Disciplining Other People's Kids

I did a bad thing today.

Well, I'll probably never know how bad though...until I tell my husband the whole story this weekend.

After I was assaulted by a 3 year old and his mother yesterday, which makes me think twice about going back to the Qiball, I was feeling bolder than usual.

Today, at 4:30pm, I was preparing to leave our apartment building to go and pick up Ailin from day care, and I was taking out some trash. When I exited the building to go the the Garbage Room, I noticed two boys were playing by the door. They looked to be about 8 or 9 years old. One, with a stupid Bozu hair cut (like a Japanese-style crew cut) was using a jump rope to sling over the door of the garden and as he flung it back, it very nearly hit it me in the leg. He turned to me and said "sorry", and then turned back to his playing. I gave him a dirty look.

Normally, there are other kids, much smaller kids, around playing in the garden and lobby at that time of day, but today, these 2 boys happened to be the only ones. I went back to the lobby to check our mail box.

Now, the two boys were playing by the opposite door of the garden, where I would have to exit to go to the parking lot. This time, the Bozu boy was slinging the jump rope over the door to the parking lot.

I marched right up to him and yelled at him in Japanese.

"What are you doing? What kind of game is this? Don't you know how dangerous it is?"

He apologized, but I noticed he was making eye contact with his friend and smiling, as if the situation was funny. Perhaps, as a Japanese person, he was smiling more out of embarrassment, but I am not that sensitive of a person.

"Don't laugh!" and I slapped him across his Bozu hair-cut head. "Stupid!" and I stalked off.

Am I not the meanest adult ever? But, I do think 8-year boys should know better than to fling jump ropes around like whips. I also think that this boy doesn't live in my building because I've never seen him before (thank god.)