Jackassery

[jonsan]

Every Labor Day, Acworth (the city I live in) holds a Pioneers' Day festival. I have no idea what Pioneers have to do with Ferris Wheels or funnel cake or over-priced bottled water, but the fair is a great way to drop forty bucks in an effort to create some pleasant childhood memories for the little ones. We met with three other families and a

Comments

[innocent_man]

I'd love to think that the Jackass was in "talking to buddies" mode rather than "talking to kiddoes" mode. That certainly doesn't excuse it, but I guess it'd made more sense than, you say, feeling good about talking to a kid like that.

[jonsan]

It just felt wrong. He may have been in "talking to buddies" mode, but I am not sure how that matters. When you say that to your buddies it is the verbal equivalent of punching them in the arm, and you just don't do that to a kid. Aside from the fact that you don't want the 6 year-old to copy that attitude in school or on the playground, the message was very straight-forward. Kids are great at understanding context, but there are also very literal with their language and concepts.

By "feel good" I meant "feel that it is accetable", btw.

[innocent_man]

No, I agree with you. I was just trying to figure where his brain was.

[jonsan]

Jackass Mode

[swgaines]

Hi, it's the jackass here. Firstly, if a pseudorandom person you barely know commenting on your lj is bothersome to you, i apologize, but my only other avenue was to try to obtain your email address second or third-hand, and as it stands at the moment, i'm betting i'm not someone you want having that sort of personal information about you, so i'm going with this one

[jonsan]

I never assumed you were a jackass or a bully, just that you acted as a jackass and a bully in that particular situation. Your response shows level-headedness and maturity. You may know D and his parents very well, and he may be accustomed to that sort of response, but perhaps the reaction of a quasi-stranger could be of some benefit to you. Saying that to him, in the manner you said it, wasn't good. I won't harp on it, I don't have a hate-on for you, but I have learned to trust my instincts and that situation set off some red flags

[swgaines]

Fair enough. We're going to continue to disagree that saying it to him at that time "wasn't good" and whether or not i was being a jackass/bully in that particular situation, but people disagree. We seem to just disagree about this particular incident though. I do think D knows the difference with people that he knows well, but i still appreciate the general mindset, and if i weren't confident that he knew the difference, i wouldn't do it. I certainly don't do that sort of thing with kids i don't know about