Friday, December 3, 2010

Bullying and Crazy Aggressive Driving: Synonymous?

 I have started recording some of my thoughts on my morning drive. This morning's tangent was about the issue of bullying as related to adult behaviors like tailgating. Let me know what you think!

Listen!

6 comments:

scott smith said...

At first glance, I thought that by "tailgating" you were referring to those people gathered outside a football stadium grilling up pork products and walk around shirtless (probably with a painted torso) in the Minnesota winter....

Anyway, I think that there are numerous reasons that people tailgate in traffic. Perhaps they never had driver's ed and have no knowledge of the Two Second Rule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-second_rule

Or they lack depth perception. Who knows?

Though I think that many are tailgating as an act of aggression. As if riding that close to me is going to motivate me to go faster. Yes, I think tailgating is probably an adult form of bullying. Though like school-yard bullying is hard to prove to someone who can do anything about it.

Joan Young (aka Mancini) said...

Thanks Scott for your comment! I was laughing at the "tailgating" reference. I hadn't even thought of people thinking I was talking about that ;-)
I drive a curvy, dangerous when wet, road every day and I observe some crazy driving during my commute. Today I watched a guy speed up only when someone was directly in front of him.. so crazy!
Thanks for the conversation.

Unknown said...

Listening to your comments on Bullying / Aggressive driving this morning, I realized that I have no idea about why or if there is a connection. I have never done either, nor would it ever cross my mind to do either. It would be interesting to hear what people who have done these things have to say about it. I wonder if we, as teachers could get a clear answer from a child who is bullying, if we asked them about it in a totally nonjudgemental way. What could we learn?

Joan Young (aka Mancini) said...

Patricia,
That is a great idea and I wonder if anyone ever asks. Each morning I see and experience aggressive drivers that ride my tail until I get out of their way, even if I am over in the left lane just to pass a truck. They ride close, shine brights and do whatever they need to do to get others out of the way. To me these actions seem like bullying, but maybe they don't to others.
Thanks for commenting.

Kidlutions(tm): Solutions for Kids said...

Joan,

First thing I thought to myself, "She's obviously in California!"...but then I recalled that a speedster once rode my tail for miles until I got a chance to pull into another lane...and he actually then gave me a thank-you wave (or at least that's what I saw it as)! 10 miles down the road, he was pulled over getting a ticket. Karma. Wins again.

Anyways...I think it totally has some relationship to bullying...and that it is not a far stretch to believe so. I think some of it is hardwired (temperament), but temperaments can be tempered by good parenting/caregiving and TEACHING social emotional skills. It's never too late...would be interesting to see if the DMV ever gets on board with teaching basic human emotion management...along with a refresher on things like the 2 second rule...although I thought it was 3 seconds! Am I dating myself? LOL!

Joan Young (aka Mancini) said...

Wendy,
Thanks for commenting! You make me laugh and always shed some wonderful insight. Wouldn't it be amazing if people actually had to learn about how emotions impact their judgement while driving? Guess I can dream on!
Thanks for coming by :-) And yes, I believe you are right about the 3 second rule ;-)