Fight!

Guest post by Jenna

This past Saturday I witnessed my very first fight at a soccer game. Except it wasn’t the players fighting, it was a parent fighting with the photographer. Yep, that’s right. Last Saturday my 4 year-old son took pictures with his soccer team, and afterward, one of his friend’s parents threatened to punch the photographer in the face. That’s pretty much the jist of it.

I think there should be some sort of rule that people who don’t work well with children should not be hired to take their pictures. This might also apply at the portrait studios. The photographer was a little rough around the edges with my son’s team and pushed a few kids, made them march all the way down to the end of the line, bypassing where other older players were waiting to take their picture. Never mind that the kids were in an unfamiliar place with only one coach for 7 wiggly boys and a girl. [And remember, they’re FOUR.]  The photographer said, “Look up here!” so my son, of course, looked up.. at the sky. I stood right behind the photographer and tried to get my son to look at me. The photographer turned around to me and said, “He’s not looking at the camera, he’s looking at you.” Better at me than the sky, I thought.

So. After the pictures were taken, threats flew and the photographer just couldn’t believe that we would be so upset with him, and how dare this parent make threats against him! The parent went to make a complaint with the company to not have this guy come photograph them again. The coach’s reaction? “A bunch of Photo Nazis.”

My reaction to this was, “Who are the adults here?” I said that out loud when the threats flew but no one answered. My son and his friends had to watch this unfortunate scene play out, all because a photographer did not know his limits and one parent needed to work on his people skills. Who were the victims here? Not these so-called adults, but the kids!

Some of you might read this and say, “Well, that’s exactly why I’m homeschooling my kids.” or, “That wouldn’t happen in a private school league.” Wanna bet? The parent that made the threat later apologized for what he said but didn’t apologize for getting the guy’s attention. Something had to happen in order for the photographer to change his ways, and he felt like that was the best way. The bottom line is, we all make mistakes. We’re all human, and sometimes we act like immature kids. Even though I didn’t appreciate the parent’s tactics, I understood where he was coming from. It’s easy to jump on the argument of “who was right?” or “who was wrong?” – wouldn’t you want to defend your kid’s honor?

I wish I didn’t have to witness this scene, but more importantly I wish my kids didn’t have to witness it. I hope the parent in this situation was able to take his kid aside and say, “I messed up. Please forgive me.”

What about you? Have you ever been in a fight to defend your kids?

jenna blogs at kevinandjenna [dot] com and would love to say she avoids conflict but it somehow seems to find her.. like a magnet.