12252008

I have to say that kids these days make me sic k to my stomach. I understand that the problem is coming from their worthless parents, but I have to hear about the kids. There are a million directions to take, this, but since I have been on a bit of an anti-holiday tear as of late, I guess that I will bring up that children complaining about not getting presents for Christmas, while their parents can hardly pay the bills makes me think about birth control. A lot.
There are two ways to look at this; first of all, you have too many kids if you cannot support them without living hand-to-mouth. That’s just the facts. Second, well, you can’t put the kid back, but you wouldn’t have to hear them whine about being the only kid on the block without a Wii, PS3 and XBOX 360 stacked on top of each other and a brand new copy of Call of Duty for each console, if you never got the wild hair to make the ungrateful stain in the first place. I have found that if your kids have that attitude past the age of innocence, then they stay that way as adults. Please, there are enough 20-somethings in Scottsdale, Arizona like that as it is already. More on that later.
I was raised poor. Not the poor that I was able to still hold my head high, and yet thankfully not Appalachian poor, either. No, I was somewhere in the middle. Like there was a lot of eating long-spoiled food, and ill-fitting clothes, bathing in well water (all time favorite, folks), and there were more mornings with no lights than I would care to recall. Out of practice, I don’t celebrate holidays because on my birthdays I was lucky if I got well-wishing- scratch that, I never received as much as a “happy birthday”, so I learned that Christmas was going to just be another day shivering in the garage that I was told was my bedroom (as a fun fact, there was a bedroom that was fully insulated and heated which I was never actually told why I was unable to use).
What is interesting to even me, is that I’m not bitter. On the same side of that Susan B. Anthony, don’t try to curry some sympathy from me because you can’t afford to get your kids everything on their list. Feed them and keep them warm, don’t let them grow up to be me. If they complain, kick the shit out of them. Trust me, it works.

-jack