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I'm popping in from my self-imposed hiatus (due to moving and end-of-school craziness). I just couldn't resist sharing this. Finally, some parent somewhere is imposing consequences (Hatrack parents are excluded from that mini diatribe - I know y'all don't stand for the outrageous behavior I see parents brush off everyday).
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I wondered about that, too, Pixie. If I learned my 13 year old was drinking, I'd be far more concerned about it than the cost of the beer/wine! Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Sure did, mack. And generally speaking, my parents ensured that I had to live with the consequences of my bad decisions.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Oh, right. I'm with the consequences. I was just surprised at people being shocked at a 13 year old experimenting with alcohol.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I experimented (a bit - in a very nerdy and goody two shoes way) as a kid.
However my parents also allowed my little glasses of champagne (more like sips) on special occasions,and talked to me about different brands etc, so there's no way I would have drunk the 1995 Dom Perignon!
(Though why the parents where keeping it in the fridge if they were storing it I don't know)
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Trumpets have tuning slides, but I don't think bugels do. Not a slide like a trombone, but a little piece of the tubing you can move to get in tune.
I still think the story's crap, but that part could be true.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I don't know much about bugles myself, but people over at ATOT have looked into it, and some bugles do have slides (though the pics make it hard to figure out how it works).
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The auction description makes me sad. The kid's only 13, but she's already managed to make him lose all respect for her. And why not? She's stooped way down to his level for this.... you hurt me, I'll hurt you back, you little bastard!
They have 5 more wonderful years to look forward to before he can finally move out. If she interprets the weekend's events in terms of the monetary loss she's suffered, and decides that punishment means he must suffer an equal loss, then she's an idiot. Not that her grammatical choices would really lead you to believe otherwise.
Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I know that trumpets have a tuning slide, but I'm not sure that bugals do; I think so, but I'm not sure.
I think it is a good thing to sell his stuff to recoup the loss, but I wouldn't do it on e-bay. I would see it to someone he knows, so that he sees it all the time but can't have it at home.
Now that is torture...
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Well, if she's truly trying to recoup the loss, she should give him a time period to come up with the money himself rather than choosing which of his possessions to get rid of.
There's clearly an element of petty vengeance as well as ineffective parenting here. But at a visceral level, I like the idea of him losing his prized possession because of his actions.
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One thing that makes me a little suspicious of the story is the corkscrew. First of all, you don't use a corkscrew to open a bottle of champagne. Second, it is nigh impossible to reinsert a cork into a bottle of champaign once opened. Champagne corks are severely flared at the bottom, presumably to help maintain a grip in the bottle neck against the pressure from the champagne inside the bottle.
Now I wouldn't put it past some teenagers to try to open a bottle of champagne with a corkscrew, but the likely result of that is going to be a big mess and maybe a cork in the eye (if not the corkscrew itself).
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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True, Karl, not to mention the idea that this woman would have had a bottle of Dom at all. I mean, who on earth would give someone a $120 bottle of champagne if you thought the recipient would store it in the fridge?? With loser teenagers in the house, no less?
It doesn't quite add up. Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Sorry, but this just screams BS story to me. (hmm... I want to seel my PS2, how can I make it stand out above the hundreds of others?)And if it isn't than this lady has bigger problems than just her son acting up. She obviously has no idea how to raise a child if she''s more concerned about the cost of all this crap than the behavior behind it.
<-- Can't stand stupid parents when he sees the results everyday.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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if my child lied, snuck around, and took things that weren't his i would probably have no problem selling his game system. it's a material posession, and a luxury.
eventually i would probably let him earn the money back by doing extra chores so he can buy a new one, but only if he proved that he learned something.
while i don't neccessarily agree with the lady's commentary, i am not disgusted by the punishment.
teenage boys are really difficult. a lot of them, anyway. especially when they are bigger than you are.
(i have five brothers and have witnessed the veritable Slaying of Dragons on a daily basis.)
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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However, if it was true, and as a video game-obsessed teenage boy, I think it was a very just punishment.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I agree... It can be hard getting through to kids that age... However, I am reminded of the worse way to punish me: Take away my music. You could beat me with sticks, I don't care... But take my music from me. Dang, I am glad I am an adult. My former stepmother used to take my walkman from me for the slightest small infraction. It was the worse thing... No music... Torture. Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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It is actually illegal to sell something that belongs to someone else without that person's permission.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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unless you are a parent and you bought said thing for the minor under your care.
incidentally, my little brother has a friend who bought all his own game systems, and when his parents were getting divorced his very abusive father stole all his game systems, and the boy charged his dad with grand larceny served him right.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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You know - Nathan gets lots of logical consequences for things . . . and some pretty smooth bribes.
This logical consequence had them rolling in the dentist's office:
Nathan handles the co-pays for any fillings he needs -this was mandated six months ago after his "I don't care" attitude towards teethbrushing.
This bribe has me rolling (becuase of his reaction):
He wants a gameboy (he's 10 1/2) for about the last four years. We do extremely little media in our home and no electronic gamnes except for our quarterly visit to the pizza parlor with Donkey Kong. I told him I'd buy him a gameboy once he memorized his multiplication tables, 0-12. Was he happy? Nope. He was rather upest. However, he's slowly memorizing them . . .
These are the days when I love being a parent (for purely selfish reasons)
So - whaddya think of that, Mrs. M? Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I think that this, instead of being a punishment which will end the rest of bad-doings, is going to start this boy on a long, terrible decline into more rebellion. The kid obviously had issues to begin with, now he has a reason to disrespect whatever his mother says.
It's unrelated to the actual problem, and therefore the punishment does not fit the crime. She should have made her son do other chores in order to make up for the money lost, instead of selling his prized possession.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Really? I would much rather give up my Xbox instead of being in debt with my parents. They're so bossy when I HAVE to help them. So when I owe them money, I would rather put it on my credit card instead of owe them work.
Sad that I would rather be in debt to my credit card company than my parents.... Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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I'm against having kid's do chores to earn money to repay debts.
First, kids shouldn't get paid for chores. Chores are a contribution to the household each family member should make.
Second, setting the net worth of a chore seems too difficult to do fairly. Imagine if a judge ordered someone to pay $100 in restitution, but said only money made picking up trash off the streets could be used?
This kid, assuming the story is true (which I don't), needs to pay back the items he destroyed. He also needs to be punished - restitution is not punishment.
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