If a child was peeking into your wardrobe whilst on a playdate with your little one, you probably wouldn’t be best pleased – but that’s exactly what happened to one bewildered mum who branded the kids ‘feral’
Children’s behaviour is one of those things that can divide mums and dads – what one parent finds acceptable, another would find abhorrent. One woman was horrified at the behaviour of her neighbour’s kids though, so she decided to head online to list the things that they’d done wrong whilst in her house.
She took to Mumsnet to rant about the ‘feral’ behaviour of the children, explaining that she isn’t a particularly strict mum herself, and her parents were pretty laid back as well – but she didn’t understand how other parent’s allowed their children to behave in such a naughty way.
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here
She said: “Let me start by saying I’m in my early 30’s and I definitely don’t come from a “children are seen and not heard”, military-family type background where children weren’t allowed to speak. My parents were quite laid back in some ways.
“However, we’ve had our first child and this year I’ve started to make my first mum friends. No dads, it’s very traditional around here, all either stay-at-home mum’s or part-time working mums as the primary carer, in a new fairly middle-class area which we’ve only been living in for the last year or so, so don’t have strong social networks yet.
“I’ve only really started to host ‘play dates’ in the last few months and very often the parents of the baby bring older children along, which I thought was great!
“So it’s two babies plus (say) a four-year-old and a five-year-old. Or a couple of three-year-olds plus a seven-year-old. Most recently, a five and a six-year-old with two babies visited – and the average behavior is feral!
“Most have been jumping on the sofa (to the point I thought it was going to break springs and had to tell them to calm it down myself eventually), one child going into our bedroom and looking through the wardrobe (!!) when going to the bathroom, one was repeatedly sneaking into the kitchen where I was making lunch and stealing stuff from the fridge ten minutes before I was due to serve it, lunch just smashed up into a ball of mess and not eaten by older kids (five to seven years old) regularly.
“Getting up halfway through a meal to run off and play with toys at age eight. Constant whining for snacks and sugary drinks. One refused to drink anything at all during a two-hour visit because we only had milk or water (I literally had no juice in the house to offer).
“Stealing food from other people’s plates. Constantly interrupting adults having a chat – not while being ignored, just as the normal way of communicating. Ramming metal car toys into the wall so the wallpaper is scratched and the plaster has dents in it in the living room.
“A few days ago, one little ‘darling’ decided it would be funny to remove all the sofa cushions and drag them into the dining room so no one could sit down until it was all fixed as we helped the younger small take shoes and coats off, then the six-year-old child stood giggling while the adults just sorted it. If I’d done that as a kid as a guest my mum would have brought the wrath of God down on me there and then!
“I genuinely don’t believe a lot of this would have been accepted when I was a kid, and the first couple of play dates, I thought we’d just met a couple of bad apples, but it’s now five or six visits with three different families. I’m not happy to accept further play dates at home if it’s going to be like this and people think it’s normal.
“My husband is the same, he’s been shocked at the state of the house when people have left and on the times he’s been here, he’s sick of people not telling their kids how to behave as a guest and feels similarly uncomfortable at having to intervene when a child has been doing something dangerous or damaging while the parent sits and ignores it. Please tell me this isn’t normal?
“Let me be clear, the kids seem perfectly NICE as children, and they play nicely, e.g. sharing toys, it’s just the general disrespect for adults or breaking things that I am finding absolutely shocking.)”
She then added: “P.S. These are neighbours and other locals that we’ve met at play groups, i.e. fairly normal families to get to know in the area.”
Other parents were quick to highlight that this is not normal behaviour from children, and it shouldn’t be accepted.
One mum wrote: “It’s not normal, my children would be taken straight home for any of this. They know there are different rules at other people’s homes. I’d be mortified if they behaved in the way you’ve described.”
“Definitely don’t think that’s normal! I wouldn’t have stood for any of that”, another added.
Another said she wouldn’t stand for this, writing: “This isn’t normal. I have three kids but wouldn’t tolerate this in my own house let alone somebody else’s. I wouldn’t be inviting these kids back they sound spoiled, rude and have parents that have no control over their behaviour.”
“I wouldn’t put up with it”, another wrote. “Haven’t seen that behaviour, though I am a teacher and do feel behaviour is slipping. Less discipline!”
Would you be happy with children behaving like this in your home? Let us know in the comments.
Read More
Read More
Hits: 0
