Visit from my colleague and spoiled granddaughter wanted to play with my ponys!

[Littlesparklepony]

Today my collegue and her 5 year-old granddaughter came on a visit.
I promised that she could see my Collection so here we go..

First Everything was fine and she inspected the ponys throw the glass.

Then she wanted to look closer and I took out one or two. But it wasn´t enough. I accepted that she could take out a few if she was gentle with them and my collegue watched her. I Went out to the kitchen to prepare some picnic for us but it didn´t feel 100 % safe.

Then my collegue came out and says: She want to look at the Dream castle, could you take it down?
I said no, It´s not for play!!! And the Little girl was grumpy..

She wanted to look at more ponys and even accessories so I gave her some fakies to play with that she could take home.

Then she was grumpy and said no I don´t want that and that and that! Quite spoiled acutally.
I asked my friend if she Always was like that and she said that yes, her mother let her do anything she wants but not her son.

Then in the garden she helped me water the flowers suddenly she pull the water right at me!

I was surprised and gave back at once! Then she was Crying and my collegue told me that she was a Little sensitive.
But not that sensitive that she couldn´t pull water at me! 

After Crying a while we thought that Everything was fine and forgotten she suddenly pulled water at my collegue and she just said oh how nice to be chilled! 

I took the hose and said now where finished with the water!
When they were ready to go I Heard her ask if "He" should come along. She really thought I was a Guy!
When I said I´m a girl (I do have long blond hair in a tail and I really feel like a woman) she said:

But Why are you wearing Capri pants and a T-shirt????

We laughed a lot but I couldn´t understand that strange Little Kid! 

[shintoji]

eep! my main reason i dont particularly want kids is because of my fear of them damaging my ponies. im not ready to sacrifice my nice collection!!! children can be strange sometimes

[Littlesparklepony]

If I had Kids they wouldn´t be able to play with my Collection.

It´s harder to put up rules for other peoples kids but in my home my rules.

Post Merge: August 23, 2016, 01:19:00 PM

Yes youré right she needs a better role model. It´s Always so frustrating to see Children without any rules.

It seems like it´s accepted in the society that Children shall decide Everything in a family. I Think it´s so wrong and it´s not fair to the Children to get that responsibility.

I know kids that are not allowed to just be themselves. The parents are spamming them with activities all the time because they are so afraid that the Children might get bored.

But the truth is that they need to be bored to fantasize and play.
Is it the same where you live or is it just here that many Children are beeing raised like that?

[shintoji]

If I had Kids they wouldn´t be able to play with my Collection.

It´s harder to put up rules for other peoples kids but in my home my rules.

Post Merge: August 23, 2016, 01:19:00 PM

Yes youré right she needs a better role model. It´s Always so frustrating to see Children without any rules.

It seems like it´s accepted in the society that Children shall decide Everything in a family. I Think it´s so wrong and it´s not fair to the Children to get that responsibility.

I know kids that are not allowed to just be themselves. The parents are spamming them with activities all the time because they are so afraid that the Children might get bored.

But the truth is that they need to be bored to fantasize and play.
Is it the same where you live or is it just here that many Children are beeing raised like that?

its the same way here. parents often dont care about their children and allow them to act out, causing them to grow into very vile and rude people with little to no manners. the irresponsibility in some of these people is just a shame!

[NigheanRuadh]

eep! my main reason i dont particularly want kids is because of my fear of them damaging my ponies. im not ready to sacrifice my nice collection!!! children can be strange sometimes

They can learn to leave the ponies alone.    I have ponies within reach of my children (ages 5 and 2.5), and they know not to touch any of them.  The baby isn't really mobile yet, but she'll learn, too.  My son has asked me if they (he and his siblings) will have ponies will have ponies when they get bigger.  So children and pony collections are not entirely incompatible. 

[shintoji]

eep! my main reason i dont particularly want kids is because of my fear of them damaging my ponies. im not ready to sacrifice my nice collection!!! children can be strange sometimes

They can learn to leave the ponies alone.    I have ponies within reach of my children (ages 5 and 2.5), and they know not to touch any of them.  The baby isn't really mobile yet, but she'll learn, too.  My son has asked me if they (he and his siblings) will have ponies will have ponies when they get bigger.  So children and pony collections are not entirely incompatible. 

thats very fair, it all depends on how theyre raised  i feel im far too selfish for children, but that may change!! im still young

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It all depends on whether or not the Parental Unit teaches respect, and then actually practices it in all walks of life.

Clearly the mom in this case did not practice respect towards *you*, alluding that your collection SHOULD be played with by her child! 

I got to look at many family members' collections just-on-shelves-only as a child.  My mother never asked people if I could play with their collectibles - because they were "their collectibles"!  I was allowed to re-arrange fridge magnets in one family members' home but that sure didn't extend to anything past the fridge!  I would have been so punished had I demanded to play with anything that belonged to an adult....

[Leave a Whisper]

Well, in your home it's your rules. She'll hafta learn boundaries at some point. If she don't like it, tough.

I had to babysit my cousin's friend once. His parents left without a trace and I got the word that we'd be responsible for him until we came home from the fair. So kind of them to ask.  Now I am uncomfortable with the idea of being in charge of other people's kids, but he tried my patience. A lot! He demanded his own bottle of water, sure it was hot, but we had enough for everyone. I was kind enough to supply him with one and he threw it on the ground. I picked it up and yelled at him. He didnt wanna wait for the other kids to finish getting off a ride and tried to dart away. I grabbed his arm and told him that we stayed together and that if he didn't follow my rules, I would stay behind with him and he would be forced to watch the other kids go on the rides without him. When he realized I was serious, he stopped acting up. I made sure my cousin would tell his parents all about it, so he couldn't try and spin it against me. They left him with NO money, so I had to feed him. I don't mind stuff like that, but considering that the older boys parents( they were old enough to look after themselves) had left them money and his didn't and I had only enough for my kid and me. Yeah... inconsiderate.

Im kinda surprised her grandmother didn't say a word. If I'd pulled that kinda behavior as a kid, that she did, I woulda been in biiig trouble with my grandma.

[Artemesia's Garden]

That all sounds really awkward! 

[Storybelle]

Luckily I've known I don't want kids since I was about fourteen so sticky fingers on my ponies is not a thing I'm gonna have to worry about. Cats climbing on my ponies shelves might be another problem however...

I'm really worried about people not controlling their kids. It just makes them grow up into irresponsible adults and then the cycle continues. I swear people these days are shocked when a parent actually shows having a firm hand with their kids.

My grandmother has some very expensive figurines that we could look at but not play with. Those were the rules so we had to abide by them. That's how it is.

[Tak]

5 years old is old enough to know better. I could see a two year old thinking they should get what they want when and where they want it. 5 year olds are in kindergarten here. Far too self aware to allow such behavior.

This is coming from a woman with a rather spoiled 7 year old. My daughter knows how to handle the ponies, which are ok for playing, which she shouldn't touch, and she follows the rules. I even have some g3's on an open shelf about 5 inches off the floor (bottom shelf of a bookcase) and my just a year old dog doesn't touch them. When my daughter has friends over we just say that the collection is mine and I said no touching. It has worked so far and my daughter doesn't mind. She has the monster high dolls to call all hers when people are over in exchange.

She also would never spray someone with water unless they said it was ok and never the face. She learned that at four.

[Noxxbunny]

I really hate it when things like that happen. Boundaries are so important to teach. Because then they'll just grow up thinking their behavior is acceptable. And it isn't so tolerable and "cute" when an adult acts that way.

When I was a kid, my uncle's friend brought his daughter over once. I was about 6 years old and she was the same age as me, but she had no respect for other people's space or things.

I had been given a "collector's edition" basketball Barbie for Christmas, and while I wasn't even into Barbie, her being "collector" made her seem cool to me. So I kept her in her box, on a bookshelf for me to enjoy that way.

This kid comes barging in, and within 5 minutes of being in my home, she spots it and rips the box open before I even had the chance to tell her not to touch it.

And on top of that, while I was still mad about my Barbie, she broke the ear off my techno robot dog. Which at the time was my favorite toy and everyone knew it. She didn't get in trouble for any of it because no one was enforcing boundaries on her. And that made me SO mad. I had been wronged and everyone just told her it was okay to act like that. If I had acted that way as a guest in someone else's home, I don't even want to imagine the punishment I would've gotten from my mom.

At least now I have control over my own possessions and who's around them. Kids in my family aren't allowed in my room where my collectibles are. My stuff stays safe, and the kids know that this has always been the rule, so they don't care or mind it anymore. The "mystery" appeal thankfully wore off.

[ghouldilocks]

That sounds awful! What a horrible brat. A lot of kids are like that, and actually, many teenagers and young adults are now awful, disrespectful people because their parents raised them similarly. I would absolutely have put my foot down, like you did, and would have probably gone a bit further even after the water incident. I also used to work in childcare for a few years, though, so I have no problem with correcting other people's children.  My personal philosophy is that if the parent or guardian is unwilling to do what needs to be done, then I will consider the circumstances and act accordingly myself - what can be said or done is obviously more limited in public spaces, but in your own home, I'd say you have more right to lay down the rules than they do.

[Ponyfan]

How terrible. Kids need boundaries and "do not touch" means do not touch" not "go ahead and play with it." It seems like a lot of parents don't teach their kids to respect other people's belongings or things.


This story reminds me of when I was growing up we had some people over and I was trying to play with the older girl and the younger girl at the same time. The younger one broke the leg off of one of my Ariel dolls (I only had two Ariels) because she pulled her leg out of the socket. I told my parents and her mom about the younger girl breaking my doll (I was usually very careful with my toys so it was big deal to me that my doll was broken.) Her mom said she was sorry but didn't even offer to replace my Ariel or at least pay for me to get another doll. My dad tried to fix her but my doll couldn't sit down anymore.


Ponyfan

[S.o.a.r.]

Oooh, I feel your pain! 
I myself don't have children (yet) but I have nieces. When I started collecting back in 2009, the oldest one was 7 years old and was allowed to play with certain ponies as long as she was gentle with them. These particular ponies were of course no grails and rare ones, but I still made it clear what rules applied when playing with them. There was never any incident but then she was 7 yrs so old enough in my book to play with G1 ponies. 

Now, my youngest niece (2,5 yrs old) has recently discovered the closet where I keep my entire MLP collection. All the ponies are at the top of the closet so only an adult can reach them but she manage to open the lower closet doors (they're sliding doors) which makes me nervous. Again, this niece is very gentle with things already at an early age and she's not left alone with the pony collection. By now she's played with the Baby Buggy twice; it's her favorite pony accessory. I've also let her play with two Teeny Tiny's and Strawberry Surprise but she's sometimes begging for another buggy/stroller; preferbly the Princess Baby Buggy. *eeep* Which is where I've put my foot down and moved all the smaller accessories up to where I keep all the ponies.

Hmm, I should probably install some kind of lock on that closet....