10.22.2004

Overheard on the westside subway train...

Mother to young boy: Give me the flowers. Now. Give them to me!
[Boy is three feet away, and blocked by a person. He tosses the flower bundle to his mom.]
Mother to young boy: Now. You WILL NOT get to play your Playstation 2 for 3 HOURS because you threw them disrespectfully to me!
Boy: Let me try again! Let me try again. Please.
[Subway passengers smile, some emit "awww" sounds.]
Mother to young boy: No. No Playstation for you. For 3 hours.
[Boy covers his face and sobs.
Mother reads paper.]

If my aim were to teach the boy good manners, I would have allowed the second chance (but perhaps would have reduced the Playstation time, instead of eliminate it altogether).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

actually, I don't get how docking PS2 time is a logical consequence to being rude...??? but who knows... maybe this was an ongoing problem and he had been warned "the next time you..." I agree though that the best way to get kids to be polite is to model it for them...
-Lisa

la Maitresse said...

I agree with you both.