Leadership, part deux

Recall my post on leadership? Well, since that post, the captains of my daughter's softball team have threatened her with bodily harm and told her that "I hate you".

Nice. If these are the future leaders of our country, I hope I don't live too long.

Clark

This little piggie...

Caught the flu! Coincidentally, while a huge media splash about a hundred or so cases of "swine flu" virus H1N1 has been at the forefront. We've been hit by the bug.

It wasn't me actually, it's my dearest Ellen. She's down with the flu today. I was working from home since the Speck is in the shop and she came down with some nastiness overnight. So much for my quiet day away from the office.

Clark

Leadership

I'm not generally one to get up on a soapbox and blather on, but I need to step up and make a statement about leadership.

You see, my oldest daughter plays high school sports. I won't say which one, but it involves a ball with seams. Somehow, two of the least likely kids on the team were "selected" captains. Usually this involves a vote, but there seems to have been some kind of skulduggery at that as well. No matter, on with the story. It seems that no one told these girls that being elected team captain does not immediately make them tin plated dictators. Being a leader is one of the hardest things to do (just look at our last couple of presidents) right, but one of the easiest things to do wrong. Boy, do these girls have it wrong. They seem to thing that barking orders and doing nothing to support the team is what a captain is supposed to do. WRONG! A captain leads through the examples they set. A captain should be the first one on the field and the last one off. A captain should be the first one to cheer their teammate when they do something exceptional and the last one to criticize them for making a mistake. A captain never uses the word "I" only the word "We". A captain doesn't sit around with a penis shaped lollipop in her mouth giggling like she's some sort of mental patient.

I'm done. The soap box has been put away for a while.

Clark

Major Dramz!!

(With all due apologies to Perez Hilton)

It was a whirlwind weekend of drama last weekend.

The dog bit a neighborhood boy. It wasn't aggressive or anything, just going after a ball the boy was playing with at the time (the dog loves to chase them). Unfortunately, my middle daughter's friend was holding the dog's leash at the time and let go. The boy's stopped by later looking for my wife or I. The mother verbally assaulted my oldest daughter asking questions like: "Where is your mother? You do have a mother, don't you? When is your mother coming home? She does come home, right?" I'm a little more old school in that any adult should feel free to correct the behavior of a minor child, so long as they are not abusive. The questions and demeanor of this woman towards my oldest was bordering on abuse. She left my darling child in tears. So much so that she couldn't speak to me on the phone about it. I was very angry, but my dearest Ellen talked me down from the ledge. She handled speaking to the mother. Thankfully, the injury was minor and the mother must have come down off of her abusive "high" and spoke to my wife about the situation. No harm, no foul, she basically said. However, she chastised my wife for having a daughter "with a sassy mouth". I can't imagine what my oldest said back, but I'm pretty sure it was in response to her abusive comments and tone.

Saturday was a completely different story. My middle daughter (it was her major drama weekend) and a friend went to the movies. It was the last weekend of an already long run for this particular movie and it was in our small town theater. Besides my daughter and her friend, there were only three other children in the movie. From what I've been told, there was disruptive behavior by the other children: running, gymnastics, and noise. My daughter's friend decided to throw some popcorn. That escalated into some chair kicking and finally some mild touching/tapping. For some reason, my daughter's friend arm looked appetizing to the oldest of the other group, so she bit her! I would have expected this from a toddler or perhaps first grader, but not a fifth grader (the approximate age of the biter). I received this frantic call from the theater (my middle daughter is old enough to attend the movies with friends without a parent) about the biting incident, so I raced right over. I confronted my daughter and her friend and found out that the biter was still there. In fact, the biter's father was sitting in the lobby of the theater! After some searching I found the movie theater manager and I requested he make a report of the incident and take down names and phone numbers since I was responsible for my daughter's friend's well being. I lectured a little bit on the proper behavior in a movie theater and what they should have done if someone was misbehaving in the theater. I had to tell my daughter's friend's parents about the incident. They said "kids will be kids". Not quite the reaction I expected, but since the bite marks were superficial, there seemed to not be any sense of urgency (in their opinion).

I'm hoping this is the last of the drama for a while...