... give me the creeps.
Gary and I were out biking today, trying to build up a little endurance so that we might be capable of biking to town should we so desire. We passed three girls. When Gary passed them, I saw them giggling and pointing and smirking behind his back. When I passed them a few moments later, they did the same thing to me.
So what's their problem? Shame on us old people for daring to ride bicycles? Were our bikes not cool enough? Our clothes not cool enough? Or (more likely) anybody who's not part of their clique is probably smirk-worthy.
Call more over-protective. But that's one of the reasons I'm not wanting Maggie to go to school next year.
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I guess we should feel sorry for them - no one ever taught them manners... They should be the ones who are embarrassed!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just teenagers. I've witnessed just as many full grown adults using the same kind of nasty behavior.
ReplyDeleteYep. Sorry, but a lot of the teenagers I see scare me. They make me worry as much for the future of our country as our politicians do.
ReplyDeleteGoes on at my work all the time, every single day... sigh.
ReplyDeleteI have seen teenagers like that several times around town. It just drove me nuts when (before we had the double stroller) I was trying to make my way to the library with a huge bag of books, a diaper bag, a kid in a stroller, and a kid strapped on the front and some teens in a car started pointing and laughing at me.
ReplyDeleteI see it starting at the playground when these kids are 3 or 4 and following through to the careless adults. It saddens me to see how, as a society, "we" are raising these kinds of people.
Applicable: http://i.imgur.com/6xiqP.jpg
ReplyDeleteI can understand your apprehension. Unfortunately, the kids with the worst behavior seem to stand out the most. There are some good kids and Maggie needs to watch for and make friends with them. I can tell you that my girls made some good friends in public school so it is possible to do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was swimming once some pre-teen girl starting pointing and yelling "Bald-headed baby" at a bald boy. (He really was. He also was smart and just left the area.) I called her out on it and she was so shocked. She then apologized to ME and I told her to go apologize to him. The thing that really got me was she seemed to taunt out of reflex, not genuine digust. She wasn't even with peers to impress/stay in favor with, as far as I could tell. Why is the line between caring nobility and apathic barbarianism so thin?
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I wonder what would've happened if I stopped my bike and asked (trying not to accuse but to genuinely ask) what it was that they were finding so amusing?
ReplyDeleteI've been so proud of my daughter recently. In their apartment building are a couple of little girls. They're not terrible. But they're not monitored much by their parents. When Katie takes her girls out to play (and the other girls are there too), she's said things to them about how to behave, how to be nice, how to think about others' feelings. It's might be the only instruction-in-decency they're getting. But she's got the guts to say it.
And to the rest of y'all, you folks who commented on adults being the same way ... boy! How depressing!
We were at Noah's Ark with some friends before our Devil's Lake camping weekend, and we were waiting in line for one of the slides that is essentially a mini roller coaster in a tube. At the start, they put you in a tube and then the floor falls away and drops you.
ReplyDeleteI was terrified, but determined to give it a try.
There was a boy in his mid-teens also waiting, and clearly freaked out by the prospect. Seriously freaked out. He looked pale and a little sick. He stood at a break in the line, watching people get dropped. He told us that he didn't think he wanted to do it, and we laughed and said he still had plenty of time to make up his mind.
His friend was just ahead of us in line, and started teasing his friend for not wanting to go on the slide. The teasing went on and on, and he moved into downright MEAN territory, so I called back loudly to the kid, "You don't have to do anything you don't want to here!"
He grinned at me, and his friend kept making fun of him. I told him to not give in to peer pressure if he didn't want to.
His friend then said he'd inform his dad, and they'd both make fun of him. My friend Laura then asked the kid ahead of us if his father really would participate in bullying a teenager.
The bully shut up right quick.
I hope they left the poor kid alone. I know they didn't make him ride the ride, because he was heading back down the stairs as we got to the head of the line.
Oh, I'm so proud of you!!!! (And Laura too.)
ReplyDelete