My Daughter Was an SC

[MamaMootz]

She's 5, but that's no excuse.

We went to the Sonic drive thru yesterday to pick up some Sonic Blasts because it was so dang hot and we did yardwork all day.

We pull up to the window, and my daughter rolls her eyes and says, really loud:

"JEEZE. Can you HURRY UP?" and heaves this dramatic sigh.

I was so embarrassed. I made her apologize to the lady at the window, and she got a lecture about how we never say that to anyone, ever. The people in Sonic work very hard, and they make food to order, so we have to wait longer. And we need to learn PATIENCE and MANNERS.

At least the girl at the window was cool about it. If you're on here, Sonic lady, please accept my apologies, again. And don't worry, Karma will come and get my child as she will be working in fast food or retail when she gets older.

[Plaidman]

Its too late. The corruption has been made. The SC has been comfirmed. Proceed to destroy....


XD Just kidding. On the bright side you made her say sorry. Now get her to do a supervised lemonade stand. Let her deal with the SC when she runs out of lemonade. Dangerous times from my youth I cry!

[Shengirl]

Real SCs don't monitor their children when they should. Goodness knows how people like to let their kids run wild in fast food joints, so I'm sure the lady at the window sincerely appreciated an apology - such a change of pace!

[georgiab]

That is so awesome that you made her apologize maybe there is still hope for her...I to teach my neices to treat people in the retail/server industry respect because they to will have to do it!

[Marxfan]

That was damn good parenting. No child at any age should behave that way, and you did the right thing making her apologize. The kid's gonna be all right.

[Pezzle]

I once did that (very young) because of something I saw on TV. I yelled at the drive thru people for giving me the wrong toy. My mother made me apologize, and I got a lengthy lecture on how we dont repeat thigns on TV.

[Becks]

Where did your daughter get THAT from?

[MamaMootz]

Where did you daughter get THAT from?

I don't know. I wish I did. I never speak to people that way, and neither does DH.

The only thing I can think of is that she picked it up from her fellow preschool children. Or it's her age because she is very impatient across the board. Or a combination of the two.

But she knows now not to do this - and I'm not working, so I'm home with her and can undo what was done in daycare/preschool.

[MoonChild2007]

Since its difficult to tell by words, how did your daughter say it? Did she say it in a "mocking cutesy tone" or was she really being a brat? Cause sometimes kids like to mess around and pretend a lot. I find kids innocent so if a kid told me that, i would laugh it off cause maybe she is being cute.

[wagegoth]

Don't feel bad, MM, my 11-year-old son has started doing similar things. Twice in front of me, so far. Lectures both times on putting yourself in the other person's position, it's not the CSR's fault, etc. It seems to be working. I think it's a combination of the beginning of puberty, worry about starting middle school, and the Asperger's, so I'm not stressing too hard.

Your daughter is probably adjusting to the big change of having you home again, and the stress from the change is coming out in odd places.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Kids can also just simply be impatient, and not actually learn the behavior from somewhere. Common courtesy is not something that is instinctive, it is learned from parents and peers. Kids that young are still of the mindset that they are the center of the universe and all revolves around them. I have a 4yo (will be 5 soon) daycare girl who has a bit of an attitude problem, which she is constantly getting the time-out chair for. Her mom isn't anything like she is, although I believe that is partially the reason why the girl is like she is-Mom is too much of a pushover and hasn't taught her daughter how to speak to adults, and ultimately other people as a whole.

I have even told Grace (the girl's name) that she is not to talk to people like that, and that what she is doing is being the kind of person that no one else wants to be around and that her mouth will get her in some big trouble one day.

[Posture Moll]

Where did your daughter get THAT from?

I'd say television. Watch just about any kid's show today and you'll notice that the writers have an affinity for equating brattiness with 'cute' or 'cool'.

Like Pezzle, I used to get in trouble with my folks for mimicking behaviour I saw on on the tube.

[blas]

Remember the Rugrats? That little Angelica brat?

If I started getting the "Angelica Attitude", as my parent's called it, I got a spanking and got put in the corner.

I know a lot of children saw that show and thought it'd be cute to act that way.

[MamaMootz]

Since its difficult to tell by words, how did your daughter say it? Did she say it in a "mocking cutesy tone" or was she really being a brat?

Oh no, she was being a brat. The tone was whiny.

[MamaMootz]

Kids that young are still of the mindset that they are the center of the universe and all revolves around them. I

Yes that would be my daughter. Although I continually reinforce good manners and behavior in her, she had a - I guess you could call it a backslide for lack of a better word - when she started a new preschool-daycare a few months ago.

Some of the kids in this new daycare had appalling mannerisms - one boy in particular was running around the playground screaming the f word and the mf word at the top of his lungs when I went to pick up DD. They put him in a time out and turns out he learned them from his dad. I had to constantly remind DD over the next few days that we don't use those words.

And DD has been becoming a real smart mouth over the past few weeks.

So the Sonic incident is probably part smart mouth, part trying to push those boundaries to see what she can get away with, and part having heard it from another kid.