Depends upon where I am and who’s doing the talkin’…</p>
<p>I think it is extremely disrespectful for a bunch of teens to use that type of language in front of adults. It’s just one of my buzz things and one of the ways in which I am old fashioned. It’s not that I don’t know this language exists and that kids use it amongst themselves, but I can’t stand an egregious lack of respect for adults. </p>
<p>The last time I had to visit the finance office at my daughters’ high school, there was a group of kids just cursing away, and one even cursed out the woman working in the finance office! I was <em>truly</em> offended on her behalf, but since there were school officials and security people milling about completely ignoring this stuff, I just kept quiet. In another circumstance, I might have said something.</p>
OMG, BOY, can I RELATE!!! My youngest is an 8-year-old boy, and I do the SAME thing, completely forgetting how grown up I thought his brothers and sisters were at this age!! He reminds me though… <em>lol</em> ~berurah</p>
<p>^^^
I’m still doing this type of thing. My oldest is 24 and married. The younger ones are now 20 and 21. We all went out to eat before school started back up for the younger two. As we were loading in cars in the parking lot, I turned to oldest S and asked “Are the little kids riding with you?” They really gave me a hard time about that!</p>
<p>I give a death stare & tell teens to watch their mouths whenever I encounter bad language. Usually they apologize. Sometimes they glare back. But I think it’s something all adults should do.</p>
<p>Gushing over babies, the fatter the better, just can’t be helped.</p>
<p>One of my Mom reflexes is grabbing extra napkins, straws, whatever if we go to a fast food place no matter whom I’m with. Is the baby nonsense really a Mom reflex? My daughter oohs and ahhs over babies just as readily as I do.</p>
<p>I’m always insisting that everyone take a jacket even if it’s 70 degrees out, “just in case it gets cold”. My poor kids did a lot of perspiring as babies because I was always cold and would layer them up too.</p>
<p>Berurah, you should’ve seen her face. Nearly 20 years later I can still see it. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that expression on anyone’s face, before or since. She sort of said something like “no” and continued with the meeting, but, her face…rotflmao indeed…</p>
<p>But I also turn every time I hear a voice say “mommy”, and I’m constantly throwing my arm out for passengers who do not exist in my car. I don’t correct language though - never really did with D, so it’s not carved in my brain.</p>
<p>I teach kindergarten - and I instinctively react whenever I see a little child misbehaving or heading towards danger. I can’t help myself!!! Out comes the teacher voice, and there I am, telling a stranger’s kid, “That’s enough!” :(</p>
<p>Picture books at book fairs. New picture books, familiar picture books draw me like a light does the moth. I was looking at some delightful ones at the school bookfair, when the kindergarden teacher said, “you don’t have another one at home do you?”. And I had to remember that my little guy is in chapter books now. But I still will buy a beautiful picture book for ME, and read it aloud to any of the kids wanting to hear and see.</p>
<p>Seeing the ads on TV for cartoon movies about to be released and catch myself thinking “We should go see that. The kids would love it”</p>
<p>Reading the weather report in the newspaper every morning to advise S(16) what to wear to school and worrying later that he didn’t take my advice and is cold, hot, wet.</p>
<p>Packmom, I still worry about my older temperture-clueless kids. It’s a wonder that they have their fingers and toes left after spending some winters away.</p>
<p>Yep, my college age S has repeatedly refused to take the umbrella I bought him to school and I still think about him walking across his huge campus every time it rains even though it obviously doesn’t bother him.</p>
<p>This thread has reminded me of a sad incident that occurred in CA some time ago, one I’m convinced that the “mom reflex” would have prevented. A dad had taken his three-year-old son camping with him and they were headed home when something (a deer I think) caught the dad’s eye and he stopped the truck to tail the animal, for what he intended to be a few minutes, and thought it was okay to leave the boy since he was sound asleep in his carseat. He had stopped the truck in a turnaround area so it was visible from the road. Of course, he was gone longer than he intended and the boy woke up and was alert when a pair of hunters drove past. They slowed, saw the boy alone in the vehicle, but assumed the parent was nearby and drove on. Unfortunately, the child was just old enough to let himself out of the carseat and out the door to look for his father. He became lost in the woods and apparently died of hypothermia. (The grief-stricken father later committed suicide.) </p>
<p>Just reading the story made every mom reflex hair on the back of my neck stand up. As I told my husband at the time, if the people in the car had been women they would have stopped and stayed put until the parent showed up. Or honked the horn until someone came. Or called the police and waited until they came. I just know that no mom would have spotted that child alone and kept driving, hoping all would be well.</p>
<p>Guilty of treating my 9 year old like a baby in parking lots. OTOH I am still gonna do it.</p>
<p>Guilty of rolling down my window to tell grownups to hold their kids’ hands in crosswalks. It undoes me to see these three year olds 6 paces ahead of or behind their parents, not holding any hands. I hyperventilate over that.</p>
<p>Several months ago I was running errands in town and I saw this darling little girl, maybe four to six years old, playing alone on the sidewalk. No front door was ajar. All by herself. This was in a downtown area with quite a bit of traffic.</p>
<p>So I parked my car and approached her. I stopped about 10 feet away (not wanting to scare her) and I asked her where she lived. She pointed to a nearby house. I told her I thought she was too little to play out front by herself, maybe we should go find her ask her mommy to ask if that was okay.</p>
<p>So she walked me around back of the house to where her mom was sitting outside, yakking on a cell phone. I said, “Oh, excuse me, but I was just concerned seeing a girl so young with no supervision, with so many people going by” and her mom nonchalantly said-- “Oh, don’t worry-- she’s fine.”</p>
<p>I am a guilty mom and as my D left for college it intensified, I find my self doing too many mom things and have to pull back. But the worst part is I am also a principal and am not shy to talk to young people even if just advise, like when i see them trying to buy cigarettes, or when they need to hold a door for an elderly person…sorry it’s double dose in the blood!!</p>
<p>Is it just that women are more detail oriented?
I know I pay attention to things that I would rather not.
I will wake up if the cat is sitting on the end of the bed staring at me for example- but if you put a screaming baby next to my husband he would just roll over.
( not that I want to sleep through a baby crying, but Id rather not wake up every time the dog has a bad dream)</p>