**** Some people don't teach their children manners. Grrr. ****

by FlyingHighNow 277 Replies latest jw friends

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  FlyingHighNow

  I had an hour to kill before picking Julian up at a birthday party, last Friday. So, I decided to go relax at the library. We have amazing libraries all around us.

  I found some books to look at to see if I wanted to take the books home. There is a nice area for adults to sit and read, with a sofa, 2 comfychairs and ottomons. I walked up, to find a woman with a child leaning on her, sitting on the sofa. I noticed a backpack lying on the floor. I went to sit down and the woman says, while gesturing her hand & arm around the area, "Uh, we have this whole area. I have four kids and we need the whole (long, big enough for three more kids) sofa and those two chairs." Just then a boy about 9 years old walked up. She said, "See, that is his backpack lying on the floor near the chair. That's his chair."

  I was taken aback. I said to her. "When I was a child, we gave up our chairs for adults." I gave her my "You're not slippin' that one by me, honey" look. "I know you know better." I walked over to the children's section and sat on the furniture provided for kids. I stifled the urge to go back over there and give the lady something else to think about. But I thought and I realized that I had said enough.

  People keep asking what is wrong with America. I think the problem starts when parents do not teach their children good manners and to respect adults.
• 

  mrsjones5

  I so understand
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  mkr32208

  You should have just taken the chair what was she gonna do, call the cops? F her
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  mrsjones5

  To what end? To make a scene? What would be the point in that? FHN was very gracious about it and let the woman have all those seats. Being a mature adult is knowing how to pick your battles and which hill it's really worth dying on.

  Josie
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  Josie, the kids weren't impolite, but the mother was instilling in them selfishness and lack of the proper reverance for adults.

  MKR, I figured what I said and then the action of politely walking away said more to her kids than taking the chair would have, by examples. If I had it to do over again. I would have just given her the look and turned to her child while I said, "Ya mean you're gonna miss this fine opportunity to teach this handsome young man how to treat a lady?"
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  But honestly, I think maybe the way I handled it was the right way. The lady was one of those plain, bespectacled, short haired, plumpish mammas. She didn't look like a redneck. Her bad manners took me off guard. She's the last kind of person you'd expect to do that.
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  wha happened?

  Oh my gosh! I would have been beaten black and blue for what I see kids getting away with nowadays. I know my friends teased me as a child because I was so "polite and proper" but those habits were definately beaten into me.
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  beksbks

  Josie, the kids weren't impolite, but the mother was instilling in them selfishness and lack of the proper reverance for adults.

  Sigh............being a library employee, I've been noticing this stuff for years. Mothers will be faced with fines, and say to thier 8 yr old kids "Ohhh I returned that book on time (6 years ago!), right Johnny? Johnny nods his head yes. It's truly disgusting.

  One day a little guy came up and asked us a question, we answered, he said Thank You. I swear myself and the other girl looked at each other with jaws dropped. We had to commend the lad on his good manners, it's so rare.
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  mrsjones5

  "Josie, the kids weren't impolite, but the mother was instilling in them selfishness and lack of the proper reverance for adults."

  I totally get that. I figure if a child is ill-mannered either it's because of a lack of training on the part of the parents and/or the parents are guilty of setting a bad example that the child is mimicking. Either way the child is getting the short end of the stick.
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  FlyingHighNow

  I feel bad for those kids. Their mother is training them to be territorial and selfish. She's going to end up heartbroken when they get as tall as her and make her sit on the floor while they bask in HER recliner.

  Beks, are you a librarian?