Columnist Cary Tennis: What's the matter with him?

[Lenona]

https://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/my_friends_child_is_a_brat/

(It's from 2012.)

I don't know where to begin...

First of all, "brat" is not a scientific term. An adult can be a brat. It's all about bad behavior that can (usually) be easily corrected. Calling someone a brat is not like accusing a toddler of being a career criminal - or even a future career criminal. (Toddlers don't just "outgrow" bad behavior, however. That's very important to remember.)

Second, it's one thing to expect a toddler to behave as well as an average 11-year-old, whether in public or at home. (In my experience, 11-year-olds behave quite well in both settings. It's the teenagers I'm scared of.) It's another altogether for a columnist to suggest that it's somehow OK for an 11-year-old to behave as badly as a toddler might. Dr. Benjamin Spock himself wrote the following, nearly a century ago:

"A child, like an adult, knows when he is getting away with
too much naughtiness or rudeness even when his mother
is trying to close her eyes to it. He feels guilty inside. He
would like to be stopped. But if he isn't corrected, he’s likely
to behave worse and worse. It's as if he were saying 'How
bad do I have to be before somebody stops me?' ”


I wonder if Tennis would be shocked that the good doctor, of all people, dared to write that...

The few posters at Reddit had some good observations, btw.

https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/comments/16fr6nt/accept_being_assaulted_by_children_because/

And it's worth noting that Tennis got fired the next year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Tennis