Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder why people have to always offer stuff to kids, especially when it’s something that they can’t or shouldn’t have.
For example, people like to hold a glass of wine or beer up to their lips and then, when they make a move as if to drink it they say “oh no, you can’t have that”. It could also be a piece of cake or a hunk of meat that they can’t chew. It’s as if people want to see if they’ll go for it.
When people offer stuff to my son like that I get angry. It’s not because I think that they’re really going to give it to him, but because I don’t want Luigi to get upset and, really, I think it’s just plain mean.
Am I overreacting to something that’s supposed to be funny?
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No, it is stupid, thick and mildly abusive. There are a lot of people like that in the world.
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Mary Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
That’s what I thought too Judith. How can anyone think it’s funny?
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I don’t think you’re overreacting at all. It bothers me too. I also think it’s very mean, and whenever it happens to Pata, she gets very upset and it takes a while to calm her down. I wish people would be more thoughtful around children. I think they forget that children are people too.
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Mary Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Pata must be like Luigi – when he decides he wants something, he gets really upset if he can’t have it. Children aren’t experiments. Like you said, they’re people too with thoughts and emotions.
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If it is supposed to be funny, it is humor that I don’t get. I can’t imagine “teasing” a baby/toddler/child this way. Why would someone intentionally want to make a child cry? If someone tries to make my child uncomfortable I scathingly make things verry uncomfortable for them.
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Mary Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Good for you Amber. I don’t think they do it intentionally to make him cry. They just think it’s funny when he reaches for whatever they have. I don’t understand why, but they do.
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I try to treat others (including small children and animals and anyone else who can’t properly stand up for their own rights) the way I would want to be treated myself.
I don’t care to be taunted with something I can’t have – whether or not I know I want it, and therefore I don’t appreciate others doing it.
I think you are well within reason to be irked. I usually push the person’s hand away and jokingly ask how they’d like it if I teased them with their dessert… or some such sillines.
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Mary Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
The next time someone teases him, I’m going to do the same to them and see if they like it.
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I just got back from 5 weeks in Abruzzo and found that pretty much everyone that came into contact with Simone did the same thing. It was especially hard trying to explain to my 90 year old nonna why 8 month old Simone could not have a bite of her cornetto con nutella as I lunged towards her hand removed the offending object. I mean seriously – he only has 2 teeth!!!
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