I recently had an experience where a young child (six years old) became a little too carried away with me. Not that it makes a difference, but we don’t really know each other well. She was a little too comfortable with me and being extremely disrespectful. She really crossed several lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Below are a few of the things that she did:
1. The child came over to me and said “Who are you?” I said “Hi, I’m Angel”. This was not bad, but the look on her face told me she wasn’t done.
2. She comes over to me sometime later and starts to knee me on the thigh. She tries to straddle my leg and starts to jump around. Now, I don’t know about you, but I won’t allow any six year old girl to straddle my leg, and I certainly won’t let them jump on it. Not in this day and age of sick minds and such. So I held her off of me and told her to stop.
3. Later she comes over and says “What’s that on your face”? I looked at her and said “I know there is nothing on my face.” She then slapped me on the face and said “Yes there is, I got it though”. I shook my head and just looked at her. Now I’m starting to see red, touching someone’s face is a cardinal sin where I come from.
4. Later she comes over again and says “You are heavier than my dad, but he’s taller. You are a big, fat, white guy. He’s not fat like you.” I looked at her, and now I’m thinking to myself this kid is really pushing some boundaries here considering she is speaking with someone she doesn’t know at all.
5. Later on she returns yet again, she picks up a chip, dips it in guacamole, then launches it at me. First of all, I don’t like guacamole yo! So now it’s all over my arms and clothes. What’s wrong with this little girl?
6. She comes over after I cleaned up and starts to hit me, she threatens to throw more guacamole at me. I told her “Stop, you are getting carried away. Stop disrespecting me”.
Her uncle was around at that point, and I told him please check this child, she’s really being disrespectful. He tells her to stop. Later on her mom comes over, I asked her the age of the kids as I didn’t know it, that’s when I found out she was six. I stated in a nice way, “I guess her age has something to do with her lack of respect and sense.” I don’t like dropping dime on anyone, but what are my options here? So I told her mom “She did xyz to me”, the mom looked at her and said “Angel is family, you can’t treat him badly, be nice to him.” The little one said “How can he be family, he’s not Chinese.” Mom tries to explain, and eventually leaves. Be nice to me? She slapped me! Later on I observe the kid doing something the parents told her not to do and she is threatened with a time out. A time out? What is this world coming to?
I assume she was just playing with me, I wasn’t furious, but slapping? Insulting and disrespecting an adult? I don’t like that game very much. I decided to leave the event because I didn’t want to create waves by complaining further, but I wasn’t going to tolerate anymore disrespect out of this child. Time out “threats” aren’t going to cut it. So I felt ill all day, for this reason I excused myself and bounced.
This video below discusses “La Chancla” (it’s spanish for sandal), an ancient tool of discipline in Latino households. Whites, Asians, and other “time out” cultures need to get with this “Chancla” program!
I have little tolerance for disrespect, particularly when someone touches my face in that fashion. Leaving was the right thing to do. I’ll bring this up to the mother and father because this behavior needs to be corrected. As if I don’t have enough to deal with from the little terror that lives above me!
Just a life long New Yorker sharing the journey through my lens. Please take note of a post’s date. The views I express here are subject to change and evolving as I grow and learn.
Thuy, I’m all about keeping the peace. I was a guest at their event, so I had the option of leaving. I certainly couldn’t sit there and let that little girl continue to disrespect me like that.