My weekend was full of ups and down. I had a great time cheering on my rugby team, which didn’t do too much good as we lost 40 something to 7. And I may or may not be on the outs with a family from the rugby club. See, I shouted at their child after the game, quite loudly and quite publicly.

Now, I’m normally level headed, and I’d like to think I’m good with kids, as frequent baby-sitting for relatives will attest. But never before have I been sitting down, minding my own business, then been punched full-force in the face by a kid. Repeatedly. And I’m talking throwing his whole weight into the blow, like a superman punch. He hit surprisingly hard for an 8-year-old. Then the little angel stole my glasses. If anyone reading this hasn’t met me, I’m quite partial to my spectacles, and my vision is roughly on par with a drunken mole rat if I’m not equipped with them.

So, I retrieved my glasses from the demon-child, and proceeded to shout at him, as you would if you’d just been punched in the face multiple times without cause. Now here’s the dilemma. I, as a young person, have not raised a child. This does tend to immediately invalidate whatever opinion I might have on childcare to most parents, but I don’t believe watching your child assault a stranger (and doing literally nothing to prevent or control the situation) is a sign of good parenting. Call me an old-fashioned traditionalist, but I think every now and then, kids need to be told off if they misbehave, like stealing cookies or, I don’t know, punching a stranger in the face? Because without the reinforcement of that behaviour being wrong, the child will most likely do it again. And, as annoyed as I am at the child, I’d hate for him to repeat the incident but to someone who has no problems with punching him in return. I mean a very small diminutive part of my twisted mind would find it funny, but on the whole, a big no no.

But I guess the child’s parents don’t agree with my perspective, which is their right I guess, but it seemed like this was pretty common behaviour from this kid. Because before he punched me in the face, he was smacking his father in the face, who was in a drunken stupor next to me, in something vaguely resembling consciousness as he mumbled “stop it [insert child-you-hate’s name here]”. But oh well, boys will be boys, right? I actually feel pretty bad for the parents, as the kid is obviously a handful, but how much of that is the child’s fault, and how much is it the fault of the parents? I mean I don’t know the answer, I’m the furthest from a children’s expert as possible, but I am the stranger that got hit in the face as a result of this kid’s behaviour. Maybe in 10 years I’ll have a beer with the kid and we’ll get along with each other, or I’ll never see him again and I’m just moaning on the Internet for no reason. Oh well, this rant is over for now. Thanks for listening guys.