It was supposed to be a quiet day today. But I guess asking it to be a peaceful one was a tall order for Monday.

I was still tired from the night before. One of my favourite colleagues asked me to swap shifts with her. Mornings are always hectic especially on weekdays. My job is in education and it involves children. My colleague hardly helped as she had other things to do. I will not elaborate much further for privacy reasons.

I was in different meetings, doing admin stuff, chatting to colleagues and students and checking and replying to emails. I was still working at lunch time when this kid confronted me saying that I lied to their teacher about the things they did that were unsavoury, unpleasant, rude and stupid. They told me this in an accusatory manner whilst they were on the phone with their parent. This person wanted to bring out the worse in me, make me say something negative whilst they were talking to their dad. I just told them to speak to my boss. They were rude and aggressive. I felt humiliated (there were other people around). I had to report it. I was a bit shaken. Never liked being confronted. It nearly put me off getting lunch. In the end, my hunger prevailed and I helped myself to a big bowl of soup and bread.

That disgruntled student then apologised to me after (probably) getting a dressing down from my boss. This student’s parent then sent numerous angry emails. All emails aimed to blame others. Never held their offspring accountable for their actions.

After going home from my shift and after a lengthy nap followed by a yummy dinner, I decided to write about my experience today.

I am not new to this job. But it gets harder when children are not getting disciplined properly. When accountability and responsibility for their actions are not taught. These should have been done when they were young. Children nowadays get away with a lot of things. They always have an excuse and when they get scolded or punished, they call their parents and then have a go at us, making us the bad people. The parents nowadays have gone too soft. If a child cries, give them an iPad to shut them up. A child bullies another child, ‘oh he has a lot of pent up energy’ or ‘it is just banter’. There is always an excuse. Politeness now is optional.

Sometimes, I wish it was still the ’90’s. Where emerging negative behaviour gets nipped in the bud and there was no such thing as gentle parenting. But those times are now behind us and we should adapt to the new ways of rearing, teaching and disciplining children.

Did any of you experience any negative interaction like this? If you did, how did you deal with it? How did you feel?

This post is just a rant. I needed to get this out of me or it will haunt me.

I hope you all are having a nice Monday. Have a nice week ahead!!!