There is delicious irony in this sentence.

Ok get this shit. I ate with my parents this past weekend at a nice pizza restaurant. One of our family friends that we hadn't seen in 10 years brought two of her sons with her, 18 and 12. When we got there my dad ordered a choco milkshake. The 12-year old demanded a milkshake from his mom. "I want a chocolate milkshake." She said no, you're eating pizza, that's too unhealthy. So this brat screams "I WANT A MILKSHAKE!!" She says no again and we all sit down.

He has this look on his face like he just fell 10 feet before the finish line at a race. His mom asks what's wrong and he mutters under his breath in an evil voice, "I. want. A. MILKSHAKE. GET ME ONE. NOW."

HA HA HA HA good god I was trying not to laugh at this point. His mom says no again and then he STARTS CRYING!!!!!!!!! "WHY WON'T YOU LET ME HAVE A MILKSHAKE!!!!!!" 12 years old ladies and gentlemen, CRYING over a milkshake. Guess what? He got one. ARGHHHH WORST PARENT EVER

You should have laughed.

Or you should have given the kid a high-five.

This is an issue with me right now. My daughter is nine. And she has taken to whining 'pleeeease' when I tell her no. So we have a system.

She asks for something ridiculous. Say a Wii or a $5.00 ice cream cone.

I say no.

She says please.

I say no again and explain why.

She:
1. drops it
or
2. says 'pleeeease'

if 2, I give her the eye

She:
1. drops it (if she's in the groove)
or
2. says 'pleeeeease' again

if 2, I say: 'are you out of your mind?!' (sometimes with a mild expletive, depending on many times this has happened that day) :p
and she gets punished, either grounded from playing with friends or favorite pastimes like computer and Nintendo DS.

I think repeatedly asking for something from your parents when they have said no and explained why is extremely rude. It's a huge pet peeve of mine and I won't tolerate it. My youngest daughter, though, seems to have a real weakness for it. And it seems to have escalated in frequency all of a sudden. Not sure where she got it from, television or school, but it's gonna stop. I can't stand that shit.

/end possible threadjack

Part of me really wishes you'd start all your posts this way, especially in the video card thread. Like a trademark.
Jesus, 12?! For perspective, I was sexually active at 13, and using a condom. Now that's a study in contrast!

I used to find tantrumming kids pathetic and funny. I thought: "Do you really think that I am so easily manipulated?". Then I worked on locked unit in residential treatment. Their tantrums weren't so funny.

Edit: Now that I think about it, it was my experiences in residential treatment that made me realize that most tantrums are funny. "You really need to step it up. That kicking and screaming of yours isn't very impressive."

I want to say it's worse when adults do it, but at least you can tell them to shut the fuck up.

You should've drank his milkshake.

*Baraka_Guru's respect for mixedmedia = + + + + +*


* * * * *

damn, skippy

I don't. Why should they? :lol:

Regardless....

*Baraka_Guru's respect for mixedmedia = + + + + +* :thumbsup:


If I'm ever a parent, I hope I adopt your program. That's how I'd like to see myself handling such situations, anyway.

thanks :)

just remember, healthy doses of cynicism and sarcasm will equip you well for the rigors of dealing with the minds of children

And THAT assures me that I might do an okay job at motherhood. :thumbsup: It sure helped me survive the demands of classroom management!

I HATE to repeat myself to kids. I have babysat tons over the years and got respect from them, they learned I DO NOT repeat myself, and they learned not to mess with me if I give them THE LOOK, but they also learned that we can have a lot of fun. I am pretty good with kids. I love that they are in the discovery stage and I love that I can help them discover things. I love playing games and having fun and I loved being a kid-(but stopped being a kid around 10 when I discovered guys and became insanely obsessed with sex).

I now have a one year old and a two year old and unfortunately you HAVE to repeat yourself to this age and they don't understand THE LOOK yet. Although just in the past week my daughter who is approaching 3 but acts much older has started to get the idea, because I have stopped looking at her as a toddler and started looking at her as a preschooler, which means she gets a lot less slack form me.

It is hard to be a parent today, tons of people say don't ever hit a child, tons of people say it is the only way to gain respect.

Bottom line is there MUST be consequences for bad behavior and the child must HATE the consequences. If they giggle when you put them in time out, time out doesn't work. If they scream and cry or just pout in time out-its working. Different things work with different kids, and different things work at different times, and parents that don't take the time to learn what works are doing a great disservice to their children. Lets face it I can't just walk onto a car lot and hot wire a car and drive off with it. The world has rules and the world has consequences that we don't like. It is my job as a parent to teach my children that.

So to the point what I hate about children:

In general:
I HATE repeating myself. If I said do it, do it. If I said don't do it, don't do it. PERIOD, no discussion. By four my kids had better have this mastered or they are going to be very unhappy children.

With my kids:
I hate that I can't get away from my children, even to take a crap in peace!

With other people's kids:
I hate that I can't step in and discipline other people's kids, unless they are in my house-my house, my rules, my discipline, don't like it, don't bring your kids over!!

I have all the kids I sit on a regular basis trained to understand the saying, "I don't chew my cabbage twice." It's a colloquial and polite way of informing them I don't repeat myself. The first time they ask what it means, I explain, they understand, and I always say it when they ask me to repeat myself. From there it becomes abundantly clear that either 1) they should have been paying attention, or 2) they genuinely didn't hear me. We move on appropriately from there, but generally all the kids know I don't repeat directions or instruction often, and they had better pay attention.

Before I had my own I couldn't stand kids. Hand me a baby and I give it right back like it was some kind of toxic sludge. They were loud and obnoxious, always disturbing my nice dinner at a restaurant.

Now that I have two, I can't stand other people's kids. Don't get me wrong, my kids are not perfect, but at least they're mine to deal with. Other people's kids are annoying whiny brats. When my daughter's friends come over they're welcome until they start bickering, then it's time for them to go back home. I also hate the fact the only reason they come over is to play on our WII or swim in our pool. I go livid when I hear a knock at the door, open it up and here are some neighbor kids showing up uninvited in swim trunks assuming they can get in the pool.

Things I can't stand about children:

They grow out of their incredible cuteness.

My goodness, my sister's kids are definitely not spoiled by their grandparents. The rules are rightfully stricter at granny's house. They know they have to be doing something productive at all times, like learning to play piano or doing puzzles or playing educational computer games. They like their time with her, and really miss it now that she's unable to watch them all the time.

Something else I can't stand about kids - They have no idea how loud they are. If you inform them that they need to use inside voices, they're good for a few minutes but need to be reminded again before too long. My nephew (age 5) has finally picked up on the fact that he needs to speak quieter around me, but dangit I hated that phase.

I use to live next to these children in Maryland that had parents that were horrible and because of the parents, the children ran rampad thru neighborhood bugging everyone including me and my fiance. Constantly knocking on door at all hours of the day and night, throwng rocks over to our home, asking for water or candy or ice cream, asking if they can play in our home. When we moved to NC looking for a home, our first priority was that we find a home without children next to us..lol and good people and we finally did. The first house we looked at, we were suppose to meet the owner to look but as we were driving up the road, we heard children screaming and we just kept going..lol. Not all children are annoying but there are a few. I am sure we all were annoying at some point too..lol.

Children who are consistently loud and have a hard time truly controlling the volume of their voice need to have their hearing checked. I babysit a girl whose ears were constantly clogged with fluid; she had to have tubes put in. After five months of not being able to hear, she's had a hard time readjusting to a normal volume, but she's getting there. Sometimes it just takes time--but the constant reminders and modeling of correct volume help a lot. If they're not getting consistent modeling of appropriate volume from the adults in their lives, they'll continue to be loud. I wrestle with this issue all the time--it's one of the things I can't stand about children :D but I try and love them anyways.

Don't ever, ever, ever give a child the opportunity to learn that hitting you in the gentleman vegetables will make them laugh. Ever.

And buy a cup.

Yep - no worries, my sis had that checked. He's just an energetic kid, and loves to speak loudly for emphaisis. Once he learned that he can stress his words in other ways, he grew out of the loudness.

Yea. Like when they refuse to sit naked on the new Dora potty chair, because the don't want to get it dirty.

Or when they don't believe you that child proof locks are not puzzles to be solved before they can walk.

Or when they think I'm wonderful even when I don't deserve it. Wait... scratch that one.

You mean...my kids aren't better than your kids?

:surprised: Sounds like a personal experience.