And I'm not talking about "teen-ager kids". I am one of those and I realize that, although many in my generation give teen's a "bad rep", we are relatively good. That is when compared to the kids who are currently "pre-teen" and younger.
I work at the public pool in my town and we get some of the most trashy, mouthy little turds (that's saying it nicely) there are. Last week I had a 6 year old, BR, back talk me because I told him he was "benched" (that just means that he had to sit down for 15 minutes without talking to anyone because he broke a rule.).
To start off with he was running which is not allowed. I had told BR about 5 or 6 times to stop running, and the other 2 lifeguards had each told him about the same amount of times. Now, I understand that it is hard for a kid to walk when he is playing with his friends and having a good time at the pool. But being told 15 times to not run in a 2 1/2 hour time span is a bit extreme. So I stopped BR and told him if he ran again he would have to sit down for about 10 minutes. He said ok I won't run and hopped back in the pool and I went back to being the wonderful and attentive lifeguard that I am. A few minutes later, a little boy, JH, who is about 7 or 8 walked up to me holding his side and crying. I asked him what was wrong. JH said he got pushed in the deep end and when he got pushed he hit his side on the concrete wall.
Normally, I would have sorta blown it off because it happens all the time, but since JH was hurt and crying, I asked if he saw who pushed him. He said no, but the other guard saw the kid and pointed him out to me. Yep, it was BR. I went over to BR and explained to him, *nicely* that he couldn't push other kids in, that JH got hurt because of him, blah, blah, blah... After the lecture I told him he had to sit out for 15 minutes for pushing and running (BR was running while I was talking to JH). That little s**t looked me right in the eye and said "No."
Shocked at being backtalked by a 6 yr. old, I stood there for a few seconds. Then I looked at BR and (still being slightly nice) said "Yes, get out and go sit on the blue bench." He looked at me like he knew I meant business and started to swim towards a ladder. But when he was about 2 ft. away from the ladder he started to swim towards the center of the pool. I blew my whistle at him and (getting more ticked off by the second) said, "I told you to get out, and I meant it. Get over here, get out, and go sit down." He began to head to a different ladder then pulled the same stunt.
By now I was pretty pissed. I walked over in front of BR and said, "If you don't get out now, you will be sitting on that bench for much longer than just 15 minutes." BR started to whine that he need to find his 12 yr. old brother Derrik (who I despise). I told BR that if he went and sat for a little while then I would get his brother for him. However, BR spotted Derrik in the concession area before he got to the bench so he ran, yes ran, to sit by his brother. I walked over to him and said "What do you think you are doing?" BR replied, "It doesn't matter where I sit so I'm going to sit here." I glared at him. "Yes it does matter where you sit," I told him. "Go sit on the blue bench." He looked at me and started to whine again. "But I'm sitting here and I'm being good!" he said. "I don't care!" I nearly yelled. "Go sit down where I told you to or else I might just make you go home for the rest of the day, and maybe the rest of the week too."
I finally had to have his brother nearly drag him to the bench. After he sat down I told him he couldn't talk to anyone and he could get up when I felt like letting him. Then I went inside the bath house for less than 1 minute and when I came back out he was walking back to the concession area. I walked over to him and asked him what he was doing. "I was looking for you so I could ask you how long I have to sit here for." UGH!!!! That was a load of crap. I told him once again he could sit there until I felt like telling him to get up. Then I had to go switch spots with the guard at the other end of the pool. About 5 minutes after I got to the other side of the pool BR got up and left the pool so he wouldn't have to "serve his time".
At the end of the day the girl who was cashering told me BR and Derrik made a big fuss about BR getting benched and they said their mom would come out to the pool and yell at me and complain to my boss about me. She told them to bring it on and then told BR that the next time he came to the pool he had to sit out for twice as long (like 30-40 minutes) before he could swim for leaving. Haha... revenge is a sweet, sweet thing...
Anyway I was totally blow away by the blatant cockyness and rebellion I got froma SIX YEAR OLD!!! What are his parents teaching him at home?? I hope that when I have kids (in the far, very far future) they, and their friends won't be as spoiled and bratty as the kids today are.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
For your sake, I hope kids aren't as spoiled and bratty too. I'm usually not such a pessimist but in this case I'm gonna say, "Don't hold your breath".
I think the spoiling at least is going to continue to the point of out of control. Parents want to give their kids better than they had it, and nowadays, many have it pretty good to begin with. We're getting used to lavish lifestyles as being closer to the norm. Throwing hundreds on clothes now is nothing compared to that behavior 10 years ago.
Bratty? Good luck. At least you have had a lot of contact with children to help your knowledge base on raising them. When I had kids, I truly and thoroughly thought that if you just loved them with all your heart, it would be OK. Let me tell you, that is WRONG. Course, it might have worked out better with my youngest but my oldest? Huh uh.
Post a Comment