Share Some Tales of Parental Idiocy and Make Torgo Feel Like Less of an Asshat

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Virtually all the photos we have of our 18-month-old son were lost forever when I left the discs on top of our car and drove off, impervious to the disaster taking place. Unable to find the discs I did manage to recover about 35 of them with some file-recovery software, but still…it was a blasted stupid thing to do. Granted, it’s not like I left the kid on top of the car, but still…

So what stupid mommy or daddy things have you done? Remember, it’s all about making me feel better. Feel free to share stories about your parents as well.

2

Mmmm i’m not a parent, but I can share an idiotic thing my mother did. well, more like irresponsible. She decided it would be a smart idea to leave me and my cousin (both of us 3) home alone while she went to pick up my brother from kindergarten down the block. We decided we didn’t want to be home alone so we go to her house. Across the street. Let’s just say we almost got hit by a car.

Yeah…and mom got mad at US. bah.

that’s just one of her…smart thinkings. thank god she’s changed.

3

idiotic things my parents did: adopt my FAS brother and sister after foster caring for them for a while. THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE GETTING INTO!!! And the still did it. 18 yrs later both children have been in jail atleast once and my sister is on her 3rd kid.

My parents have to big of hearts for their own good.

4

Here, I’ll give you a story of former friends;

It’s 11:10pm on a friday night. Their 2.5 year old son is throwing a fit as we try to have an adult conversation. Punches me in the leg, punches daddy in the face, throws a toy at the piano.

I innocently say “He seems pretty tired, why don’t you put him to bed?”

Daddy snorts in anger, throws up his hands and says “he’ll just cry”.

Still not getting the clue, I say “So?”

Mommy and Daddy stop dead. Mommy pulls herself up to her full height and sneers: “We’re the parents. We know everything we need to know about raising our child. You are a single man. You don’t know anything about children. Therefore, we don’t ever want to hear another word out of you about how to raise our son!”

10am Monday morning, Daddy calls me at work to complain about how he just now got to work (3 hours late), because their son refused to go to bed the night before.

My response: “Friday you yelled at and insulted me because I had the nerve to suggest that you put him to bed when he was tired. Don’t ever call me at work to complain about how you are too stupid to put a 2 year old to bed.”

Within a month, he had a set bed time. Though it took them a year or more to make it stick, and for several more years it required one of them to go to bed with him until he was asleep.

I have other stories about them, but on contemplation, they’re more about how petty and mean the parents were.

5

This story isn’t exactly from babyhood, but eh. I consider my mother utterly idiotic for behaving this way.

My junior year in high school, I was beset with the full force of my teenage angst. I was a happy, well-adjusted teen until I hit 17, and then BAM! Everything went to hell and I would cry at anything. (I recovered by the time I was 18. Go figure) So, one night, I was thinking about all the studying I had to do before I went to bed, and it just seemed like too much. Thus a crying fit followed. I went into my mother’s room, bawling and she looked at me and said, “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

Shocked, I stopped and then managed to choke out, “I don’t know! wail”

Saith she, “Well, go away then. I’m not going to talk to you if you don’t know what’s wrong.”

All I wanted was a hug and a little support from my mother, for god’s sake. Ugh. It was at this point that I realized that my mother could be a cold-hearted bitch at times. But I still love her. Being a teenager sucks.

6

Look here, see here.

7

We did something similar, Torgo. We have no pictures of our baby’s first week because we thought the camera was working. It wasn’t. The film did not advance.

8

I am not a parent but I have something a friend of mine did.

His little 6 year old boy poked me in the stomach and told me I was fat and should lose weight. (After consulting the friends who I know would be dead honest with me…I am not fat and in fact have dropped some weight). They did not reprimand him and make him apologize. Nothing was done about it. They don’t like the fact that I call him the little monster. I spend my time if I have to with the other three children. Oh he also hits his little sister and has this control issue and has tried to hit me. His mom once told me he has a dominant personality. Yeah right. the kid is a brat.

Now I know that it is not this kids fault that he has parents who know zilch about parenting. I don’t understand the concept of letting your kid insult someone who has been invited into your home. I tend to stay away as much as I can.

9

TORGO, my parents once left my brother at the local Chinese restaurant. He was four or five, I think. It was one of those family get-togethers: grandparents, three sets of sibling-parents and spouses, and numerous grandchildren/cousins, and so we were in several cars, and everybody just assumed someone else had him. (It takes a village to lose a child.)

When they raced back, he was sitting in the kitchen eating wontons. It was a running snarky comment of my sister’s and mine throughout our childhood that they should have just left him there. My mother never thought it was funny.

10

[hijack]

**

That was ruder. And I presume you are older than 6.
[/hijack]

My aunt left her month-old baby at the market. She was so tired, and on automatic pilot, that she was half-way home before she remembered WHY she was so tired…

11

You don’t understand this little boy. He has to have his way all the time (the parents do nothing about it). He hits his litte sister (dominant personality excuse). He hits other people including adults (dominant personality excuse). He gets in fights at school (dominant personality excuse). This is in addition to alot of other things. (Just about everyone who knows him calls him the little brat or monster)

I have taught pre school, volunteered extensively with children and have had two years of child development. I completely understand that kids say and do stuff that is inappropriate at 6…it is normal to an extent but this kid is out of control. There is a difference between normal and something the parents shoudl be dealing with. It is hard to describe the difference on a message board. He is a brat. I don’t care how dominant a child’s personality is, he needs to be taught to respect others. I was and I was a very wild child. The parents listen to no one on this subject. This is a child who will grow up thinking he can hit people if he gets mad with him. He is also very close to getting kicked out of the private kindergarten they have him in. Parents are oblivious.

The kid is a brat and I really think the parents are to blame. They spank him (I wonder where he thinks he gets the right to smack his sister if she doesn’t please him?). They have a very fundementalist point of view that boys are better than girls. (So I wonder where he gets the rest of it?). The parents are to blame but he is a brat. This is common knowledge. I don’t attend the church but I know alot of the church memeber and they think so. By the way, I have never called this to his face.

I think it is dangerous to say something like
“oh, he’s just six”. If your kid is showing violent behavior such as smacking others, destruction of property, you will need to deal with it. Because it can escalate.

To the OP: If you lost a bunch of pictures of your kid and you feell bad about it…I think you are a good parent. Some parents do alot worse.

12

When I was about 4 or 5, my mom accidentally slammed the car door closed on my hand and walked away. I was too shocked to call out. I could see her walking away, talking to me, thinking I was right there with her. She got to wear she had to cross against traffic and reached for my hand to cross. She then looked around saw me attached to the car. The look of terror on her face has eliminated any anger I might feel now. My hand was fine, by the way.

13

snort That’s rich.

14

My mother used to, and still does occasionally, forget to pick me up from school/soccer/violin/etc. First time I remember that was in pre-school. Happened repeatedly in elementary school. Just happened a few weeks ago at karate.

Also, from both parents, telling me that I will never amount to anything, and will end up being simply a burden on the productive people in the world, because I have a learning disability and some emotional issues I’m currently working through. This is also complimented by comments on how I put no effort into anything I do, I’ll never be as good at anything as my older sister, and there’s no point in me even applying to college.

Also, telling me that it’s OK for people to be different (eg, alternate sexualities, different races, different religions), but our religion is the only one that’s right, and you should only really be close with those people in your ‘category’.

Also, giving your daughter a lecture on why she should never, ever drink because alcoholism runs in the family, and then opening a bottle of wine and finishing the entire thing on your own.

15

Well, I might have mentioned a couple of these here before, but here goes:

My parents were taking a walk with the dog we had then and me. They saw a house that was being built and wanted to look inside. My mother headed in first, trusting that my father would stay with me. My father, however, decided it would be a good idea to hand the kid in the stroller (me) the leash, the other end of which was attached to the strong part-doberman dog. Dog sees something and begins running, pulling the poor child in the stroller after her off the road and down a hill. Miraculously, I was unharmed.

Another time, my father (yes, this one was his fault, too) decided to pull me around really really really fast in a wagon. He was taking the wagon around all sorts of sharp turns. During one of these, I went flying and landed on my face. It was bad enough that they thought that I might end up eventually needing cosmetic surgery; luckily, it all healed up ok.

Also, my mother is teaching my brother that he doesn’t have to do anything. She’s let herself get wrapped around his little finger, and practically does his homework, projects, and take-home test for him. I can’t wait to see what will happen when he gets to college and Mommy isn’t there to help him anymore. He’s too lazy to do anything by himself; he won’t even make a sandwich.

16

My parents used to have a Volkswagen Beetle back in the 70’s. There was a huge hill near our house and my mom decided to see if she went really fast, if she could catch air…with the kids in the car. Yeah, she caught air. And everyone in the car smashed their heads on the roof (this was before car seats and seat belts were really stressed).

My mom is kinda fun, though.

17

There was a time when I was working odd shifts, long hours, and I had a second job.
Depending on the day, my 2 kids might have been at the sitter’s, home, with Granma, or a friend.
I walked out of work, exhausted, after about 2 months of this, and realised…
“I do NOT know what day it is, or where my kids are right now.”
blink
I actually had to make some calls to track them down, and see which of us were supposed to pick them up.
They weren’t very happy with me.
I quit the second job, and soon got divorced.

18

Once, when I was an infant, my mother was walking me up and down the hallway to get me to fall asleep. On one pass, right as she was entering the hallway, infant me throws back her head and CRACK right into the corner of the wall.

For weeks she was terrified she had “broken the baby”.

The incident is still brought up in my family as a possible reason for any inexplicable behavior of mine!

19

My parents:

Dad: I took swimming lessons every summer. One day, my dad felt kind of ill, so he decided to stay home from work. My mom said that she’d take me to swimming class then run some erands before she went to work (3p-3a), and cacel the babysitter. My dad said he’d pick me up from swimming class. Well, my class was 30 minutes long. Durin that 30 minutes, my dad decided that he felt well enough to go to work, so he did. After my lesson was over, I sat in the front lawn, waiting to be picked up (it was at a local person’s house). I believe I was in the 3rd class of 7 that day, 15 minute breaks between each class. Anyway, I sat there until all the lessons was over and one of the instructors came out and saw me, recognizing me from a much earlier class. She drove me home, and I called my mom and told her what happened. The shit hit the fan (not for me, but for my dad).

Mom: Believes that my lack of faith in God is the reason I’m depressed. blink She used to be really open to religious differences. Believes that The Cody and I will break up very soon, that I’ll get “bored” with him. Believes that I’ll never, ever amount to anything because I’m not currently in college.

The Cody’s family:

Dad: Married an abusive woman, and wouldn’t beleive anything he or his brother told him until one day the step-mom slammed Cody’s face into a wall, removing a chunk of his hair (she grabbed his hair for grip). Why? Because he didn’t use a fresh dryer sheet. However, his dad promptly divorced the woman and gave custody to their mom. To this day, he feels horrible about it.

Mom: Alcoholism runs rampant in her family. Rampant. Also, her father died of lung cancer in, like, his 70’s (2 pack a day smoker). When she found out that Cody smoked, she very nearly kicked him out of her house. But when her other, underaged, son came to visit, they’d dit and have a berr or five together. Family reuinions? Everyone drinks. A lot. For his 21st birthday, after we watched the videotape of his birthday party full of drunken debauchery, her present to him was a big bottle of liquor. Hmmmm.

I’ll not get into the craziness of my step-dad’s family. There are some wierd things going on over there.

20

Okay, this story reminds me of something from my own life.

My freshman year in high school I was involved with a community theater company located about 2 1/2 miles from my house. We finished after dark and my dad didn’t want me walking home alone after dark, so he insisted I call home for a ride. I’d call just as he was sitting down to dinner…so he’d eat first and then pick me up. Of course I’m sitting there in the gathering darkness outside the theater while everyone else is leaving and bidding me good-night…one after another after another, with the adult actors locking up. I’m left all alone, waiting and waiting in the dark and the cold, until finally my well-intentioned but clueless dad arrives. I did, of course, try to make my feelings known to my dad, but he just didn’t get it: I can’t walk home alone in the dark; he can’t have his dinner get cold; walking home would mean I get home in an hour instead the the half-hour or so that he keeps me waiting. What’s the problem?

I also got fired from my first paying job because he insisted on driving me to work, but then timed it so that I arrived late every day.

Years later I told the first story to a co-worker who never met a self-help/dysfunctional family book she didn’t like, intending to share a “funny story about my family” with her. She listened to me and then replied, “You know, that’s a form of abuse.” Uh-huh. :rolleyes: