WWYD- name calling kids

Seraph

Fri, Sep 04 2009, 3:30 am

I'm a scavenger. And I'm not embarassed about it. I am proud of the fact that I don't waste lots of money when I can get something for free from the communal trash can or right near it.
That said, about a month ago I wanted to build something out of wood, and found a perfect wooden box (which was the base of what I wanted to make) in the communal dumpster. I fished it out and put it to use.
While I was fishing it out of the bin, a family of kids, ranging from 4 to 12 was watching from their yard.
They called out to me from behind the fence to their yard "Ima mag'ila"- disgusting mother.
I ignored them. I mean, hello, the garbage bin was filled with broken furniture and thats it, not moldy rotten food, so absolutely nothing revolting about what I was doing, and who in their right mind takes offense to the name calling of little kids.

Fine, big deal.
Next time I passed by their house, the kids remembered me and called out to me "Imma mag'ila". Ok. Next time I passed by, they call out to me "Pach zevel"- garbage can.
This is going on for nearly a month.
It really doesnt hurt my feelings, because, after all, you only get embarassed if you're ashamed of what you're doing, not to mention that I really really could care less what some little kids think of what I was doing. Same way that if a 2 year old called me "poopie face" I would just laugh it off and not be offended in the least.
The first few times they were calling me names, I said nothing, didnt react. Eventually I said to them "Hashem gave you a mouth to do mitzvos with. I bet you know how to do mitzvos with your mouth."

Yesterday I passed by their house, and they were calling out names to me from their yard. Some other 3-6 year old kids, who I don't know from a hole in the wall, heard this family's kids call me "Mefageret"- idiot/imbecilic- and followed suit. (These other kid's parents were sitting right there. Rolling Eyes

)

I said to myself "Ok, this is getting old. They're not tiring of their game, and now they're teaching the other kids in the neighborhood to call me names. I'm going to do something."
I knocked on their door and told their mother and father what their kids were doing. Of course, the girl who answered the door was the "ringleader" and denied it vehemently, but you could see from the guilt in her eyes and squeamishness (and her parents pointed this out) that she obviously knew she was doing something wrong.
I told the parents that it doesnt offend me, I'm not embarrassed of what I did, but it just doesnt reflect well on their family that this is what their kids have started doing on a regular basis... and that though it doesnt offend me, it might offend someone else and hence their kids should stop it.
Parents apologized profusely, etc...

Anyhow, I wanted to know if you would have done the same, continued to ignore them, or said something to their parents right away, etc...

Afterward, I went out to the other 3-6 year olds who were calling me "mefageret" based on the other kid's examples and introduced myself and made friends with them. Problem solved from that end, the question is if what I said would actually stop the original name callers from name calling every single time I pass by their house...