This evening after dinner Matt, Mikayla, and I were blowing bubbles outside our front door. Mikayla had been playing with her "corn popper" that helps her walk, but dropped it parallel to (and on) the sidewalk. Suddenly, a boy (elementary age) rides past her and hits the handle of her popper. In order to do that, he had to turn his wheel to go over only the handle. He makes a circle and comes back, this time hitting the popper part straight on, clearly on purpose.
Now understand this - the last time I saw this boy he almost hit Mikayla purposely with his bike. Then, when I asked him if we could get by him he turned his bike perpendicular to the sidewalk and blocked the entire path. His mom ignored his near hit of Mikayla and laughed at him blocking the path.
Ok, so I remembered my last encounter with him. After he hits her toy two out of two times, I yelled "Excuse me! Please do not run over my daughter's toys. It's very rude!" in my teacher voice as he rode away. His mom was on her cell phone during this whole ordeal; however, she heard me getting after him and brought him over to me. I'm assuming an apology is coming. Wrong!
She was so angry that I used my teacher tone with him. She went on and on about my "bias" against children and how I need to treat him "righteously." What?! I said the same thing I would say to my own daughter or my students or any other child that is destroying someone else's property.
Then, she tells me she can't ask him to apologize because it was an accident. Now this is really getting absurd for two reasons.
1. She was on the phone, not paying attention. I saw it. Twice. Not an accident. Not even close.
2. Even if it were an accident, an apology is still in order. For example, you don't notice someone is in line and you cut in. Upon noticing, you say, "Oh, I'm so sorry" as you take your place behind the person. You accidentally bump into someone, you say sorry. You run late due to things outside your control, you still say sorry. So even if she believed it was an accident, an apology was still appropriate.
By the way, I did apologize to him for my tone and to her for offending her since they are neighbors. She stayed outside our home for another 10 minutes still talking about how children need love and lots of chances, etc. Good luck, lady, when your kid's a teenager. I'd like to know how enabling him works out for you.
