Icecapades

So now I’m starting to see glimmers of reasoning why this having dinners together may actually be beneficial to children instead of contributing to the decay of society as previous posts may lend one to believe.  At hockey practice yesterday one of the boys got benched for the last half of practice.  Pitbull and one of his teammates were playing at our house after practice so I asked them what happened on the ice.  Apparently the young rebel cross-checked Pitbull.  Now, upon further interrogation, I learned that this was not entirely unprovoked.  Pitbull had cheered when the rebel didn’t score a goal during the shoot-out drill thus aggravating the young rebel.  Clearly, this young rebel has some anger issues to work out.   And Pitbull needs to realize that he is wearing a Chihuahua suit (still not clear on that concept).

One of the boys on our team stutters.  The young rebel also decided that it would be OK to make fun of him for stuttering.  I think that may have been the last straw for the coach, especially since it’s his son who stutters.  When Pitbull and his friend told me about this incident, it made my heart sick.  I could only imagine what Coach was feeling.  I’m sure he had to restrain himself from going off on this young rebel.   If I were in his shoes (skates), I would find it difficult to not tell the troublemakers on the team to go home and don’t come back until they can treat their teammates and coaches with respect. 

At dinner last night, we were talking about hockey practice and what happened.  This is where I put the message out there LOUD and CLEAR that if we ever hear or get a report that our kids are EVER making fun of another person, there will be serious repercussions.   Mark and I went through the litany of things we could think of that would not be OK to make fun of about people.   Ironically, they laughed at some of the things we suggested which opened the door to further discussion.  It was good. 

Jake wrapped up the conversation by saying that the neighborhood kids made fun of Nana and Bop once.  Apparently, the kids across the street called them “Nana and BOB”.   Ouch.  We took the opportunity to explain that it’s one thing to make a mistake, it’s another to be mean just to make somebody feel bad.   And we were pretty sure Bop wouldn’t be too hurt by being called Bob.  It was sweet to see how protective they are of their grandparents, that by getting Bop’s name wrong, it was viewed as an egregious act of disrespect.   As it should be…

~ by karmental on December 31, 2007.