I have a question, and I am looking for your opinion.
P, Willie B and I have been attending story time at our local library for over 4 yrs (before Willie B was even born). There are a group of regulars that I have gotten very friendly with the exception of Mr. Grumpy.
Mr. Grumpy has daughter P's age, and a son Willie B's age. He has been attending story time on and off for as long as I have.
At our library they have a playhouse complete with a slid. ( no idea who's bright idea that was.) One day many moons ago Mr. Grumpy's daughter and P who were around two at the time where at the top of the slide together. Mr. Grumpy's daughter refused to slide down. After waiting a few minutes P pushed her on her back to make her slide down. The little girl was not hurt nor was she crying, but Mr. Grumpy didnt like what he seen and went total postal (nuts) on me. In turn I went nuts on him. I ended up leaving the library in tears.
This passed Friday my friends son J who is 3 yrs old, took a toy from Mr. Grumpy's son. Mr. Grumpy didnt like this either. Before my friend could correct her son Mr. Grumpy started shouting. He SHOUTED "Hey kid you don't take toys from other people. "Give it back now" " Bad boys steal toys." He proceeded to mumble stuff about how rude some peoples children are..blah blah blah
My friend took her son aside to consoled him. I wanted to rip Mr. Grumpy a new one. Now I have no issue with someone correcting a behavior but he was way out of line with his tone as well as with his choice of words. He could have said "hey buddy he was playing with that first, can you please give it back to him?" "When he's finished you can have a turn." Or he would have simply waited for my friend to correct her son. How would you have dealt with this situation? because I am sure its gonna happen again.
Hmm. That's a toughie!! I would have made some well-placed sarcastic comments, but that's just me. I hope you figure out a good way to deal with it!!
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