Last year my 8 year old son came up to me after ball practice, and asked if I had said anything to Ty, a boy who was in the same youth baseball league as my son. I had indeed had given the boy a "talking to" as he was being very rude and disrespectful to the junior high coaches the school had provided to teach the boys the basics of baseball. After sitting on the sideline for about half an hour watching Ty try to hit the other kids with the baseball, mock his coaches and in general cause chaos, I called him over to the fence and told him I didn't think his mother would be very happy with the way he was behaving, and if he didn't shape up I would talk to her when she got to the ball field. I found out later from my son that Ty went up to him and asked, "Is that your Mom?" in an incredulous voice. When my son said yes, he then asked, "Does she make you do math in the summer?"
I had no idea in that moment how profound that statement was, I just thought it was a funny comment from the perspective of an 8 year old who didn't like being scolded. Now, after 2 weeks of 2 math classes, I can start to see what a horrible woman I must have seemed to that boy. There is nothing quite like doing math in the summer.