Community Chat

[occasionalrain]

I was at a store a month ago. A child wanted fruit snacks, the mother told the child that if he was patient while she finished her shopping, he could have them. He must have been patient because I heard no whining or crying and at the check out I noticed he got the fruit snacks.

Last year we were at a busy restaurant, the table beside ours had a couple and their two children, I'd guess maybe eight and ten. The children stayed in their seats, talked quietly, and had nice manners. We complimented them on our way out.

[bikerbabe]

My next-door neighbors have five children ages 2 to 12. They are the most polite well behaved kids you could ever meet. I just love them.

[raven-blackbird]

ahhhhhhhhhh AT LAST.............a post with GOOD things to say about small kids...........thank you.........................................raven

[Lacey1]

I was at Wal-Mart last week. The store was pretty busy and the checkout lines were very long. I was waiting to check-out, there were about 3 customers ahead of me.

The lines were taking a long time, the lady waiting in front of me finally just left her cart in line and left! Anyhow, the second family in line was a woman with 5 kids. I would guess their ages from 5 to 13? She had a huge order with school clothes and food.

Those kids were angels! They watched Mom the whole time. No electronic gadgets. Finally, when she got to checkout, she asked the two smallest kids to sit with an older one, (where she could see them) and the other kids helped her with the cart. Quiet, no fighting, perfectly behaved!

I told that woman that her kids were so well-behaved, that it was a pleasure to have watched them interact! She said, 'Sometimes they test me, but they ARE great kids'.

However, in the same store a few months ago. There was a family, kinda trashy looking. The kids were running around everywhere. I was trying to look at the meat case and two of them rammed me. I told them, "Kids, go play somewhere else, please". Well, they went and told their mother. and I overheard mom say, "Why didn't you tell her to go F herself!"

Can you believe that?

[151949]

These two incidents of children behaving well have stuck in your mind eh?

[~moxie~]

I rarely come across children that misbehave. Most parents who have well behaved children don't yell or hit their children. I never once spanked my children. I was beatened by my father as a child and I vowed that I would never do that to my kids. Sending them to their room and taking way their privileges is one of many ways to have well behaved children.

[akaburtonfan]

occasional rain -- how nice of you to let the parents know that you appreciated their kids behavior -- that will stay with them a long time. When my son was very young we were in a fast food restaurant and two older women stopped at our table and complimented us on his behavior and it made us feel so good -- and I'll always remember that moment.

[Lacey1]

I was never once smacked or spanked as a child, and I never struck my children, (nor my pets). My kids misbehaved, for sure- but I believed in either speaking to them about their behavior, or using a diversion. I wouldn't call the diversions a 'time-out' but more of a , 'You seem to be getting frustrated, let's do something else'. If we went somewhere fun, and someone did something really bad, I would say, 'get in the car, we're going home'.

It's also good to time your errands with children, properly. Don't take them to the supermarket when they are tired, hungry, etc.

[ROMARY]

Re: Another post, describing a mom in a supermarket who told her child to use a swear word toward another shopper. It's a very bad idea to 'swear' or use those type of words around babies/young children. They will eventually repeat those words at a very young age. Then, it becomes a habit, unfortunately. Parents should be more careful around young children.

[ROMARY]

Yes, good parents, good kids. I never blame the younger children, just the parents for not teaching them to behave/be polite at a very young age.