[MR] How does one deal with difficult children of nobility?

[Hrothgar]

Sounds awfully period to me. I can document horrid behavior in Royal 
children all the way back to Ancient Greece...


Hrothgar


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jennifer Dobyns" <jendobyns at verizon.net>
To: "The Merry Rose" <Atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 11:55 AM
Subject: [MR] How does one deal with difficult children of nobility?


> Greetings unto the Tavern,
>
> I am sorry, I cannot think of a more delicate way to ask the question
> in the subject line.  So there it is.
>
> Let's just say this is a hypothetical situation.   A child whose
> parent is "somebody"  decides that s/he wishes to interrupt court for
> a non-emergency.  S/he is advised that it would be inappropriate to
> do so just now, that the situation for which s/he desires to
> interrupt court can be easily dealt with to his/her satisfaction once
> court is over (a matter of a few minutes).  S/he then tells the adult
> in a way that implies "you'd better not mess with me or it will be
> very bad for you" that his/her parent is an "important person" and
> that s/he can go in and interrupt if s/he so wishes.   The issue here
> is not his/her interrupting court (there could be a very valid
> understanding about this between parent and child), _it is that s/he
> feels it is appropriate to adopt a threatening attitude about being
> able to do so because s/he has a parent of rank within the society_.
>
> This same child has acted in a bullying way to other children in the
> children's area during the day as well, shoving them aside as s/he
> chooses to get to things s/he wishes to see/do or just, apparently,
> to take away what is pleasing others (a cry for attention, perhaps,
> in all cases?).
>
> What should one do?  I can see the potential for a parent to be in
> such a state of denial about their child's behavior that any bearer
> of bad tidings could be in serious trouble.  I suspect that in such a
> case as the one set out above that it could be that the child really
> needs/wants attention and has found a way of manipulating the system
> within the society to get it and that the parent might be completely
> clueless that this is going on.  But being threatening towards
> another adult is troubling.  Bullying other children is troubling.
> And what message is this sending to the other young members of the
> society?
>
> Food for thought, eh?
>
> Genevieve D'Aubigne
> who is currently dealing with her own sometimes difficult child
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