We've all heard the saying or even said it ourselves..."if you can't say anything nice, than don't say anything at all."...
Not sure the mom I overheard yesterday in the hallmark shop as I was picking out a 80th birthday card was brought up with the same conviction. This is the following conversation I heard over the card display between a mom and a 4 year old son:
"Mommy, I'm hungry."
"Aaagggghh, Tommy, you are not hungry. Look at your stomach. See how fat you are?! You are NOT hungry."
I should have slipped the boy my business card. And we wonder why kids have low self-esteem.
Speaking of self-esteem, mine certainly was under attack yesterday as I trucked on down for an iced coffee after the card shopping. The following conversations happened within seconds of each other:
A boy probably 4 or 5 was walking ahead of me with his mom when he caught Delsie out of the corner of his eye. From that point on he would turn his head around attempting to maintain his walk forward. At any moment I thought the kid was going to stumble on the concrete sidewalk. The mom was oblivious to the whole thing until they reached their parked car.
"Come on, bud."
He now completely stopped and is staring at me.
"Buddy, come on!"
The mom notices he is staring at me and is obviously embarrassed.
The boy still staring and not budging, points at me with an extended arm and says loudly, "Is her legs broken?!"
Curious as to how this inattentive mom going to respond, I smile while staring back. She scoops the boy up and stuffs him in the car and quickly shuts the door while answering, "yup."
In my meek opininion, she missed two teachable moments with her son.
It's not IS her legs broken, it's ARE. Legs are plural.
