Family Time Gone Wrong

I hadn't been out to play tennis in a while, so this evening I grabbed my stuff and headed out to the neighborhood courts.  There are two courts, and I decided to hit against the wall on one of the courts.  On the other court, there was a father playing tennis with his two sons, probably around 7 and 11 years old.  At first, I thought it was really great that they were out playing together.  None of them were very good, but they looked like they were having a good time. 

Initially it reminded me of playing with my dad when I was younger, and then it didn't.  After the younger boy got tired or bored or whatever, the father and older boy decided to play a set.  That's when I decided that the father was teaching his son some bad lessons, and I'm not talking about tennis -- I've never seen a father cheat on his own child as much as this father did.  Either this father did not know the rules of tennis (which is entirely possible), or he just really didn't want to lose to an 11-year-old (which is more likely). 

Here's a quick run-down of what I saw in the course of about 15 minutes:

• A ball double-bounced on the father's side.  The son saw it and called it, but the father said he was wrong and refused to give him the point.
• Two balls hit by the son that were clearly in and were called out by the father.  Both were in by more than a foot.
• A ball hit by the father that was clearly out (again by at least a foot) and was called out by the son.  The father yelled at him about it until the kid changed his mind and said it was in.
• The father change the score three different times, each time taking a point or two away from the son.  

And this is what I noticed while I was hitting on the next court only half paying attention to them.  I wonder what else I would have noticed if I had been paying more attention.  All I can say is thank God my dad was never like this!  I actually enjoyed doing stuff with my dad and have no memories of him acting this way.  I hope this was just a dad having a bad day and he's not always like this.  But either way, I think he just showed his son that yelling, cheating, and bullying people is how you get your way.