This is just a little anecdote, it might be funny, sad or whatever - I don't know. Some people may relate to this or hate me for it. It's not that bad I think, but part of me feels like it's a bit reprehensible of me.
My little cousin is 12 - he's the youngest in my family. The kid is extremely spoiled, he gets a lot of "stuff" all year long from his parents for absolutely no reason. His parents are extremely overprotective of him. The result is that he basically has this really annoying narcissistic attitude. It's normal for kids, but this one is much worse.
To put you guys in context, about 3 years ago we had a barbecue at my parent's house and he was "splashing" fully clothed people with water from the pool. This is fine, he's a kid and kids do that. However, my older cousin, about 26 at the time, playfully retaliated, getting a few drops of water on the kid's shirt. Huge mistake: He threw a major, major tantrum for a 9 year old. He basically started throwing punches at my cousin, shouting "I'll kill you, that was my favorite shirt".
Over the last few years, he has been getting better as far as attitude goes, but he's still a spoiled brat - pardon the expression. Anywho, on his last birthday a few months ago, both my aunts had presents for him and my mom didn't. It's because it's not common for aunts and uncles to give presents - I don't get anything nor do my 8 cousins on that side of the family. But he's the youngest, and so there's some kind of unwritten rule that says he should get some material property for his birthday or something. After unwrapping his 2 presents and immediately throwing them aside because it wasn't good enough for him, he walked up to my mom and said "you didn't get me anything?". She apologized to him, his face dropped and he walked away.
A few weeks ago, my uncle calls my mom to talk about Christmas presents. His plan is to 4-way split the price of an iPad ($700 thing, 3G version) with my mom and his two other sisters. He adds (I paraphrase): "maybe you should pay a little bit more since you didn't get him anything for his birthday." Keep in mind, none of my other cousins get anything from anybody besides their own parents. If I come off as jealous, you're getting me wrong... What bothers me is that my uncle basically used guilt to extract $200 out of her pocket and he's much, much richer than her. Now, I don't care at all whether my mom gets me expensive presents or not, but I know for a fact that I never get $200 worth of presents for Christmas (which is perfectly fine - but I think it establishes that there's something weird going on)
This part is really going to sound like first world problems but bear with me. Dec 24th: we generally do the exchange first because they're small $20-25 gifts. My uncle, however, was really anxious to give him the iPad, I suppose, so he took the initiative to do that - the family kinda followed it and unwrapped everything. Expensive presents are unwrapped including 4 iPod docks/players to 4 people who didn't have iPods (we're a brilliant bunch, really). The kid is obviously really happy with his iPad and basically ignores everyone else while he plays with it - unwraps his other presents and couldn't care less. Then comes the exchange: he unwraps 2 books, doesn't say thanks and goes back to his iPad.
Kicker (or whatever): Turns out, the next day he dropped the iPad while walking out of his house, directly on asphalt. The screen broke. When my mom told me about the broken iPad, she almost thought it was funny (although she didn't say that, it looked like it). I certainly do think it's funny. Seeing how this kid tends to cry for no reason, his reaction must have been quite explosive.
And now I find myself with this little ball of satisfaction in my gut and I feel like a psychopath gutting a small animal. I'm awful - but it also feels justified.
From all your descriptions and details given, that kid is SPOILED and should not be. If he continues to grow this way, he's going to become a major problem. He will probably keep going on disrespecting his elders and peers......
You're not awful, all that you have said within this blog is justified
Granted, we can't take our standards from back in the day and apply it to children nowadays - obviously it's normal to expect something better than the little Samsung flip phone I had when I was... 14?
But it's the level at which he takes things for granted that is a bit upsetting.
This kid is gonna have a brilliant future when he steps out into society and finds that no-one actually gives a shit about him lol. You're not awful at all for laughing or thinking it was funny. I do feel a bit sad for the kid though...it's not entirely his fault that he turned out that way due to bad parenting.
From what you say, it sounds like this kid had it coming. There are some things I cannot stand and a narcissistic spoiled brat is definitely one of them. This kid needs to shape up, learn proper manners (thanking people for a gift even if you don't exactly like it), and quit being selfish. I would not feel bad for what you are feeling towards him breaking his iPad. If I was in your shoes, I would feel exactly the same way. This kid needs to grow up and be more mature for his age. 12 is more than old enough to know how to act reasonable within public.
Not the kids fault IMO, but still funny. My step-brother got a Logitech G700 Gaming Mouse, SteelSeries Siberia V2 Headset, 5000kr (~1000$ I think). And before christmas he was bitching that if he didn't get THAT exact piece of gaming gear then he would move to his dad. Now the funny thing is that he got just what I've been using for the last year or so, that I used about a year to save up for myself and he gets it at the blink of an eye at christmas. Pisses me off, and then he logs on to steam and grinds in my face like; I got gaming gear and money worth 6-7000kr, and you just got some books and stuff+500kr. I was happy for my presents, but when he grinds that shit I get so mad I want to really kick his ass. Kids like this, piss me off and should get some serious injury so they actually have a reason to cry for once.
I think you're fine. I would feel the exact same way and I am sure anyone else in this thread would as well. In fact, you're probably better than me, I would have burst out in laughter without remorse.
But yeah I just feel a tiny little bit bad for being happy about a kid's misfortune. Even though he's not the most pleasant person, I think his parents are largely at fault... Obviously it's easier to blame the kid with the "symptoms" than to criticize the source of the problem. Obviously he was raised wrong in many ways.
On January 01 2012 15:19 Antisocialmunky wrote: Did they purchase the accident protection plan?
I don't have specifics, but I highly doubt it. Either way, his father can buy him a mountain of iPads if he wants to, so there's a chance it's already replaced. I'm just speculating though but I wouldn't be surprised.
Haven't had the displeasure of meeting someone like that yet, would probably punch them in the face if they were older or "accidentally" trip them a few times if they were younger if I did know anyone like that though. Realllly can't stand people like that
Why on earth do you feel awful or like a psychopath? Little brat got what he deserved quite frankly, I just feel bad for the money that your mum and other relatives put in for the iPad which just went completely down the drain.
Tell your mom to talk to her other brother/sisters see how they feel about the whole gift situation, so that they can stop with that. To be completely honest, I think your uncle is trying to force it onto the family to give gifts to his son. My family seems pretty similar to yours, we only get gifts from our parents and our godfather/godmother and they're usually pretty cheap gifts(~$25 budget). Except from parents, but when a big console came out, my parents split it 3-way (I have 2 brothers) and that's about all we got... maybe 1-2 games...
But looking at the past few Christmas, I'm starting to feel like my older brother is becoming like your uncle. My dad isn't a big fan of gifts, normally when he gets a gift, he passes it down to whichever one of us who might make the best use of it, or whoever wants it, etc... But my older brother decided to, this year for example. Buy a new watch for my dad. My dad bought a new watch a couple years ago, so I was hesitant about it and considering just buying him a nice bottle of scotch (we had a $75 budget for each of us, because I'm a student and my younger brother is 16 and gets a neat allowance from my dad) because my dad loves scotch.
For whole month, my brother kept pushing me and my younger brother to buy a watch for my dad, so we're like "well, if you can find a $225 or under watch, I guess we can...". So of course, he has to shop for it, so he brings me to the mall one day "Okay, I want a second opinion on the watch, so lets go shop together" and I figured whatever... If I don't go he'll bother me for like 3 hours before leaving me alone so I figured it would take the same amount of time. We go to these jewelry store, I point him to the big stores, like Sears and The Bay, but it's too "cheap" for him, so we go to the "better" places, where we have all these nice watches. He finds the omega section, which has sponsored the Olympics apparently, so we know they're good watches. Then he found it... The watch that James Bond apparently wore in the newest movie!!! He asks me what I think about it, I just nod because I know it's out of our budget, then he complains about how I don't appreciate stuff. He asks to see it, I say "look at the price tag before you get all excited" so he gets all excited and because I don't appreciate stuff, he doesn't let me check the price tag and asks to buy it. It's $4100.
So now, he's all bummed out, so the next day I decide to just shop real fast to look at watches. The Bay had a 25% off sale on watches, which up'd our budget to like $280, there's a watch at $300, that's like SUPER HIGH TECH and its clean. Show a picture to my brother, he's like "OMG its so nice", I found it in a random jewelry store, where it was $350, he tried to convince me to up my budget to buy it at $350, I facepalmed and brought him to The Bay and we bought it there. After taxes, we all 3 had to pay $90 instead of $75, so our budget wasn't busted by too much.
To close this up, I'd like to say that my family has always been wealthy, but now my dad is trying to let us fly on our own. However, my brother is still trying to live as if he was a kid. He's trying to buy stuff just to show that he's got money, since he works full time. He tries to act as if he knows everything about everything, for example, he bought a $100 2m(6') HDMI Monster cable for his PS3, because it has 240Hz. (What the Hz are for, he doesn't know, but it's 240Hz so it's a lot) I wish he would grow up and realize that he doesn't know everything about everything and try to listen to people that know what they're talking about...
Oh man. I know twin girls in my neighborhood who sound just like him. Eventually they got a taste of their own medicine and now they have no friends. Anyway, I can't stand anyone who doesn't even have basic manners and your cousin definitely needs to learn some before he gets older and turns into a real asshole.
Hate spoiled brats. My sister is the same way, she lives with my mom and my mom lets her do whatever and buys her a ton of shit and she has such an attitude especially towards gifts if they aren't what she wants.
The funny thing is if he doesn't like something the family gets her or she doesn't thank anyone for it she gets less for either christmas or her birthday whichever is next rofl.
An example of this would be on her birthday my grandma gave her 100$ and she didn't even thank her for it. Didn't call her or anything to thank her so what did my grandma do for christmas this year? Gave her 25$ while me and my brother got the usual 100$ rofl. So glad my family doesn't let that attitude slide. I feel for you though I just hate snotty spoiled brats irks me so much.
On January 01 2012 15:34 2WeaK wrote: The Bay had a 25% off sale on watches, which up'd our budget to like $280, there's a watch at $300, that's like SUPER HIGH TECH and its clean. Show a picture to my brother, he's like "OMG its so nice", I found it in a random jewelry store, where it was $350, he tried to convince me to up my budget to buy it at $350, I facepalmed and brought him to The Bay and we bought it there.
At least he was respectful enough to give you some form of choice. A few years ago, some friends and I decided to buy 2 bottles of fancy absinthe from Europe basically to try it. All 6 of us agreed to chip in. We all actually disliked it - 2 of them refused to pay. It was about $180 split in 6 ($30 each), but we ended up splitting it in 4 ($45 each). The $15 was a big deal to some of us at the time.
Not sure if it compares but yeah, when dealing with money, people get shitty.
Seriously, a 12 year old kid with an ipad? it makes me think of that southpark humancentipad episode.. Does he act like that at all? vid in spoiler + Show Spoiler +
On January 01 2012 14:24 fuzzy_panda wrote: This kid is gonna have a brilliant future when he steps out into society and finds that no-one actually gives a shit about him lol. You're not awful at all for laughing or thinking it was funny. I do feel a bit sad for the kid though...it's not entirely his fault that he turned out that way due to bad parenting.
On January 01 2012 16:32 GigaFlop wrote: Seriously, a 12 year old kid with an ipad? it makes me think of that southpark humancentipad episode.. Does he act like that at all? vid in spoiler + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KqqRPvM_Sw
lol! Well, he's not that coherent when he's angry.
WOW that kid is really spoilt...coming from a poor family, i dont mind not getting presents for speical events, we normal just eat out as a family. I normally dont mind when others talk about getting expensive presents. But its seems $200 and some more was wasted, for this kid who doesnt really care about anyone else. I really think parents need to have better control over their kids....they really are a reflection of the parents espeically in childhood
If he can't behave, fucking punch him. When I was with my family and my girlfriend and my nephew did slap my girlfriend on her ass (he was 12 at that time, she was 17) I told him thats not how you treat a girl and that he's old enough to know not to touch her ass/boobs doesn't matter if he thinks its funny.
I clearly told him and I did tell him another time, as did she. I did tell him I will punch him really hard if he doesn't stop, he did not and he got punched really hard on his shoulder. His dad sure wasn't happy, but he could understand and I would not hesitate to fuck up such a spoiled kid.
I am very thankful for everything and the price doesn't matter. What matters is that somebody thought about you, invested time and actually got you something or made you something. If he cannot truly appreciate what a present means, go tell him and if he acts funny, fuck him up.
Yes - I do not care that he's younger, when he's old enough to act like a normal person and not a fucking kid (not saying kids may not do something stupid at times, but if you don't put an end to it, he will be like that as an adult as well) make him listen, make him understand.
Edit: No, I am certainly against violence to grow children or drive them towards the right direction, but if you friendly asked him to stop or tried to punish and it just doesn't work, sometimes a slap is just deserves. Don't overdo it, but just letting him get away with everything is more harmful than any slap.
Mate, I'm feeling satisfied just reading your story and seeing the outcome, despite it being, I guess, a bit mean that you are happy at your cousin's misfortune, it seems like he really deserved it.
I wouldnt feel bad at all if i were you. I always have a mean grin on my face when i see little pieces of shit that are running around screaming in the supermarket fall on their face or be annoying as shit to their parents who dont know at all what to do about it :D.
That one time i remember a mother carrying like 2 or 3 bags to her car, and her kid was constantly yelling at her because she didnt get him what he wanted in the supermarket while holding her legs to try to stop her walking^^. Man did she have a pissed face. But she did nothing about it, lol.
On January 01 2012 15:47 Hyren wrote: My friend's mom runs a daycare and there's a 5 year old that has an iPad... Plays with it with her feet...
LOL. Seeing young kids with these expensive "toys" is disgusting.
Reading about this 12 yr old almost seems typical of upper/middle class Americans these days... Sigh.
It really isn't too bad if you know your child is responsible. My cousin is 8 and got a laptop from his dad's parents. But he is very well behaved and his parents won't let him take it anywhere. He just plays minecraft and terraria on it.
On January 01 2012 15:47 Hyren wrote: My friend's mom runs a daycare and there's a 5 year old that has an iPad... Plays with it with her feet...
LOL. Seeing young kids with these expensive "toys" is disgusting.
Reading about this 12 yr old almost seems typical of upper/middle class Americans these days... Sigh.
It really isn't too bad if you know your child is responsible. My cousin is 8 and got a laptop from his dad's parents. But he is very well behaved and his parents won't let him take it anywhere. He just plays minecraft and terraria on it.
On January 01 2012 15:47 Hyren wrote: My friend's mom runs a daycare and there's a 5 year old that has an iPad... Plays with it with her feet...
LOL. Seeing young kids with these expensive "toys" is disgusting.
Reading about this 12 yr old almost seems typical of upper/middle class Americans these days... Sigh.
It really isn't too bad if you know your child is responsible. My cousin is 8 and got a laptop from his dad's parents. But he is very well behaved and his parents won't let him take it anywhere. He just plays minecraft and terraria on it.
Same, he just watches Yogscast and Tobuscus and plays Minecraft on it
On January 01 2012 15:47 Hyren wrote: My friend's mom runs a daycare and there's a 5 year old that has an iPad... Plays with it with her feet...
LOL. Seeing young kids with these expensive "toys" is disgusting.
Reading about this 12 yr old almost seems typical of upper/middle class Americans these days... Sigh.
It really isn't too bad if you know your child is responsible. My cousin is 8 and got a laptop from his dad's parents. But he is very well behaved and his parents won't let him take it anywhere. He just plays minecraft and terraria on it.
The fuck
I was playing with legos when I was 8.
And he doesn't? When my grandparents were kids they didn't have legos. So should kids only be allowed to play with the previous generation's toys? I don't get the logic here.
On January 01 2012 18:43 mTw|NarutO wrote: Edit: No, I am certainly against violence to grow children or drive them towards the right direction, but if you friendly asked him to stop or tried to punish and it just doesn't work, sometimes a slap is just deserves. Don't overdo it, but just letting him get away with everything is more harmful than any slap.
Yeah well I can't punch my little cousin without getting disowned or something. That wouldn't fly in my family sadly - I can't raise someone else's kid like that anyway.
On January 01 2012 15:47 Hyren wrote: My friend's mom runs a daycare and there's a 5 year old that has an iPad... Plays with it with her feet...
LOL. Seeing young kids with these expensive "toys" is disgusting.
Reading about this 12 yr old almost seems typical of upper/middle class Americans these days... Sigh.
It really isn't too bad if you know your child is responsible. My cousin is 8 and got a laptop from his dad's parents. But he is very well behaved and his parents won't let him take it anywhere. He just plays minecraft and terraria on it.
The fuck
I was playing with legos when I was 8.
And he doesn't? When my grandparents were kids they didn't have legos. So should kids only be allowed to play with the previous generation's toys? I don't get the logic here.
On January 01 2012 15:05 Manifesto7 wrote: Anyone who walks and uses an ipad a the same time deserves to be punched for stupidity.
Anyone who has an ipad in the first place deserved to be punched.
What's the point of an iPad? Can someone tell me? It seems to me that it's a glorified Angry Birds console.
It's a little more portable than a regular laptop, but not by much. Being able to magnify words on a screen really easily is convenient -- my mom, who has terrible eyesight, likes to use it -- but some laptops do the same thing ... Anyways, I find it hard to justify myself; not to mention that typing on an iPad is a borderline nightmare if you a lot of writing. =X
What an annoying kid and enabling parents who should learn a lesson or two from Asian parents. A kid being that impolite is going to get smacked in almost any other family.
A few weeks ago, my uncle calls my mom to talk about Christmas presents. His plan is to 4-way split the price of an iPad ($700 thing, 3G version) with my mom and his two other sisters. He adds (I paraphrase): "maybe you should pay a little bit more since you didn't get him anything for his birthday." Keep in mind, none of my other cousins get anything from anybody besides their own parents. If I come off as jealous, you're getting me wrong... What bothers me is that my uncle basically used guilt to extract $200 out of her pocket and he's much, much richer than her.
It seems pretty clear that the uncle is the problem here.
A few weeks ago, my uncle calls my mom to talk about Christmas presents. His plan is to 4-way split the price of an iPad ($700 thing, 3G version) with my mom and his two other sisters. He adds (I paraphrase): "maybe you should pay a little bit more since you didn't get him anything for his birthday." Keep in mind, none of my other cousins get anything from anybody besides their own parents. If I come off as jealous, you're getting me wrong... What bothers me is that my uncle basically used guilt to extract $200 out of her pocket and he's much, much richer than her.
It seems pretty clear that the uncle is the problem here.
Perhaps. A little development: They went to the apple store with the broken thing and got a new one for $400. Makes certain he'll never learn a thing.
On January 01 2012 15:05 Manifesto7 wrote: Anyone who walks and uses an ipad a the same time deserves to be punched for stupidity.
Anyone who has an ipad in the first place deserved to be punched.
What's the point of an iPad? Can someone tell me? It seems to me that it's a glorified Angry Birds console.
I see a lot of people with them in my restaurant either, surfing the internet, reading books or playing games on them and I think "wow that looks pretty nice", but then I remember that those people spent £400 on something that does less than my phone (which obviously has a smaller screen but is more portable), and a lot less than a laptop or netbook, and I'm glad that I'm not stupid.
On January 01 2012 18:43 mTw|NarutO wrote: If he can't behave, fucking punch him. When I was with my family and my girlfriend and my nephew did slap my girlfriend on her ass (he was 12 at that time, she was 17) I told him thats not how you treat a girl and that he's old enough to know not to touch her ass/boobs doesn't matter if he thinks its funny.
I clearly told him and I did tell him another time, as did she. I did tell him I will punch him really hard if he doesn't stop, he did not and he got punched really hard on his shoulder. His dad sure wasn't happy, but he could understand and I would not hesitate to fuck up such a spoiled kid.
I am very thankful for everything and the price doesn't matter. What matters is that somebody thought about you, invested time and actually got you something or made you something. If he cannot truly appreciate what a present means, go tell him and if he acts funny, fuck him up.
Yes - I do not care that he's younger, when he's old enough to act like a normal person and not a fucking kid (not saying kids may not do something stupid at times, but if you don't put an end to it, he will be like that as an adult as well) make him listen, make him understand.
Edit: No, I am certainly against violence to grow children or drive them towards the right direction, but if you friendly asked him to stop or tried to punish and it just doesn't work, sometimes a slap is just deserves. Don't overdo it, but just letting him get away with everything is more harmful than any slap.
I'm with NarutO. Obviously you shouldn't make a habit of hitting kids, but this little shit needs to learn his place and I guarantee he will if you hit him enough (unless he cries to his parents and it actually gets him somewhere). Warn him first even though he'll ignore it and then hit him. If he hits you back don't keep hitting him, just trip him up or something, the humiliation should be enough to quickly humble him and in the end you'll be doing him a favour, being a spoilt brat will get him in more trouble in the long run then a bit of bruising to his arm and ego.
EPT
A kid being that impolite is going to get smacked in almost any other family.
