Is The Entire World Stupid?
Read Time:1 Minute, 57 Second
Sometimes people behave so determinedly dumb that it’s impossible to feel even a little sorry for them.
Today, being alone all day, I decided to go to a nearby beach restaurant for lunch, or almoço, as it’s called here.
At the next table to me was a family of three, parents and a boy about 4 or 5 years old. Obviously a stranger to any discipline at all, he was running between tables, screaming his joy at being unfettered by any rules of polite behavior.
Eventually his father gave him a small pocket tool with multiple blades, and scissors. He fingers being too small to open any of it, all it could be was a shiny play toy. He promptly took it to the mother and demanded she open it. She did and now there were a a couple of knife blades and the scissors out. I knew this could not end well. Before anything bad could happen the father called the boy over and closed the blades again. As he was busy talking (loudly) on his cell phone, he did nothing when the kid went back the the mother and had her open the blades again.
As her son was making sweeping cutting motions with the opened blades, he soon cut himself. Crying with pain and anger, he started making stabbing motions at the mother. Within seconds, he had cut her. Now the son was crying and both parents were yelling at him and each other as two of them were bleeding.
Instead of telling them to leave, they were brought band-aids and towels for the blood.
Being at the next table, I was fortunate not to be cut myself, or sprayed with any blood. My ears were ringing, though. When I managed to attract my waiter’s attention, I asked for “a conta” (the check) even though my beer was only half finished and there were French Fries left.
So whose fault was this? The father’s for giving him the knife, even closed, the mother’s for opening it twice? The management’s for not asking them to restrain the child? Mine for not immediately moving to another table?
Some days it seems that absolute ignorance is taking over the world.
Follow MadMikesAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
In answer to the title. YES. Nuff said.
James, We had a different take on a similar situation. My wife and I were at a Mexican restaurant and close by there was a couple with a small child. The child was not happy with his meal and was fretting saying he wanted something else. The man began literally screaming at the child in a really nasty tone of voice. Telling him to eat what he had. When the woman tried to quiet both of them the man got nastier and got up and walked around behind the kid quite forcefully shook him a bit and screamed at him some more. Everyone in the small restaurant was staring at them. Before I could say anything my wife got up and walked over to the man and started shaming him in front of everyone. She looked at the woman and told her that she should not bring her husband out in public if he could not learn to act better. Surprisingly, I thought for sure I was going to end up fighting the guy, he sat down like a whipped puppy and apologized. For some reason even the kid shut up and started eating his food. I, of course, now had heartburn and indigestion and ordered another beer.
Having met your wife once, I am quite sure why she was able to get that reaction. She is sure of herself and so gets attention when she speaks. She did the right thing and so did you bu ordering another beer!
lol Carol. At my age I am sure the beer was far better than fighting the guy but you do what you have to to do.
In your real-world episode of “What would you do?”, I believe the “big guy” in the theater had the right idea. Society survives because of discipline, rules, etiquette, AND enforcement.
While the restaurant owners/employees might have intervened, that’s a lot to ask of a business owner who will undoubtedly eat the check AND run the risk of having the situation go sour.
It’s up to the patrons to assert themselves and demand some civility on the part of people who are, after all, offending them.
I don’t suggest you were wrong, James. I suggest you were too tolerant of an intolerable situation. Enduring an enabled brat may be saintly. About the time dad handed the kid the knife, my comment to dad…from a standing position next to his table, with cell phone video camera running…would be, “…take the knife away from your child, or plan to explain why you didn’t to child protective services.” Either the situation would have escalated into an altercation that would have us all tossed out, or things would have settled down nicely.
Then again, I, too, am a “big guy,” so I can get away with such behavior. 🙂
Jim, I love that show, “What Would You Do?” because it makes us all pause and examine just what we would do in a similar situation. I am always proud of those that speak up, stay calm, and call someone on their behavior. In this case, I am not sure I would have spoken up myself, but I sure will if I see a toddler with a Swiss Army knife being used as a baby sitter.
yoou seem to hat Ihave thought all along and some people should not be restrained from having children.
James to answer your question: Yes. The entire world is pretty fucking stupid if I may say so myself 🙂
The assholes rule the world. Simple courtesy is meaningless to them.
It’s happened to me a time or two, and each time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kill the kids or the parents. Both on one particular occasion when they were running around the movie theater throwing popcorn at us while the parents sat and laughed, until this big guy got up and told them in no uncertain terms to “get these fucking kids” under control or he would. Kids sat there quiet as mice during the rest of the show.
I experienced a similar thing at a local restaurant a couple of years ago. Fortunately the manager threw the kid and his equally obnoxious parents right out the door. Clearly you weren’t as lucky James.