When this nervous mother brought her little girl to the skate park for the first time, she didn’t know what to expect. She spent ages convincing her daughter that she had every right to join the boys at the park, and after a while, the little one opened up to the idea. When they arrived at the park one day, Mom was ready to defend her daughter if any of the older boys picked on her.
While the child was trying to get the hang of it, a teenage boy approached her. What he did next blew her mother away.
Dear teenage boy at the skate park… pic.twitter.com/78ry5esoTa
— Jeanean Thomas (@JeaneanThomas) October 11, 2015
Here’s a full transcript of what she had to say to the boy:
You’re probably about 15 years old, so I don’t expect you to be very mature, or for you to want a little girl on your skate ramp for that matter.
What you don’t know is that my daughter has been wanting to skateboard for months. I actually had to convince her that skateboarding wasn’t for just for boys.
So when we walked up to the skate park and saw that it was full of teenage boys who were smoking and swearing, she immediately wanted to turn around and go home.
I secretly wanted to go, too, because I didn’t want to have to put on my mom voice and exchange words with you.
I also didn’t want my daughter to feel like she had to be scared of anyone, or like she wasn’t entitled to that skate park just as much as you were.
So when she said, “Mom, it’s full of older boys,” I calmly said, “So what, they don’t own the skate park.”
She proceeded to go down the ramp in spite of you and your friends flying past her and grinding rails beside her.
She only had two or three runs in before you approached her and said “Hey, excuse me …”
I immediately prepared to deliver my “She’s allowed to use this park just as much as you guys” speech when I heard you say, “Your feet are wrong. Can I help you?”
You proceeded to spend almost an hour with my daughter showing her how to balance and steer, and she listened to you! A feat not attained by most adults.
You held her hand and helped her get up when she fell down, and I even heard you tell her to stay away from the rails so that she wouldn’t get hurt.
I want you to know that I am proud that you are part of my community, and I want to thank you for being kind to my daughter, even though your friends made fun of you for it.
She left the skate park with a sense of pride and with the confidence that she can do anything, because of you.
Jeanean Thomas, Cambridge
It’s really hard for teenagers to do the right thing because they’re so afraid of being judged by their peers. But even though this boy’s friends gave him a hard time, he decided to lend a helping hand to someone he knew was struggling. With a few moments of his time, he managed to help a little girl develop confidence that will last a lifetime.
