I was on the phone today with Mr. Fits, telling him all about our morning at the park. I mentioned that there was a mom at the park with her kid, let's call him Fergus. Fergus and mom are two people I try to avoid, for good reason. See, a week or two ago, Fergus walked up to H. and pushed him down just because he wanted to. But you know what? That's what some two-to-three year olds do. So I waited for the mom to do the obligatory, "Oh jeez, I'm so sorry. Is he okay? Fergus, DO NOT PUSH. He's just a baby. Please say you're sorry."
Instead, she ran after a laughing Fergus, with a big grin on her face and said, "Ferg, hon. Uh-uh. You know we don't do that. Come back here silly! Hey tough guy...let's try not to do that. I'm gonna get ya...I'm gonna get ya..." and then it just turned into play. Not exactly the reaction I was looking for.
So now I really didn't like Fergus or the mom. And I decided that we'd try to avoid both of them in the future. Which, actually, has been just about every day for the last couple of weeks. Today, they were there in full form and when H. picked up a fire truck, the kid yelled from atop the jungle gym, "MY TRUCK! MY TRUCK!" I picked H. up and moved over to another area of the park. The end.
I happened to recount this to Mr. Fits during our phone conversation, and he agreed that we should stay away from them. I said, "I'm totally going to say something to the mom if it happens again." And he said, "Yeah, you should definitely say something to her and make fun of her kid. And let H. hear it. That way, he'll learn that instead of solving problems with his fists, he can solve them by verbally abusing people. Like we do."
Oh. Yeah. I'm..er..just gonna go away and think about that okay? But I have a horrible feeling that only leaves that 'other cheek' crap and I hate that. Or Quietly Superior??? I can do that.
Posted by: Jo | July 26, 2005 at 10:31 AM
Hmm?
Posted by: Mr Fits Himself | July 26, 2005 at 12:34 PM
It'll make him smarter too...but watch out Mr. Fits...that's your brain that'll be on fire, 13 or 14 years from now, when H is "snapping" on your fantasy baseball team.
Posted by: walen | July 26, 2005 at 02:27 PM
Hamish. Fergus. I don't know what's up with that park of yours. Do all the annoying mommies sit around and exchange Haggis recipes?
Posted by: Figlet | July 27, 2005 at 10:57 AM
I hate moms like that too. Thankfully, C. has learned to avoid those kids at the park. It is like she has "bad-kid radar"...I wish I had the "bad-mama" version. Unfortunately, C. is the only one to be blessed in our house with an extra sense.
Posted by: chicagomama | July 28, 2005 at 12:15 PM
Miss Manners says that etiquette should never be used as a stick with which to beat people, but I don't remember her saying anything about one's own wit and cunning. Really, I didn't. What? I'm a great believer in snottiness as the great equalizer. And now everybody can probably guess what kind of kid I was at the playground, huh?
Posted by: Kimm | August 02, 2005 at 04:27 PM
Fergus is the name of the dog my family got when they lived in Scotland. While I love him, he is a very bad dog and does whatever he pleases. He was also never properly trained as a puppy and my mom is now living with the consequences. Much like the mommy of his human counterpart will some day.
Posted by: Amyesq | August 05, 2005 at 12:21 AM