Friday 8 July 2011

Parenting Etiquette

It is school holidays here and we have mostly been at home inside due to bad weather, and also a long hard term that has meant that we all just want to spend some time at home and relax a bit. However, today I thought it was time to get out. Well, it was actually yesterday that I had this thought, but when I made the suggestion it was met with quite a lot of resistance from Rocket (aged 6) who seems to need extra time to get used to ideas at the moment. So we had our outing today.

We went to the Aquarium, which was beautiful as always. At the end of the Aquarium is a kids space and Molly May aged 2 wanted to go on one of the $2 rides (you know the ones they have in shopping centres?). Mostly she is happy just sitting on it without it actually going, but it was one with 3 spots (carousel - type) and the boys had hopped on as well, so I seized the moment and shoved some money in. Zander soon hopped off because he feels too grown up for that sort of thing, and then the Rocket decided that he would hop off too because Zander did. I didn't mind, Molly May was going round and round and happy as anything, waving at me each time. Next thing I know a couple of kids came screaming along, one jumped on and the mother shouted at the other child to hop on too. Not cool as far as I am concerned. Molly May gets shy around people, and while she was happy for her brothers to ride with her, she didn't want to ride with strangers.  As soon as she noticed she attempted to climb off, and although I tried to tell her it was ok to stay on, the ride was ruined for her and I helped her get off. I have been in the position when other people with similar rides have offered for my children to ride with theirs when there is spare room, which I think is really nice if the child is ok with it, but I really don't think it is ok to just jump on.

What do you think the etiquette should be with a ride someone else has paid for?
Have you had any experiences when you feel that acceptable parenting etiquette has been breached?

1 comment:

  1. I think that it's rude. It's like those people who sit at your table at a cafe without asking you: you're hardly going to say no, it's just a courtesy for them to ask.
    But it makes me think of the school, and kids. We think of the cranky teacher, or bullying, or nastiness for them to handle, but actually they will come across all these different standards of behaviour also, and, lacking our experience, that can be pretty hard for them as well.

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