Kinda reminds me of when I was using dating apps, and women would ask how they knew I wasn’t a serial killer. “If I was a serial killer, it would be pretty stupid to leave a bunch of digital records of me being the last person my victim talked to, I’d get caught immediately.”
I’ve been reading some variation of this joke since the early 80s.
I am confident it can be found somewhere in Shakespeare’s plays and perhaps on clay tablets hidden deep in the Mesopotamian valley.
I don’t know why, but “stealing him” is such a funny way of saying that.
How would you call dissapropriating someones children for recreational or other purposes?
Kidnap?
Yes they do.
Kid no nap. Kidscream.
This very much could have been my husband about a decade ago. The last tantrum my middle child ever threw, with lots of screaming and running and destroying things like a fucking tornado in the middle of a Target. Spouse carried them kicking and screaming out to the car while I finished checking out and by the time I got there they were buckled in their car seat, completely calm and composed, like a switch flipped. (As far as I know) it wasn’t any sort of punishment or shining moment of parenting, the kid just decided, I’m done now.
And they haven’t thrown a fit since.
My wife was waiting for me by the exit of Target with my infant son, and a lady rushed up with her cart, a baby in the baby holder, said, “Here, watch him!” and ran in the rest room.
I walked up, and saw my wife with another baby, and said, “We can’t afford two, we’ll have to return one,” and she told me the story. I thought it was hilarious, and couldn’t wait to meet this woman when she came out of the bathroom.
She eventually emerged, and thanked my wife for the help, and I said “You weren’t worried about handing your daughter off to a stranger?” And she replied:
“No, she already had one, I knew she wasn’t about to steal ANOTHER one!”
This thread has reminded me of why I don’t want kids.
… but if you were to call the cops on me at least it would be a brief yet welcome reprieve from parenting while they come to the inevitable conclusion that he is mine and they don’t want him around either
I’m so feeling this this morning. I asked the 4yo if he wanted cereal or yogurt for breakfast. He screams “I’m not hungry! I want mama!”, runs to his room and slams the door. Two minutes later he comes out and punches me in the dick while I’m making lunches.
I love hearing other parents have asshole kids, because it reminds me that I’m not alone.
My kid went through the same phase all kids do of refusing to go to bed.
So one night he’s grabbing on to the baby gate at the top of the stairs like a con in a prison movie, screaming and yelling. I’m at the bottom of the stairs trying to ignore him.
He fixed a stare directly at me, stopped screaming, and shit in his pants.
So yeah, 100% of parents have arsehole kids.
You are not; but they are not really assholes. They are optimising for some outcome that they want, with inferior tools/mechanisms. Depending on age, their brain runs on emotion most of the time, logic is a distant second place.
In saying all of that…they can seem like assholes in the moment!!!
Yeah, it’s funny. Sometimes my son, 4, he’ll talk to me, but his speech and communication are still in the very basics, and I’ll say, Buddy, I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying, and he’ll get frustrated, which leads to anger, all because I don’t understand what he’s saying.
Turn the tables, I’m like, Dude, go to the bathroom, we’re getting in the car, you go to the bathroom before we drive, and he’ll say NO! And now I’m the one who’s frustrated and angry because he’s now the one who’s not understanding what I’m saying.
As always, communication is key, and breakdowns always cause problems. And so we’re all just along for the ride.
My son(11) will say, “you can’t do that, I’ll call the police and they will arrest you”. I say, great maybe I’ll get some peace and quiet. He doesn’t know I won’t, so it works. Lol.
I think it’s time. you gotta sacrifice the strategy because 11 is old enough to know acab
So this one time I was like three and being too quiet. I don’t remember this. Apparently I had climbed up the upright grand piano and gotten scared of heights. I pressed myself against the wall and was whispering “help” over and over. Not too loud, because I was worried I’d get in trouble for climbing on the piano, but I needed help.
I was a high energy child. I learned to stop my bicycle at first by jumping off it onto grass hopefully and letting the bike crash. It must have been a nightmare for my parents to watch. So any extended silence was suspicious.
Well most of times you can differentiate frustration screaming and fear/danger screaming on toddlers
I can’t even differentiate the screams of play time from those of being brutally murdered that the kids I hear playing around my apartment complex make…
My son fought me getting in the high chair in a restaurant yesterday. Wife had to hold him while I held his legs straight to get in. I feel that
How TF are they so strong!? I also noticed a difference in physical strength between boys and girls - while expected I did not anticipate it being so much different. I really have to use a muscle on my son sometimes and he’s not even 2 yo.
Same for kids and pets… They’re not really strong, it’s just that:
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You’re trying not to hurt them or yourself, they don’t really care. This really levels the playing field.
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You’re trying to accomplish a goal, they’re trying to do anything but that.this gives them a huge advantage.
You’re right on with pets, had a lil’ doggo that did NOT want his medicine, lil’ pooch would eat around it in his food, squirm in six dimensions if you tried to force him, and yes one time he even used teeth!
Needless to say I was, in fact, not using teeth.Our current doggo tho, eats her food with or without medicine. One time we forgot to give her her pill when she was on medication for something, I just told her it was a biscuit and she ate it, no questions asked. This is a blessing.
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I don’t think the apple falls very far from the tree
Found the childless one who knows better. Always at least one of you.
My first kid was a perfect baby, she’d sleep 10 hours straight, she was quiet and never bratty, we would take her to restaurants with all our adult friends and she was always well behaved and didn’t need a tablet and would interact with everyone. We used to silently judge leash kid’s parents with the wife.
Then we had our second, an autistic boy with the energy of a thousand suns. Now I know, the leash isnt for me, it’s for all of you! The tablet at the restaurant makes sense now, and I don’t judge parents anymore
When me and my brother were coming up there were no tablets. The only thing to distract kids back then was McDonald’s colouring books.
Imagine my parents relief when the game boy was invented.
There is a reason for declining child birth numbers… it has everything to do with more people knowing what they are really getting into.
I don’t really follow your train of thought. People would have been just as aware (if not more, due to the prevalence of multigenerational households) of this in the past as they are now, no?
In the past people didn’t have access to a device with endless information about how rough it is the raise kids. Instead they had other local parents as a source, and those parents just wanted company in thier misery.
And that everyone’s too damn poor. Babysitter? Not on average wages! No one wants to give up all of their time and money for kids they might not be able to provide for.
