I was just outside casually walking my dog, Benben. It’s a breezy summer day, flowers blooming everywhere, every inch of my exposed skin is bathed under the sweet sunshine. A melody is flowing in my head as I walk down the street, despite Benben’s irrational pulling here and there. But I mean I can’t blame him, his heart is probably pumping with joy so he can’t really control his own movements. Yes, I’m that kind of parents, the kind who blames their kids’ bad manners everywhere except the kid himself.
The title really wasn’t trying to praise Benben’s behavior, but rather a downgrade to the neighbor boy. So as I walk down the street, silently humming the tone in my head.. oh the reason I was being silent about this is because I see two kids playing catch by the side walk, so as this is happening, I saw the boy asking the girl to do something. Then afterwards, the girl walks towards me holding her ball with a giggling face. My mind was still in relaxed mood, didn’t give it time to think about why she’s like that. She stops in front of me, turned around and walks back. But she’d occasionally turn around and giggle some more. My head is still in relaxed mood, still didn’t catch onto their trick. But Benben did, he starts to bark at her hysterically, well, not quite, but it sorta scared her a bit. I see her running back quickly and hands over the ball to the boy. I felt like I should stop Benben, so I walked over to the other side of the street. Just when I landed on the other side, the boy yelled at us, “STUPID DOG!” Loud and clear. And then it hit me, oh so the boy probably told the girl to hit Benben with the ball.
Erm, like any parents, I first felt humiliated. What?! They want to hit my kid (dog)? These brats, who do they think they are? I remember turning around giving them a dirty look. But since they’re kids, I felt like I shouldn’t yell back at them. It got me thinking though, what’s the difference between their behavior and Benben’s? I’m not even going to go easy on Benben because he’s a dog. There are dogs with good manners and dogs with bad manners. Dogs with good manners listen to their owners’ commands and should behave friendly to strangers. Benben has pretty good manners at home, but is a total wild card outside. Which is kind of similar to these kids, don’t you think? I’m sure they’ll behave just fine at home, but once they get outside, they’re like little monsters. Take my encounter for example, sure enough that Benben’s barking is very rude, but the kid’s yelling isn’t any better. I couldn’t help but to wonder, are they equally socially incapable? Maybe kids that age, and dogs Benben’s age are both bound to be leashed with their moms. The only difference here would be I’m constraint by law to keep Benben on my leash, yet that boy’s mom isn’t.
