham

--
"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy wine,
which is kind of the same thing".