The More You Know
Gentle Reader,
If you have a 10 year old boy who spends the night with a friend who is the only child of mature and wealthy parents, you should be prepared for him to come home resentful of the life he lives, and to display manifestations of both a martyr complex and a narcissistic personality disorder.
Thank you, and good luck.
posted by eclectic @ 9:24 AM
27 comments
27 Comments:
And that dear lady, is why god invented head slaps.
And tequila.
I just avoid sharing my boy and that takes care of that.
You'd think with all of the examples of miserable, good-for-nothing rich people in the media these days that kids would realize that having everything handed to you on a silver platter is almost a formula for disaster. Sometimes the only answer lies another 10 years down the road, LOL.
Oh, yea. Same goes if you send your very well provided-for but not overly-indulged "only" to the home of an "only" with wealthy, divorced (i.e., "competing") parents.
OMG!! I know!!! My kids go to school with kids like that! Sometimes it's hard to keep their feet on the ground in all of this, but we are managing by standing firm and not doing the 'keeping up with the Joneses' thing. (We CAN'T keep up with the Joneses because we're broke from paying tuition!)
He'll thank you for it someday. And if you're lucky, he may even apologize for his recent behavior. Hang in there!
did you tell him stories about how good he has it compared to your childhood, eating gruel and walking uphill both ways?
you are a saint! :)
Oh, Eclectic! I'm sorry about that. He'll grow out of that...if not, have him spend the night with a friend who has multiple siblings and is not as pampered as his other friend. That oughta do the trick.
My grandmother had me help out at the Friendship Center, doling out soup and bread for those in need.
And I'm sorry I was such a Beeyotch today...that was so not cool of me at all.
I also gave some more thought to the August event instead of being the ass I was being and I'm going to attempt it. What the heck, eh?
Anyway, if I see a redheaded kid on your curb with a For Sale sign attached to him, I'll see if Bill Gates wants to adopt.
Ah yes... after Punkin hangs out with one particular neighbor girl, she goes into full-blown princess mode. It takes days to bring her back down to Earth.
We were lucky - our kids never much cared about going over to other kids' houses - they'd have their friends here. Maybe it was because we let them all drink and do drugs.
as the economically poor mother of a 15 year old single child (a boy and we've always been poor), i extend to you my heartfelt empathies and sympathies.
of course, the difference for boy is that he gets attention rather than material goods. he buys his own "stuff" and takes great pride in that.
Now that alone sounds like a good enough reason for my daughter to someday only have poor friends from big families! :)
Daughter #2 used to do the same thing upon returning for her best friends house. We just kept talking about it and now, while she does still envy her periodically, most of the time she worries about what will become of her friend if she ever has a true disaster happen in her life.
She tells me "Mom, if something bad happens in her life, she won't have a clue! I worry so much about her when life actually lands on her doorstep."
Now THAT'S the difference between 10 and 17! See what I do for you? Offer hope and everything?! heh
Tell me about it! When Stumpy came home after a weekend with a friend, she was most miffed that she'd stayed in "The East Wing" of thier house and ours is so tiny it doesn't have any wings at all!
I don't think I'm going to let Mr. Man have friends. Seems easier that way.
A good head slap now and then wont hurt either.
Wow. I feel for you. I go over to other people's places and see how they pamper their cats and come home relieved that Yoshi doesn't see those things. No costume wearing and being allowed on the counters. She'd be impossible if she learned about the other side.
;-)
On the cat theme, you know how some cats are indoor-only cats? Well that's what I'm doing with my kids. They're getting de-clawed Thursday.
Limpy: I improvised... a body slam, and scotch. It worked. I'm not annoyed today at all! ;)
Bloggy: You're just selfish, man. Of course, I'm not sure I'd be so good at sharing that Boy either... he's pretty cute.
Ortizzle: I KNOW, eh? Perhaps I should see if I can set him up with Paris or Lindsay or someone?
Susie: Eeeep! The competing, divorcing parents who use their kids as pawns for their own interpersonal power-plays just make me want to clank their heads together until they can see more clearly... or until they pass out. Whichever comes first. ;)
Lynn: I told him I'd LOVE to give him all those things and privileges, but that would mean we'd have to sell our house, our cars, and his bike. ;)
Shawkey: Thank you! You're a bit of a prophet -- just last night before bed he told me how sorry he was.
Asia: How did you know about that? Did I mention how I had to carry my siblings on my back, and only got to wear shoes every other day?? ;)
Mo/Dis: Friendship Center -- good idea! Thanks! And don't worry about it honey, I was just really glad to see you. :) Y'know, you can always turn back at any point in the ride. Go as far as you feel you can manage, and then be proud that you're out there. I know I will be...
CK: We call it the "re-entry decompression", and yeah, it takes a day or two. *sigh* Today, he's much better, and we have a different friend over here. They're playing 'Monopoly' and he's having to pay rent. I love the universe's sense of humor!
Nilbo: Koolaid and Tylenol don't count.
DW: I like your distinction between the types of poor. You're exactly right, and I it sounds like you're very wealthy in the ways that matter.
Shelley: Nah, it's actually really nice that he gets to experience box seats at the Mariners' game and such, AND that I don't have to pay for it. ;)
Traci: Heh! Yeah, I tried that, but at 10, he's not so much wanting to do all that abstract thinking...
Platy: Hey! Nilbo has tampons with wings, maybe you should send Stumpy over there!! ;)
M. William: Y'know, the kid he's friends with is actually a really nice, polite kid. It's just he lives a whole different life from us. But I'm choosing to view it as a teaching/learning opportunity. I'm optimistic like that.
Kranki: Oh, she knows. She just doesn't realize that YOU do. ;)
Peefer: Good call. It's so unfair that I had my kids first. I could have learned so much from you.
Oh dear! You could chain him to the porch. I'm sure the rich kid doesn't have a chain...;)
Good luck!
S
Best....post....ever!!!
Shelly: HA! You know, next time I may give that a try. I'm sure CPS would understand... ;)
Jessica: Only because you can SO relate...! Thank you. It's very, very good to see you out and about. Miss you!!
Ya, that was me. Every time I came home from a friend's house it was always "Tommy has so many more cool toys than I do, clearly his parents love him more than you love me."
Luckily my mother never read that book that says you shouldn't use sarcasm with your child because her response was always something along the lines of "If he whines even less than half as much as you do then I think I love Tommy more than you."
Now I know why John won't let me go over to the neighbors house. :) Drooling at the outside is enough. ;)
Of course I would never want to have to clean the 8000 Sq foot monster house next door. Or pay to heat or cool it.
While I would have liked to have given my kids more, I couldn't. Not that they did without but they did with a lot less than a lot of their friends.
I have watch as two daughters who were given everything and anything they wanted flop and fail through life.
I realized that my kids were blessed with less.
Hi Eclectic. It starts that early? I thought that was reserved for teenagers.
Been there, unfortunately! When I was a seminary student living on next-to-nuthin income, my youngest (8 year old) son found a school chum who lived a few blocks from the seminary and he’d spend as much time there are possible in their game room, swimming pool, etc.
Just watch out for the sociopathic tendencies. Those are scary.
yikes!
i remember doing that when i was a kid too. thank goodness we grow out of that.
:)
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