The spouse was in a situation last summer where he bustled the kidlet away from a guy that was making him uncomfortable, and my parents (whom I always expect to know better than this) were second-guessing and questioning him. (Not "Your actions were rude" but "Even suspecting this about another person is rude, even if your behavior is perfectly civil.")
Eventually he said to them, "It does no one any harm to get out of the company of people who make me uncomfortable. It could do terrible harm to communicate to my daughter that she can't get out of the company of people who make her uncomfortable."
He said my mother's jaw literally dropped -- she came back later and told him that it had never occurred to her that that was the message a kid would get.
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Date: 3/6/11 08:56 pm (UTC)Eventually he said to them, "It does no one any harm to get out of the company of people who make me uncomfortable. It could do terrible harm to communicate to my daughter that she can't get out of the company of people who make her uncomfortable."
He said my mother's jaw literally dropped -- she came back later and told him that it had never occurred to her that that was the message a kid would get.