Kids and the Bleahs

Slartibartfast said that he was in a ‘blue funk’ the other day in this post and his kids say that they never have any fun.  Kids are just as adept as mothers at giving ‘guilt trips’.  I know of one who wants to give a guilt trip to his parents every day by telling them that everything that goes wrong in his life is their fault and he takes no responsibility whatsoever for anything.  One day, I hope that something goes pretty wrong (not physically painful) that he has no way of blaming on anyone but himself.  Sound like a friend of mine… self fulfilling prophecy.  Blames everything but herself for her failures in life… not being able to keep a job, not having friends to trust, being close to being a recluse, gaining weight– you name it, something caused it.  Just, not her.  Yeah, she’s still a friend, just a distant one.  It’s a shame too.  Like this kid, she is very intelligent, but her intelligence stops short at common sense.  That just frosts my cookies and I can’t take more than 5 minutes of that kind of stuff before I want to strangle someone.  Oh, sorry, went off on a tangent.  Back to the guilt trips.  I am learning from other parents to just say, T.S.  or tough s…t– not TO the kids, but to the ‘intended trip’ they are trying to give.  “I don’t want to hear it” is my motto.  Trying to teach someone to take responsibility is not easy, but when you do, you get to have more fun on the weekends!  Thanks for letting me rant and rave today.