I sat next to an ugly parent the other day and realised in an instant why they are so named.

I say the other day – it was actually a few weeks ago – and yet the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, still hasn’t gone away.

The ugly parent in question – a woman – was watching her daughter play tennis.  It was a local tournament.  Hardly anything to get worked up over.  The Australian Open, it was not.

And yet for a full hour, she maintained the rage.  She had nothing – NOTHING – nice to say about her daughter, who was being flogged, not for lack of effort but because her opponent was clearly in another league.  A superior league.

Not much you can do about that but practice.

And yet the woman’s moaning was relentless. “Look at her foot work. How pathetic.”

“She’s not even trying,” she wailed. “That’s three double faults in a single game.  Woeful.”

“For goodness sake, why is she standing in the tram line?”

For goodness sake! ‘Why don’t you just shut up and give the girl a break.’  Obviously, that was just a thought bubble.

Her moaning was more than I could bear.  It was time to put my headphones on, turn up the volume, and hopefully block her out.  When that failed, I decided it was time to relocate.

Moving was the easy part.  I couldn’t get the poor girl out of my head. Her mother didn’t strike me as the type to ‘let up.’  I was pretty sure there wasn’t going to be a post match pep talk, just a tongue lashing. I was pretty sure the girl was in for a torrid afternoon.

Like I said, the encounter left me feeling sick in the pit of my stomach.

--

Here is one comment:

The bane of my life is parents who live their lives through their children like this woman…. she obviously wanted to play tennis herself but failed and is now taking it out on her child. I see them all the time in ballet rehearsals, gymnastics etc. Sad for the child and for the other parents.

From: wangle.com.au/1opinion/winning-isnt-everything-its-the-only-thing