Life Lesson

In case you don't have time to read this entire post, just learn this:

NICE MOM + NICE DAD DOES NOT EQUAL NICE KID

I met a great mom from Jack's class. She was really nice, funny and cute! She works out of her home full time, so her kids were in daycare when they were little and they are in after school care now, but she is available to volunteer at school and attend the class parties. She travels with her job a lot leaving her husband to care for the kids. A friend (and neighbor) of mine and I set up a playdate for several of the Kindergarten boys. Her son invited a boy from his class and I invited the mother and child in question. They live in the neighborhood so I asked the mother if her and her son would like to join us for an outside playdate in the cul-de-sac. The mother said she was going to be out of town on that day. I foolishly offered to have his dad just drop him off to play. She jumped on the opportunity! When I told Jack that the little boy would be coming over to play he wasn't excited at all. I asked him if he was friends with the little boy and my sweet kid said he was friends with everyone in his class, he just wasn't one of his best friends. I explained how it was important to be nice to everyone and since he lives in the neighborhood it would be nice to invite him to play. Jack reluctantly agreed. I couldn't figure out why he was hesitant to include him. The playdate was yesterday. My neighbor and I sat out in the cul-de-sac with Jack, her son and her son's friend that she brought home from school. The boys were getting along great. Then the other boy and his dad rode up on their bikes. The dad was really, really nice. Much more friendly than the average guy would be when they drop their kid off with a couple moms he doesn't know. Dad mentioned that he had to take the older kids to karate so he would be back to pick up his son around 5:15. As soon as the dad rode out of site the kid's head starting spinning around. He wasn't sharing, he wasn't following rules, he was pouting when he didn't get his way, he was tattling and being disrespectful. His crowning moment was when Lauren was standing on the sidewalk and he rode his bike right at her yelling "get out of the way, here comes a bike!" Lauren stepped out of the way, but apparently it wasn't enough for him because he swerved his bike and purposely hit Lauren with his bike! My friend and I were looking at our watches every 5 minutes hoping the clock would strike 5:15. I was figuring out why Jack didn't really care for this kid. He was a BRAT! Dad didn't arrive until 5:17. Those 2 minutes that he was late seemed like an eternity! My girlfriend and I breathed a giant sigh of relief as the kid and his dad rode away. A few minutes later the other child’s mother picked him up. We were so tense after we got rid of the extra kids that we had to share a bottle of wine! Let this be a lesson to all of you younger mothers, DO NOT INVITE A NICE MOTHER'S CHILD TO YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT SEEING THE KID IN ACTION FIRST. And, for you older mothers that didn't teach me this lesson and forced me to learn it the hard way; SHAME ON YOU!