Some Mothers Do Have 'em

[Dee Sa]

I was waiting at the bus stop today at the bus shelter a young woman was waiting with a small kid in a buggy and another boy about 5 or 6 years old, taking no notice of the elder boy whatsoever she proceeded to ring all her friends on her mobile that no 1 son had been "excluded" from school because he had tried to strangle another boy with a skipping rope and it was all the head teachers fault as she knew he had behaviour problems and should not have allowed a skipping rope in the playground as they knew what he was like !,presume it wasn't the first child he had tried to strangle then ? whilst these conversation was going on the boy in question finishes a can of drink dropped it on the floor and stamped on it with his foot & crushed it then threw it at a passing car then attempted to smash the glass in the bus shelter, did she say one word to the boy, no she was too busy talking on the mobile. Is this what is known as "modern parenting "?

[ummmm]

No, that is not 'modern parenting'

[pixie373]

No, it isn't! Sounds more like a mother looking for support, struggling with a child with special needs. Not the most effective parenting at that point, but perhaps difficult 24 hours a day.

[pastafreak]

Pixie...you are too kind. I'd call it non-parenting. Sounds like a child looking for attention...and I don't mean that in a nasty way.

[pixie373]

"Behaviour problems" could mean anything. Hard to tell, so I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. My youngest is autistic, but you can't tell from looking at him.

[237SJ]

It doesn`t really matter what kind of behaviour problems the kid has - when his behaviour impacts on others around him, the mother should have intervened. Lobbing cans at passing cars (possibly causing a fatal accident) is not acceptable.

[pixie373]

Yes. I agree, she should have intervened, particularly knowing he might be unpredictable- but it's difficult to judge somebody's parenting skills on the basis of a few minutes. I'm sure most of us come up short at times.

[237SJ]

Well, I would find it pretty easy to judge if the mother was chatting on the phone (unless of course she was reporting her kid to the authorities for being a danger to traffic which I doubt).

[237SJ]

Reminds me of the time my mother was standing outside of our village shop to have a chat with the local GP who lived down the road. She (the GP) had her son with her and he was asking repeatedly if they could go back into the shop so that he could have an ice cream. The answer was a repeated "No" so while the woman carried on talking to my mum, the son reached up and bit her really hard on the arm. She didn`t bat an eyelid! Completely ignored him - my mum was aghast. The kid went on to be excluded from school for pushing a boy down the stairs, causing a broken leg. So much for ignoring bad behaviour!

[elliemay1]

Yes, but she should be trying to do something about it rather than chatting on the phone. Also, she shouldn't discuss this in front of the child. The fact that she's blaming others shows that she's in denial.

[Jeza]

I'd like to say I'm gobsmacked but I'm not. I live close to an infant school and often see bad behaviour when the parents pick their kids up. I will add a lot of it is from the parents.

[boxtops]

If the son is hearing her saying publicly that nothing's his fault, what sort of message is that sending to him? Nothing's ever going to be his fault, so don't take responsibility for anything!

[anneasquith]

I do feel very sad for the children.