To hate children that correct adults!

[englandsmistress]

My colleague brings her son (9) in to the office today. As they leave I say to him "Happy Christmas, I hope santa brings you the most brilliantest presents"
To which he says, as he rolls his eyes skyward, "it's 'most brilli-ANT'"

and tuts.

Little, shit. He's not even cute

i don't see how it is rude for a child to correct an adult when they are wrong but not for an adult to correct a child when they are wrong.

the only reason you find it rude is because you are embarassed that someone so young has picked up on your mistake.

there is no point teaching children how to speak correctly if the adults around them are going to be making silly mistakes and the child just has to accept them knowing tehy are wrong.

I think the OP only spoke to the child in fun.

That was her mistake:)

OP you know not to bother with him another time.

Those who say a child should never correct an adult, don't you think it depends on the type of error.

I'd hate to think children would be too meek to point out if I'd got their name wrong, for example. Far nicer to know that you've got it wrong the first time than 3 months down the line.

tyler that reminds me of a girl in school. we got to year 10 in high school (so 3 years into the school-northern ireland starts in year 8) before she corrected our english teacher about her name, in fact she didn't even correct her, another girl got so sick of calling her the wrong name so as not to upset the teacher she just called her the right name and the teacher tried to correct her then the whole class said "actually miss, her name IS X" teacher was mortified and so apologetic but we also had let it go for 3 years.

CerialOffender

well, I think its the way he corrected, rather than the fact that he corrected. If he had've laughed and said it in a friendly good natured way, that would have been fine, and turned it into more of a shared jokey moment.

It would be the fact that he rolled his eyes and tutted that would really, really make me cross. That kind of behaviour from a child to an adult is very rude. My ds1 sometimes tries eye rolling or answering with that sighing "you're so tedious" tone, and when he does he is asked to answer again without the attitude, it't not pleasent at five and will be less so when he is older!

Did you reply 'Santa just removed a present from your list for being a smart pants-a-roony' :o

Of course adults can correct children but not the other way round! Children are learning how to speak/behave and just learning full-stop! If you don't want your child to grow up to be stupid/socially inept then you have to correct certain behaviours/errors. But a child to correct another child/adult? No. It was the job of whoever raised/educated that child/adult. Of course you could raise the "why shouldn't they" or "adults are only embarrassed about getting something wrong" argument. But one could argue that embarassing someone is actually quite rude. And that the child who grows up thinkng it's ok to correct people all the time will end up with no friends and everyone thinking they are a smug twat. And I wouldn't want that for a child of mine. I'd rather they just learnt to quietly/politely let it go than trying to point-score/ be right all the time!

YABU if you've said something really stupid, ignorant or ungrammatical. Otherwise what are you teaching them? That adults are right no matter how dumb?

On the other hand, if it's just an excuse for a child to play one-upmanship then YANBU.

Yes, learning that it's not nice to embarrass people and to think about the effects of what you say on other people's feelings is good.

But a simple rule that adults may correct children and children may not correct adults would be a recipe for abuse.

Oh ffs! No way am I advocating abuse! I'm not going to get any more embroiled in this, but I think it is possible to teach a child that adults are not always right and that if they behave badly e.g. ABUSE soemone then of course something should be said/done. But to correct a minor verbal grammatical error just for the sake of being right/smug is a tad rude.

I believe they used to call them "manners"?

Rude child - should have kept his gob shut and just thought you were stoopid. That's what mine would have done - pitied you even like they pity their poor stoopid mum .

I think he was rude and I would not be one bit impressed if my dd did this. Kids like him are very unlikable. Bet all those saying 'of course he should feel free to correct everyone and anyone ' all have kids that act like this - and they think it makes their kids clever - YAWN!

I didn't realise that children were still seen and not heard. I thought it was 2010...

brilliantest?

Sorry but I think you deserved it.

But he does sound fairly unbearable.

YANBU. It's the way he said it, not what he said.

It was a joke. My dd and ds would have laughed because they have a SENSE OF HUMOUR. There are boys in dd's class like this - not very likeable and not very clever.

Ooh I had a horrible feeling that this thread might be dd2's teacher talking about her. I try hard to tell her that she mustn't do it, but she does - drives me nuts.

Would it have been OK if he was cute?

YABU. Brilliantest?

You were very patronising, and I think children have every right to defend themselves from being patronised.

OP I actually find your last comments rude about the child. you may not think he is cute but to call him a "little shit" is hardly called for.

I have a 9 year old (well he will be on Tuesday) it is typical boy behaviourI would correct him but I hear it regularly between him and his friends. I correct them all would as well if their parents where around and did nothing. I simply say "that may well be so but that was not a polite way to say it to me was it?" usually get feet shuffling and embarrased looks adn thats the end..

YABU he is 9

YABU. Children often say what they think just because it's true, not because they're intending to be rude. Usually they learn not to eventually, but 9 is still pretty young. And I rather admire the honesty TBH!