Lovingly penned by Jennifer W. in email to
cj@thiscrazytrain.com
Well, there are those days that you loathe to miss your regular train. And this time by 1 minute. So I climbed aboard the 5.20 LSE (which was late to start with). Little did I know that I and the other poor saps in the car would be subjected to the epitome of bad parenting.
Stereotypes aside (and believe me they were quite apparent), the 3 year old child screamed bloody murder from Union to Danforth. Before Danforth, the mother, grown tired of the dirty looks sent her way decided to challenge me. Demanded to know why we were sending these looks to her and the child, who at this time was laying on the floor, kicking her.
I responded that the people on the train did not pay money to listen to the child. She then ]asked what she should do. I told her to either comfort or discipline the child and not ignore it by reading her newspaper. She asked me if I knew what was going on (I am assuming some baby mama tragedy right now) and I said no, nor did I want to know. She then huffed and tried to put the child in a seat.
Eventually, the child quieted, got a treat and then by Scarborough station, started screaming, punching and biting the mother because said treat fell on the floor and was taken away.
What absolutely amazed me was not that I can see that a criminal future for the child, but that no one else in the car thought to say something else, even those who witnessed our exchange. They talked amongst themselves, but no one, not even the gentleman the child was laying on to kick the mother, did anything.
Anyone surprised? There's strength in numbers folks. Start backing up those who speak up.
10 comments:
I agree. I am so tired people letting their kids do whatever they want on the train without thinking of anyone else. I would speak up as well. At the end of the day you just want to get home without a lot of drama.
Sorry for the typos/extra words used. I was still a little keyed up when I wrote it.
I have no patience for out of control children. If as "They" say, "It takes a village to raise a child", does that mean I can discipline that child when it's needed? Good for you for speaking up. We should not be subjected to that at the end of a long day.
they should make muzzles for children and CSA's should have the ability to administer them!
sorry you went through that.
In her defence I have seen disipline make matters worse,
Sometimes better to ignore your kid,
Perhaps nobody else said anything cause they know kids will be kids.
Ignoring your misbehaving kid throwing a temper tantrum in your own home is all fine and dandy, but in public, the rest of us dont want to hear or see that annoyance.
She did try the ignoring. She never tried the discipline. She never even explained to the child why the behaviour was wrong.
This was not a case of "kids will be kids". I have never in my life seen such a disregard of public respect and lack of shame that came from this woman.
As the mother of a 6 year old child who has accompanied me on the train numerous times from the age of 1 and up, normal "kids will be kids" behaviour is general boredom, not what Jennifer described.
A couple of weeks ago I was on the train, and a child (?5-ish?) across the aisle was being noisy. After the first shushing didn't work, the mother patiently told the child he couldn't be taht noisy on a train, becuse it disturbed otehr people. I wanted to hug her and tell her wonderful she was (but didn't).
(The child then quitened down).
Lots of stero types in that story. Poor parenting knows no sociology economic or other boundaries. I don't like being subjected to anyone's kids good or bad. There should be a kid car or mufflers for them all
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