Rude and/or Petty

It’s the end of my son’s tennis lesson and I notice that he’s ending a few minutes early—no big deal, right? I’m not so sure. He ended a few minutes early the last class, and a few minutes early the class before. Its in my head as a note, but hasn’t escalated beyond that.

Walking the streets on the way home from his lesson, I comment aloud, “you’re class ended a little early, huh?” He’s 5, so he obviously didn’t know, but it sparked a conversation with the rest of the members of my family. I thought it would be worth a comment at some point down the road if it continues every time and my older son thought it would be rude to comment about the class ending early. I thought about what he thought and disagreed, but added that it could be a bit petty. He hadn’t heard the word, so I explained that petty was more relating to bringing up matters that are not that important or making a bigger deal out of something then its worth. After hearing my definition he held strong to the belief that it would be rude to comment about the time, but he cleverly made an adjustment to his original comment to say that it would be perceived as rude. This I agreed with.

But since I’m the perfect mix of a nerd and argumentative, I countered with the question, “would you change your opinion if they ended two minute early every class considering he has one class per week?” My son, who hates math homework but loves a real life math application, did the math in his head and announced that it would be 104 minutes of class time lost. This was a perfect answer for my point—considering his class is only 45 minutes long to begin with, the time cut short at the end of the class would equate to more that two full lessons by the end of the year. My older son was still not convinced, and held fast to his original point that it would be rude to ask about just a couple of minutes. I mostly relented here, but everything in NYC cost an arm and a leg, so I am fine being rude and/or petty if the trend continues because those minutes add up.

What’s you’re thoughts—is it rude and/or petty? And are you the type of person that’s eventually speaking up about those few minutes if it keeps happening? Immediately as soon as it happens? Or never ever?