What is WITH people, anyway?

There I am, in Food City just down the street, picking up some things to make my incredible beef stew. I'm just putting a couple of parsnips in a plastic bag, and stowing them, with the onions, carrots, potatoes and celery in my side bag, when this little girl walks up to me. She was, maybe, 10 years old.

"Mommy says I can ride that," she tells me.

I look down at her and say "No, you can't."

That should have been it, but it wasn't. This kid starts screaming at me. Her mother comes up and tells me: "Just let her ride it. What's the big deal?"

I told her what the big deal was... but she didn't care. She says to me: "You don't look that sick to me." I finally just told the woman (all the time this is going on, her kid is screaming, there's some store employees and other shoppers gathering around), "Look, this isn't a toy. They cost over five thousand dollars... but even if they didn't, I said 'no', and it belongs to me. You might let your kid run your family, but that's your problem, not mine."

She took her daughter, walked away, and said: "C'mon. Let the old man alone."

Sheesh....

[pam]

Moving to Off Topic, because this thread is really about social issues, not about the Segway, per se.

[polo_pro]

I've had a few insistent people push to ride Eeyore. In some cases, they're almost rude (and often people who fall into this category are "questionable" anyways...perhaps they get alot of folk denying them a chance to do stuff?). This never use to be a problem, because I'd put anyone up on Eeyore. But with the increases in handlebar prices for Gen 1, I've changed my policy. I no longer feel I can turn with a smile as some one hands me Eeyore's broken off grip and say "don't worry about it...the important thing is that you had fun", if it ever came to that.

Anyways, I've found a very effective way of handling folks like that is to send them to my local segway dealer. I suggest that they take a "test glide" there (though I'm not so sure the Sac segway dealer does this...imagine that?). It's a win-win situation, because you don't risk your equipment AND the odds increase that their curiosity might turn into real interest that causes them to visit their local segway dealer.

ps - Obviously in Eric's situation, this approach isn't as applicable since the little girl was expressing the curiosity/interest. But at that point, I fall back on the "minimum of 100 pounds to ride" rule, eh? If the mother starts giving me flack about that, I turn to her with the "don't you want to be a good mother who watches out for the safety of your child" argument.

[GadgetmanKen]

Yeah, the weight rule should've been enough. Sounds like the kid was already a handful as well as the mother. Chances are the brat would not have gotten off of it, or listened to anything you would have said not to do, or how to do, and would have wrecked it into something,anyway. You most certainly did the right thing.

[polo_pro]

Originally Posted by GadgetmanKen

Yeah, the weight rule should've been enough. Sounds like the kid was already a handful as well as the mother. Chances are the brat would not have gotten off of it, or listened to anything you would have said not to do, or how to do, and would have wrecked it into something,anyway. You most certainly did the right thing.

Actually, I brought up the "weight" excuse, but I don't think Eric did. It's alot easier to come up with pat suggestions afterwards like I did. I wasn't in the moment like Eric. Maybe the mother was abrassive and pushy...that'd certainly get my territorial instincts going.

ps - Of course, the whole "kid starts screaming at me" part of the incident would have also set off my "respect for your elders" instincts too. Again, I point out that I'm arm chair quarterbacking....I wasn't there feeling the pressures in the moment.

[quade]

Originally Posted by polo

But at that point, I fall back on the "minimum of 100 pounds to ride" rule, eh?

Sorry, but at that point I fall back on the "No, means no" rule.

If mom doesn't understand that, she's just to stupid to be reasoned with in any case.

[KSagal]

I'm with Eric and Quade on this one...

I may have started with the 100 pound excuse, (Actually, I do not let kids demo my machines anyway) but if I had not, or had started as Eric did, that is it.

Just because the mother is as disrespectful as she was, you already know why the kid is as they are, the poor kid has no parents!

I may feel bad for the child, but still would not buckle. I would address the child and say, "I have told you that you will not ride this machine, and that is the end of this conversation."

Then to the mother, I would have told her that she needs to take parenting lessons... That she should teach her children to respect other people.

After she (the mother) decided to give you the parting shot, I would have responded to the child by telling her that her mother can simply buy her a segway of her own, if she wanted to. Then tell the girl how easy it is to ride, if the mother would just get her one...

You know at that point, the mother will be hearing about segways for a long time from that kid...

Of course, I don't have a lot of people skills or experience. I usually just work from theory as has been pointed out in other threads...

[jryan]

I do not understand many parents these days. People wonder why the youth seems to be going downhill and much of it is the parents. You see it is a small group of the youth that gives the rest of them a bad name!

I do feel bad for the girl because she will be spoiled and allowed to have everything she wants and it probably won't be until she gets pregnant at the age of 14 that the mom starts to step up.

The answer is, Eric, there is nothing more you could have done. To the kid and the parent no matter what you would have said you would have looked ignorant! The funny part is that parent would never dare telling her daughter she could drive someone else's car even though many cars are ceaper than your Segway!


Jeremy Ryan

[SEGsby]

The problem is mom can't say no. Never has since day one. If they can't respect each other's boundaries or rules, how can they extend that to others around them? She and her daughter will both end up hating each other, in the end. That's what happens when you raise consumers, not children.

Sorry to hear of your entanglement with their dysfunctional family politics, but I think you got away cheap, in terms of social cost. But those costs will escalate as their relationship rots from the inside out. Be thankful you won't be there to see it.

We can't fix everyone. Hang in there.

SEGsby

Originally Posted by Eric Payne

There I am, in Food City just down the street, picking up some things to make my incredible beef stew. I'm just putting a couple of parsnips in a plastic bag, and stowing them, with the onions, carrots, potatoes and celery in my side bag, when this little girl walks up to me. She was, maybe, 10 years old.

"Mommy says I can ride that," she tells me.

I look down at her and say "No, you can't."

That should have been it, but it wasn't. This kid starts screaming at me. Her mother comes up and tells me: "Just let her ride it. What's the big deal?"

I told her what the big deal was... but she didn't care. She says to me: "You don't look that sick to me." I finally just told the woman (all the time this is going on, her kid is screaming, there's some store employees and other shoppers gathering around), "Look, this isn't a toy. They cost over five thousand dollars... but even if they didn't, I said 'no', and it belongs to me. You might let your kid run your family, but that's your problem, not mine."

She took her daughter, walked away, and said: "C'mon. Let the old man alone."

Sheesh....

Actually, the thing I thought was amazing (and not "amazing" in a good way, but "amazing" in a "WTF????" kind of way) is that the kid's mother, apparently, thought absolutely nothing of giving her daughter permission to use something....

... that belonged to someone else, and the someone to whom it belonged had absolutely no connection with mother/daughter/their family.

It reminded me of an episode I saw of "Christina's Court," where a 12 year old was being sued for stealing another woman's engagement ring, and the mother of the 12 year old actually said: "In my daughter's defense, she thought it was pretty, and she wanted it. That's what kids do."

And that's why children 14 and 15 years old are now being tried as adults in criminal courts.