Sabine
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,445
I''ve been spending a lot of time at our apartment pool since I''m home in the afternoons and don''t have much to do. I''ve observed some INTERESTING situations, to say the least!
Yesterday, there were 2 moms there who had boys that were about the same age. The boys had obviously played together before since they knew each other''s names. I''d guess they were about 5 or 6 years old. One mom was teaching the boy how to swim in the deep end when I got there, while the other boy was playing by himself in the shallow end with diving rings and balls.
After the swimming lesson, boy A went to the shallow end as well, and his mom got out of the pool. Boy B then proceeded to try to get boy A to play with him in various different ways...playing catch with a ball, racing to get the diving rings, etc. Boy A was pretty mean to boy B, would go after the ball when it was boy B''s turn, would take the ball and go out of boy B''s range, would take the rings from him, etc. Boy A''s mom kept telling him to play nice or they would go home, etc., and he would say okay, and then would ask his mom to come play with him. Eventually, Boy A just came out and said to Boy B "I don''t want to play with you. I don''t want to be your friend."
At this point, Boy B''s mom went over to her son and said, it''s okay, he doesn''t want to play with you, but you could tell she was just at a loss. Boy A''s mom did not say ANYTHING.
If you were Boy A''s mom, how would you have handled this? Would you force your son to play with someone just because he''s the same age, etc?
I really don''t know what I think about this. I think I would have talked with my child about how you have to be NICE to everyone and what he said was hurtful, but at the same time, if he didn''t want to play with the other boy, I don''t think I would have forced him to. What do you think?
PS - the toys belong to the pool itself, not either of the boys.
Yesterday, there were 2 moms there who had boys that were about the same age. The boys had obviously played together before since they knew each other''s names. I''d guess they were about 5 or 6 years old. One mom was teaching the boy how to swim in the deep end when I got there, while the other boy was playing by himself in the shallow end with diving rings and balls.
After the swimming lesson, boy A went to the shallow end as well, and his mom got out of the pool. Boy B then proceeded to try to get boy A to play with him in various different ways...playing catch with a ball, racing to get the diving rings, etc. Boy A was pretty mean to boy B, would go after the ball when it was boy B''s turn, would take the ball and go out of boy B''s range, would take the rings from him, etc. Boy A''s mom kept telling him to play nice or they would go home, etc., and he would say okay, and then would ask his mom to come play with him. Eventually, Boy A just came out and said to Boy B "I don''t want to play with you. I don''t want to be your friend."
At this point, Boy B''s mom went over to her son and said, it''s okay, he doesn''t want to play with you, but you could tell she was just at a loss. Boy A''s mom did not say ANYTHING.
If you were Boy A''s mom, how would you have handled this? Would you force your son to play with someone just because he''s the same age, etc?
I really don''t know what I think about this. I think I would have talked with my child about how you have to be NICE to everyone and what he said was hurtful, but at the same time, if he didn''t want to play with the other boy, I don''t think I would have forced him to. What do you think?
PS - the toys belong to the pool itself, not either of the boys.
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