On Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 7:33:26 AM UTC-7, 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.

In grammar school we were lent our textbooks. I believe they got between
three and five years' use out of each one. We had to cover them to prevent
their being marred, and of course we could not write in them. This training
prevents me from writing in a book to this day.