Thursday, December 1, 2011

REALLY????

Wow... what a week!!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  Our family, most of it anyway, got together and enjoyed plenty of food... and enjoyed each other.  There were no arguments... no muss... no fuss, but then the drama addicts didn't come.  We had a beautiful time!!

AAaaahhhh.... and then back to reality.  Why do we have kids again??  I think I have had a headache all week.  We are attempting to emphasize to our 13yo boy how important grades are... he got an F notice before Thanksgiving break and so of course, being the crappy parents that we are, he has been grounded from anything that brings him pleasure since.  So, of course, we have had attitude for most of it.  Monday I emailed the teacher who is failing my son, because you know it's not his fault, it's the teachers fault.  My head is pounding from what I found out.  I found out that when these kids take a test the teacher corrects it... the student is then given the test back, then the student is allowed to correct the test for half credit.... how cool is that???  Guess what... my kid doesn't do that... says he doesn't need to since (on this particular test that we are talking about) he got a B+ and didn't need the extra points... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????... ok, I'm calming down...

When did my boy become entitled??  While we were looking over the ads for Black Friday, boy announced that he wants a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas... and he actually said "it's only $175"  Really??  My child who is failing a class and getting C's in the rest needs a video game???

Enough of my ranting... with all this going on, I was on Face Book for a couple of winding down moments and saw the following... I can't take credit for writing it.... but I completely agree!!!!

Hope you all have a great day!!!  It's good to be back!  I've missed you all!!  (((hugs)))

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill.... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of FORTY, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent.... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'... Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

15 comments:

  1. A walk down memory lane - except my lane is even longer than that. Thanks for the chuckle this am.

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  2. What can I say but "Man do I agree". Eric

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  3. LOL I got a kick out of the post from facebook. Having just turned 40 myself, I can relate. I imagine though that each generation could write something similar to the next generation. And while our kids do have things a lot easier in some ways today, there are also things about today's culture that make it a lot harder on kids too.

    I hope you can get through to your son. 13 can be a rough age. They're still kids really, but they think their grown and they think they know better than we do. Hopefully some consistent consequences will help him get his priorities in order. ;)

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  4. Sorry that your teenager is being difficult. Those early teen years are tough. I remember feeling rather entitled myself.

    LOL, the second part is scaring me because it is all so true, except we had the Atari 8000. Am I getting old?

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  5. "Why doe we have kids again?" I often ask my husband this same question. We love our kids dearly, but sometimes we don't like them or actually the things they do very much. Love the part you took from facebook, I should have my 16 yr old read it but he would just roll his eyes at me and start into a debate about it. So glad you had a good holiday.

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  6. Mikki,

    I lol at the FB section. I've seen that before and yes, it's so true! I'm glad that we have it so good now, but I think it's important for kids to have to work, also. Some people think kids shouldn't have to lift a finger to help and I think they're screwed in the head. All of our children have regular chores as soon as they're old enough to help. If they complain, they're told that they can't eat (nobody's missed a meal yet, lol!). They realize that it's not worth being lazy if they would have to miss out on the next meal.

    Good luck standing firm with your son...don't give up! He'll thank you when he's older and as I've told some of my kids, "You may not like me right now. That's ok. We'll be friends when you're grown up. Right now it's my job to be your mother and make decisions that may not be popular with you, but that are the right thing to do!" I know it works because I have 3 that over 18 and they've all thanked Daddy and I for making them do their schoolwork and also to know how to clean, do laundry, etc.! Don't get discouraged. It will get better eventually:).

    Love,
    Kitty

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  7. Why do we have kids...Some overboard masochistic need for perpetual suffering and the desire to have someone argue against every statement we make?

    And yea, they got it far too easy. Some days I'm tempted to put a water barrel up the hill and make my kid haul down every drop he needs. Then I also thought about making him dig a hole for his own personal outhouse...That'll teach him to leave the water running and forget to flush the toilet!

    Don't even get me started on grades...I home school (because there just wasn't already enough misery in life already), and the kid actually tries to argue his grades with me!?

    Welcome back! Glad you had a drama-free thanksgiving.

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  8. Loving the fb thing! Very apt lol!

    Dee x

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  9. Dear Mikki - I'm sorry your teenager is being "a teenager". It's so hard sometimes parenting the kids of today. Things can only get better :)

    Thanks for the giggles from FB. I'm going to print it out and give it to my daughters. I can almost see their eyes rolling already lol.

    Take care. Sky xx

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  10. Mikki,

    I'm sorry your children are being such a task. Not long ago someone sounding terribly wise told me

    "...it's our job to love them even when they don't think they love us!

    All you can do is love your child, be there for him/her, and remember that this person loves you too, even if Child is too immature to know it!!" I'm sure the kid will appreciate your efforts much more their senior year at Yale ;)

    By the way, I don't know if you saw it, but you might enjoy this post from awhile back on my blog. It's an editorial about Gen X and our opinion of Gen Y.

    http://threeinlove.blogspot.com/2011/10/yeah-what-he-said.html

    In case you're too busy to go read it, my favorite line in the editorial, which your post touched on, is this

    "But Generation X is tired of your sense of entitlement. Generation X also graduated during a recession. It had even shittier jobs, and actually had to pay for its own music."

    Man I know that!! I guess we should be glad things got better. LOL

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  11. Being a teacher of those darling 12 year old I have to say I feel your pain! I love my children soooooo much and I'm sooooooo glad they don't live here any more! LOL!

    I was with you and your list until #9. Being older than you I have to admit we had NO video games at all. Why do you think I have so many spanking fantasies, I just played in my imagination!

    Hugs,
    PK

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  12. LOL, I had a chat with my son the other day...he hates his job... (I resisted saying welcome to the real world, nearly bit my tongue off...)I asked what job he would like to do; he said none, he hates work! SO I laughed and said he should be a stand up comedian... to which he drily responded, "nah, I hate standing up...." xxxx

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  13. Love the post!

    Look at the bright side. Revel in how lucky you are. -- 'cause you know that once you turned 13 you official know everything there is to know about everything!

    :-)

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  14. sunnygirl... LOL Glad I could help your morning! ((hugs))

    Eric... Yeah... that's what I'm sayin'!! LOL

    Grace... Yes Ma'am, "consistent consequences" are in order, and have been executed! Yeah, I wish I knew as much as he does... I'd be a freakin' millionare!! ((hugs))

    Susie... yeah, I think that means we are both getting old! LOL ((hugs))

    faerie... OMG, I think we might have the same kid!!!! ;o) ((hugs))

    kitty... we have the same rules, everybody works, but I'm thinking not near enough! I'm thinking of getting a load of 2'rock and have him unload it into the driveway! Kill two birds with one stone, as it were! LOL

    lil... Oh nice lady, you made me laugh so hard at a time when I wasn't even interested! ;o) I'm way interested in the water up the hill and the poop hole!!! I'm honestly thinking of buying a pallet of cinder blocks and having him move them from one pallet to the other!!

    Jillian Bea... Welcome, I don't think I've seen you around before! Thank you for stopping by!

    Dee... yeah... too apt!!! LOL

    Sky.. I was gonna print it out for him, but it would have been a big fat waste of paper!! ;o)

    MagnusCattus... Oh, I totally agree. Thankfully I'm not one that had kids only to raise them in buddy mode! I have plenty of friends, he doesn't have to like me!! Yes... this Generation X is tired.. very tired!! ;o)

    PK... if you teach this age you are a saint! And no matter how much they pay you, it's not near enough!!

    I'm so jealous! I can't wait till empty nest syndrome!! My mom says I'll hate it... no freaking way!! ((hugs))

    Daisychain... ROFLMAO!!!! That was hilarious!!

    baby girl... LOL Yeah, if only I knew as much as he does.... **shaking head in disbelief**

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