Comments | nematoddity: you wanted gain without pain

nematoddity

you wanted gain without pain

Jul 04, 2007 18:53

Okay, say what you will about Least I Could Do, this is just funny. :)

So, today, kitchen drama. I have to tell this story. One of the kids here is just not getting it. And by 'it', I mean everything. Why chores have to be done. Why brushing his teeth is a good idea. Why not making sexual advances to his mother is a very good thing ( Read more... )

pain, roommates, endurance

Comments 16

evergrey July 5 2007, 02:30:39 UTC

Holy crap.
He sounds like my ex.
"We're still trying to get through to the boy. Fourteen years old and fairly convinced that even though he sucks at lying, he sucks at coming up with excuses, he really sucks at doing the task, without complaint, in a reasonable amount of time...whether that task is doing laundry, or picking up three items off the dining room table and putting them away...he's still convinced that he can lie, that we'll buy his excuses, that nothing is ever his fault, that he can take two hours to load the dishwasher..."
How scary is that? My ex was 22.
That's why I am dating a 40 year old now.

At any rate, that's an excellent, excellent thing you did there. Good for you! I hope your wrists are okay :o

nematoddity July 5 2007, 05:38:24 UTC

*blinks*

*tries not to stare at the cleavage*

*fails miserably*

Yeah, I'm shallow sometimes. :)

Thing is...he's not going to get it. Two hours of talking to him last night, everything we did for him today, he's still obsessed over imagined 'privileges' his brother has (which is manifestly untrue) and things he's gone through that are so 'unfair' (and really, what's his basis for comparison, here?) and the like.

I really, honestly, see him hitting eighteen, and if he actually gets grades good enough for college, we're going to pack him off to higher learning and he'll be completely unprepared to live on his own. That's assuming he actually applies himself enough to get into college.

evergrey July 5 2007, 05:55:11 UTC

perhaps he is suffering from Teenage Affluenza?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZz6ICzpjI

mutaytedjoe July 5 2007, 03:57:53 UTC

You are my favorite crazy friend right now. Well, most of the time, really.

nematoddity July 5 2007, 05:39:30 UTC

*giggles*

Why thank you, my dear. Been meaning to ask how things are going, and prolly should ask that via email, not here.

gypsylady July 5 2007, 04:34:40 UTC

Back in Ye Olden Days when I was in college, I had a part time job assisting at an after school Hebrew school. Well, religious more than just Hebrew. We had one super-bad trouble maker and finally the lead teacher sent the kid out into the hall to stand up straight with his arms in front of him, touching the wall. She had him to this for five minutes. I was sent outside to keep an eye on him. He cried, and I told him I understood it was uncomfortable but it was for his own good. He was done in five minutes, and he and I did some exercises to get full feeling back into his arms ( ... )

gwynnthiere July 5 2007, 05:25:04 UTC

I have found that the majority of people who go "This is just like the Nazis!" or "You're just like Hitler" really have very little in the way of cognitive resources and should, for the good of one's sanity, be ignored for as long as humanly possible.

Wow...I am way to tired to type like that...

nematoddity July 5 2007, 05:44:21 UTC

Prolly. :)

But you're not wrong, for the most part.

nematoddity July 5 2007, 05:42:59 UTC

We will keep reinforcing this, until he gets it or expires from boredom of us saying it, whichever comes first. Yes, we know it hurts. Yes, it will burn. Yes, this does suck. That's why it's a punishment, because punishments should be things you want to avoid. No, you can do this. No, you're not going to quit. Head up. Back straight. Arms out.

It gets tiring. But we can't think of anything else to get through to him. His mother's at her limit, and if we can get through to him...he's not a bad kid, is the thing. He has issues, big flaming leather-bound collector's-edition issues...but he's not a bad kid.

Just...frustrating.

And yeah, I'm with you, it's not child abuse. Beating the hell out of him is child abuse. This? This is instructive. And hopefully, reinforcing.

gwynnthiere July 5 2007, 05:21:18 UTC

Go you!! That's pretty sweet, and for some reason I got the image of you telling him that in this thick russian accent.

...yeah, I'm tired.

nematoddity July 5 2007, 05:43:32 UTC

That's kinda funny, actually. :)

crymsin_lilly July 5 2007, 06:39:31 UTC

You know, I thought we got through to him, at least a little, last night with the two hour talk. It's as if he woke up and his mental reset button had been hit. He went right back to being completely clueless ( ... )

nematoddity July 5 2007, 07:35:10 UTC

I'm...utterly whelmed, my dear. Honestly. Deeply touched, by everything you said.

And yeah, he's a brat more often than not. If we can get through to him...if anything can...he has a chance. Don't know how slim it is, but...some kind of chance.

It's a long shot, but I'm honestly hoping something works.