I was enjoying a low-key jaunt in a nearby neighborhood with my son this evening. I was on the uni, he was roller-blading. I turned a corner on to fairly busy street and there were several kids out playing on the left side, with their backs to me. I veered right, slowed down to a virtual crawl, then of course one of them starts running backwards towards me. I yell to watch out, pretty much stop in place, but the kid still runs into me and knocks me over. Mom comes running to the rescue and proceeds to dress me down, yelling at me for having the nerve to be riding “that thing” on a busy street and be a hazard for her 8-year-old prince. My son even tried to tell her I was hardly moving. The kid was perfectly fine, despite her efforts to look over every square inch of him for any damage. I apologized of course, but she was still hurling venom at me as we left. Geez! And I thought I was going for a nice relaxing jaunt. In my opinion, too many parents are WAY too protective of their kids these days. Fear, fear, fear, terror, terror, terror. What have we become? Anyway excuse the rant. I feel better just writing this.
FWIW, if you had just been walking and the kid had run into you, you would have gotten the same treatment. The unicycle just gave her a little extra ammo.
My wife teaches 1st and 2nd grade, and has parents like this all the time. Basically, they’re impossible to please.
Sorry it happened to you–nothing worse than having some recreation ruined by some jerky behavior.
You’re probably right. I feel sorry for what your wife has to put up with. Hopefully it’s just a minority.
Parents are so busy coddling their kids today. Whatever happened to taking an adults word over a child’s? All she is doing is teaching the kid to place the blame for his mistakes on someone else.
Wow…I am thankful I am not that protective of my son…he has to learn to dust himself off, and keep going…
…as a matter of fact we have weekend training sessions where I routinely push him off the swingset at the playground…its about an 8’ drop…what doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger, right?
(is your sarcasm detector on…)
Haha,
Sorry for the rough encounter. Dumb mother of course. I would have thanked you, maybe an important lesson for the kid to watch where he is going.
Yea, I agree. Parents are much to protective of their kids these days. I have to second guess myself when a youngster shows interest in what I am doing when I ride by. Chances are if I stop some all to protective parent will assume I am some predator out to get there precious little one.
Wow. That sucks. She should have been yelling at her son for running backwards on a street without looking. That sounds dangerous to me. If it were my mom, she would have apologized to you a hundred times before “having a word” with me.
Wow.
These are the people that should have just not had children in the first place.
I can’t imagine her son turning out well.
What’s sad is how common this motherly idiocy is.
Detol* over all the cuttlery and sufaces i’m sure 
*anit-bacterial
I would have given that “mother” a piece of my mind - it would probably have been quite colorful too!
Thanks everyone. This might sound really “out there” to some, but as a big fan of British naval history (and I’m not even a Brit), I read with wonder about how mothers in the late 1700’s sent their 8-year-olds off to sea as midshipmen. They faced yellow fever, 100-foot seas crossing the Horn, and even participated in battle. I’m not saying we should go that far, but the pendulum has certainly swing too much the opposite direction in my opinion. These days we have parents demanding padding on public playground equipment! Coddling will not teach a kid how to develop common sense and be responsible for their own safety.
If her dog had attacked you, she still would have blamed you.
How to make friends and influence people.
Heck, I teach high school and have parents like that.
What ever happened to the good 'ol slap up side the head? If your kid messes up and instead of teaching them of their mistake, you blame someone else, what will they grow up like? I can just imagine them going off to college and then blaming their $10,000 credit card debt on the company that manufactures the goods that they irresponsibly bought. Jeeze.
Every lesson I’ve learned the hard way stays with me, and I’ll never forget them. So let your kids get out and about, and if little billy happens to touch the stove after being warned not too, his burnt hand can’t be blamed on anyone but himself.
raising kids that way is not doing them any favors. they need to learn to take care of themselves. people today are all wusses.
Man I am really impressed with the mature comments made here by young people. If only all kids were raised like you guys.