"NO BALL PLAY IN THE HALLS", reads the sign on the wall, approximately 8-10 inches away from where the lacrosse ball bangs with a rhythmic thump against the cinder block. That sounds like a great place to practice your lacrosse passes... if it weren't in the middle of a busy sports-complex hallway where a few hundred people are standing or walking all day.
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| Self-explanatory, no? |
The culprit? A 10 year old boy and his late-twenties / early thirties dad.
Let's pretend for a second that "maybe we shouldn't be throwing lacrosse balls against the walls of a hallway" isn't common sense, and let's also pretend that the adult in this situation did not see the very large sign posted right in front of his face. When a staff member of the facility walks by and says "Hey fellas, please hold onto those balls in the hall, ok?", that should be the end of the shenanigans, right?
Nonsense, this is 2015!
The non-adult, said "oh, sorry" and placed his stick and ball down on top of his equipment bag. The fully-grown adult stopped throwing the ball long enough for the staff member to pass, at which time he resumed his rule-breaking behavior and said "Come on pal, let's warm up".
Now very confused, the boy looks at the staff member (who isn't deaf or blind) and back to his dad, not sure which he should listen to, until dad turns around, caught red-handed. Perhaps the request wasn't specific enough the first time? "Please don't throw the balls in the hallway.", which elicited a snarky remark from dad, but he complied, nonetheless.
Good parenting, bro.
- Lesson Number 1: The rules don't apply to us.
- Lesson Number 2: It's completely ok to ignore authority figures.
- Lesson Number 3: As long as you're doing what's most beneficial to you, the safety of others is irrelevant.
- Lesson Number 4: If you get caught doing something you shouldn't be doing, instead of take responsibility for it, get mad at the authority instead. It's somehow their fault and not yours.
Now, I'm sure 10 year old Bobby isn't thinking all those things consciously, but it's likely not the first time a situation like this has occurred in this young child's life and eventually he'll get the hints.
I don't mean to be the judgmental non-parent who tells other people how to raise their kids, but who are you going to blame when your kiddo comes home from school with a report or a call from the principal that he isn't following the rules and/or is ignoring his teachers? Your actions speak WAY louder than your words, so maybe you should make a better effort to like, I dunno, be a little more self-aware? If kids were super-heroes, they'd be Spongeman... able to remember every stupid thing you didn't mean to teach them, but you did.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, please stop raising a generation of selfish, self-centered, entitled little brats who smack the medium Cinnamon/Hazelnut Dunkins' out of my hands with their stupid lacrosse sticks and don't even give it a glance or second thought. Great, thanks!
Ps: Stop hanging your jackets on the fire extinguisher. I mean, seriously... I shouldn't even have to utter that sentence to adults ever. Honestly.
