I've always wondered what possesses people to act like jerks in public. I'm currently sitting in the Continental Airlines' President's Club at Newark airport. There is a mother with two teenagers sitting across from us. They appear to be Jewish, but I don't believe her ethnicity either pinpoints the problem or explains the deficiency. The son, who is approximately 13, has had the attendant here running back and forth for the last 20 minutes. After finally settling on ice water (after making her fetch both cranberry and orange juice), his parting shot at her was "have a nice summer!". Through this farce, the mother sat and read her book, ignoring him. The girl, a bit older and acting far wiser, waited until the son was completely done before barking HER orders at the poor woman. And again the mother sat ignoring her offspring.

Possibly the mother doesn't recognize the bahavior as rude. Possibly she's as ill mannered as her children. I don't know. I only know that, had my mother been in her shoes and had that been ME doing the ordering, I would have "settled" for the cranberry juice and not had a chance to send the woman back to the bar three times. I would have expected to get a slap on the side of the head for any behavior anywhere CLOSE to what I was observing.

Forget that...I was being kind. In reality, the woman needs a good, swift kick in the ass and she needs to wise up. I don't care WHOSE kids those are, they are rude, insufferable little brats. Will they be successful when they grow up? Possibly since there are people in this world who seem to reward those who are too rude and arrogant for their own good.

I've now moved across the room from her. I have worked with enough of it lately that I do not need to be surrounded by it during my leisure time.