Want to be creeped out?
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Neal Pollack, who is strangely hurting for money given his relative success, had his kid in a daycare program. Recently, the kid was "fired" because he was running around biting the other kids.
He was drawing blood, y'all.
Yet all Neal Pollack seems concerned about is the effect having the kid home will have on his work.
Now, I'll repeat that I wouldn't know good parenting if it came up and bit me on the ass, but this doesn't sound like it. What particularly creeped me out is that the story relates that the biting focused on one little girl, Sophie. (What is it about the name "Sophie" that evokes a skinny, delicate, large-eyed Eastern European girl? Absolutely not a person one could stand to see bitten.)
That he whines a lot is no shocker. I'm no stranger to inadvertantly displaying unattractive qualities on the internet.
But his complete and total disregard for the other kids, and the position his kid put the daycare workers in with the other kids' parents, is really disturbing.
One sentance of real concern. It would have taken seconds to type and would have changed my opinion of Pollack and his article immensely.
It wasn't there.
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2 comments:
My eldest bit a kid once at Montessori School.I felt horrible.
A friend's daughter seemed to take great delight in nibbling on my youngest too. It happened repeatedly over a long period of time, but the kids are very close.
I tease you more than anyone about the anti-kid thing (going back to beliefnet before we had blogs) but I think you are right on on this one.
My kids all have their issues (fortunately, they all behave really well for other people). Sadly, I do have friends in situations very similar to Pollack's. From an outside perspective it seems so shallow and self centered, but that despair is so real. I wish the professionals actually had answers (Pollack implies this, but I have behavior specialists in my barganing unit: they are great people but their bag of tricks is only so deep). Also, I've been the teacher where parents made excuses for kids' misbehaving. At two misbehvior does not have as clear a meaning. Pollack is lucky he didn't get a Child Protective Services referral under the theory that a kid that is this agressive may be disturbed from abuse.
For me the real question is, if you were the minister or lay pastoral care volunteer for a family in this situation, what would you do? How do you hold the tension between love and advocacy for your child and the need to be accountable and responsible (which is rather vague at 2)?
Apololgize your ass off and try to keep a close eye on the kid in the future, I guess.
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