The joys of parenting

[astarte59]

Let me preface this by saying that my 18-year old daughter (19 in August) is incredibly helpful. She really saves me a lot of effort, esp. by going to the grocery store. But she can also really be a twat. When she's in her room, she absolutely wants to be left alone. Period. But of course there have been times when she calls Mom for help, like

Comments

[las]

You have my sympathies; my niece and nephew are much the same. It seems that teen brains are predisposed to mind-blowing selfishness. Have you seen this article?

[astarte59]

You know, I think I didn't read the article itself, but I read about the study in the newspaper. I'm always amazed by kids' impulsiveness--like when my daughter (then 9) and her brother (then 6) decided to put a small plastic Elmo and a Spiderman action figure in the top of a halogen torchiere lamp. I came out to investigate b/c of the smell of burning plastic and the instantaneous headache. Poor Spiderman's neck was so melted it was totally tipped to the side (kind of like Nearly Headless Nick in HP 1). I told them this was by far the stupidest thing they had ever done. (I never called them stupid; but in this case the deed warranted it.) And they had to pay for a new lamp, which came to $8 each. Poor Bradley had to fish through every single penny in his bank. A few years later, he was our banker, lending us money b/c he often had more cash than we did. :-) But when I told them about paying for a new lamp, they didn't complain one bit; I think they knew they'd done something pretty damn idiotic. Sarah did try the "It was

[las]

Oh dear. I remember melting plastic figures on lightbulbs when I was a kid, but managed to avoid attracting parental attention with it. I think young kids are just prone to doing dumb stuff; it may be partly a brain development thing, and partly learning that yes, Virginia, you need to keep the brain engaged at all times or Stupid happens and the parents/teachers are yelling at you.