why I sometimes don't like people
Last night Annabelle and I are taking our nightly constitutional on a street we've never walked on before. At one house on this street are a young couple starting their grill in their front yard while their two small boys, probably aged 2 and 4, are running in the street. Literally. So Belly and I are approaching them and the smaller boy looks as if he's about to run up to Annabelle, not a great idea. So I say to the mother, "She's not real great with kids," thinking that'll make her actually retrieve her child or do something other than scream at him to get out of the road. The little boy says "Doggie!" The older boy says, "Is he not nice?" referring to Annabelle. My mouth is open, I'm beginning to say something about how she doesn't like people who are shorter than her, when the mother screams, "No, he's mean."
"Not great with kids" does not equate to mean. I'm all pissed off on my dog's behalf, her being misrepresented first as he and then as mean. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
posted by aerobil @ 7:54 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I'm with you. Maddie is actually great with kids, but no dog should be rushed at. Kids have to be taught (and supervised) that dogs need to be respected. Kind of like cars--we don't expect a car driving at a normal speed down the street to have avoid small children rushing at it yelling "Car, car!" (I know, weird analogy, but go with me.) We teach kids to respect the power of a moving vehicle, and we supervise them around roads. Dogs, too, have certain behaviors we can anticipate.
If dog owners have to be responsible and keep our animals leashed and under control, then parents need to make sure their kids don't run up to them.
So there.And we don't call cars "mean" just because they don't mix well with small children.
Ah yes, but clearly these people didn't even supervise their children around roads. Imagine if there had been a car with a doggie sticking out of it. Lord.
In the mom's defense for calling Annabelle "mean": sometimes kids will respond better to (or understand) if you use short scary words.
Ms M makes an excellent point. We the childless just love pontificating on what parents ought to do, but sometimes we forget the obvious.
Indeed, but I gotta say this: perhaps if her children weren't playing in the road, I wouldn't be judging her so harshly.
You scared me for a second...I thought you were about to say, "If her children weren't playing in the road, I wouldn't have run 'em over!"
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