I went to Disneyland two days ago with my girlfriend and her little 12 year old brother. If I wasn't so sure I didn't want kids before, I just became a little more certain.
I don't think her brother was as bad as my girlfriend thought he was but he was acting kind of bratty. The entire time he complained about how he didn't want to wait in line (we averaged about 25-30 minutes a line which is very good at Disneyland), how he was bored, how the rides were too short, etc. He was completely unappreciative of the fact that his sister took time out of her schedule, and spent money out of her pocket, to treat her brother to a day of fun. We did our best to show him a good time but for him, that just wasn't good enough for him.
My girlfriend was quite flustered at the end of the day but I was perfectly fine with all of this until he opened my backpack to look for something and did not close the zipper. I said to him in a very nice tone, "Hey, next time you go into my backpack can you close it?" He decided to respond to me, "You close it if you want it!" Um, excuse me, no. I had been nothing but nice to this kid up to this point. We would have gone home much earlier if it were not for me saying I would take him on the rides (My girlfriend was feeling quite ill toward the middle of the day). At that point I realized that kids are just a real pain in the ass.
If there was only a 45% chance I wanted kids before, I think that just dropped 5-10%
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8 comments:
a lot of it depends on how they're raised. just sayin'...
Kat,
Here is the thing. Liz was raised to be perfectly courteous, so what the heck happened to her brother.
Funny you say that though. Just finished the chapter in Freakonomics that basically says it matters less how you were raised than who raised you.
Parents at disneyland should be able to buy billy clubs in the souveneir shops.
t - the youngest often turns out horribly cause the parents are so tired from raising the first one(s). ;)
j - they sell those at the pirates of the caribbean giftshop. ;)
Kat, was that a crack at me? :)
Terrence, you were once 12. Picture yourself at Disneyland with your older sister (just my assumption that your gf is over 12 ;D) and her boyfirend - no buddy your age. You are going to be more obnoxious than nornal. It's elementary physics or something.
-John
I agree with John. C'mon, Terrence, we were all kids once, and we tend to think we were better than today's kids are, but we tend to have very selective memories.
I'm not sure I buy the "youngest turn out worst" argument. I've also heard that the oldest turn out worst because the parents are inexperienced and have more wisdom when raising the other kids. I've also heard that middle children turn out worst because they don't get the attention of first borns or youngest kids. I think all of these are just excuses when one kid turns out worse. But, in reality each kid is unique from birth and some parents and parenting techniques simply won't have the same results on different kids. Even within the same family. Which makes parenting just that more difficult. You never know if you'll be stuck with some kid who is difficult and obnoxious no matter what you do. In my view it's all the more reason to never have kids unless you want to dedicate yourself to learning about good parenting.
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