Omigod

[poliphilo]

A stone just bounced off the window. Omigod. Three tiny little boys. Out I storm, looking neither to left nor to right.

Accomplice: It was him (points)

Perpetrator: It was an accident.

But the perpetrator has made the mistake of running straight home so I ring the door bell.

I am choking with fear, rage, whatever, but trying not to show it. Poor woman. She is skinny and grey and has scabs on her face. A drug user? More than likely. She apologizes and thanks me for telling her and says she'll ground the perp. I thank her back. As I walk away I hear her screaming at him and feel sorry for them both.

Comments

[balirus.livejournal.com]

Are you upset more at the pebbles on the window, or the boy?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Its a different kind of upsetness. The pebbles- actually this was a dirty great shard of concrete- set my nerves on edge and make me paranoid. The boy- well- I just don't know, but I've spent much of the day thinking about him and his mother and wondering what kind of life they have...

[balirus.livejournal.com]

When I see parents scream at their children, I feel mixed emotions. I feel sorrow for the child and anger at the parent, mixed with some strange sense of shame and responsibility for having bore witness.

I find it sweet that the boys came over to apologize, even though they were forced to do it I hope they felt some meaning from the act.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

That is SAD.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

An hour later there was a knock on the door and there were the three little boys offering their apologies. I guess mum had sent them...

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I just hope the worst they got was a bollocking and having to apologise if Mum was in a bad way.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I hope so too.

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

Discipline is one of those sad necessities, though. Better the boys learn how not to be destructive now while the damage and the penalties are both relatively light. It would be doing them a disservice to let them get away with it now, only to find themselves in trouble with the law ten years down the road.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I expect the grounding ended after he'd apologized. I hope so.