Letters You'd Write If You Could...pt 1
My friend Sarah, who has worked in retail/restaurants for many years, has begun posting "letters she wishes she could write to certain customers" on her blog. In that tradition, I would like to direct the following letter to a parent I saw at the store the other day. We've all run across parents who are just plain mean to their children in public, right? Such is this kind of parent:Dear Mrs._________,
What a joy it was to see you and your 6 young children in the store the other day. I was especially blessed by the loud, incessent scolding of your children which you demonstrated for the entire, hour-long duration of your visit to the store. I can't imagine what example they would be following which would cause them to be so unruly. I also want to commend you for your skillful use of sarcasm and derision. As we all know, when aimed at children under 4, this kind of behavior is an effective way of conveying love and encouraging kindness. When your child asked who you were buying the tie-tack for, your response of "Who do you think would want a tie-tack in our family?!" was sheer genius. I am in awe.
If such behavior continues, I look forward to seeing what well-rounded, grounded, confident and kind children you will have in a few years.
Truly, you would have done Roseanne Barr proud.
Sincerely,
Nikki Wallace
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This got me thinking about how a Christian is supposed to react when they see something like this (or much worse, which I've seen) happening in public...parents screaming at their kids (even deriding them using profanity)...or on a different level, seeing a customer being extremely rude to a store clerk (which I saw happen at Marshall Fields the other day). At what point are we supposed to step in and say something? What does love look like in that kind of situation? Thoughts?
posted by Nikki @ 4:03 PM
2 Comments:
there's nothing like a crazy mother... I was at blockbuster one time and this lady was there with her teenage daughter and her teenage daughters young child. When the child wandered off, they didn't say things like "heather, come back here" (or whatever the girls name happened to be) but they would yell across the store "hey fatty, come over here, i'm sure you want some candy". Now this child was a little tubby but at3 -4 years old you can't control that... I don't even want to know what that child will end up being like.
That's terrible.
One more humorous parent I saw recently came into the store with her small child on a leash. Then when she took him off the leash, he proceeded to SPRINT around and across the store. Literally. She seemed shocked, which I thought was funny. :)
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