sensor said:
thats nice of you :mrgreen:
youve got to remember that at that age its about the same as someone walking up and saying 'heres a car for free'
last weekend na's nepthew stayed with us. his fathers a dead beat and wastes all his money on disk golf. don't have much time for the children he has scattered across ontario. the kid (hunter) is a hand full!
heres how the weekend went (in a nut shell)
o.k. first he showed up with shoes that smelt so bad, when he removed them, we put lunch on hold an took him to walmart to buy new shoes and socks (didn't have an extra pair) i mean the shoe's were foul. i'd be down right embarrest to send my kid anywhere stinking like that, let alone to family for the weekend.
the rest of the weekend was "can i have this, can you buy me that,oh it would be really awsome if you guys bought me that dirt bike from canadian tire ($1400) maybe we can go to mc donalds for breakfast and the mandarin for lunch, hey i need this, can i have that, oh i want i want i want!
i had alittle talk with him about being greedy, proper manners, and how children that didn't ask for everything got alot more than children that beg all the time. we also had a talk about money, and making his aunt feel bad when he's constantly begging.
now we baught him a bike last year, but apparently he hasn't riden it much. its had a flat tire as long as he's had the bike, and papa has made no effort to fix it for him.
so on the way to pick up smokes i saw this mongoose for $10. it had a bent crank, flattened rear wheel torn grips,flat tires etc.
i dragged it home, and i spent the morning with hunter, teaching him how to change rims,tires,grips etc. i got him to wash the sticker residue off the bike.we gave it new tires, fixed the crank, gave it new grips etc.
when we were finished i told him, good work, this is your new bike.
he was very very excited, but i didn't even get a thankyou. so we had another heart to heart about manners costing nothing, and people thinking better of you because of them.
we jumped on the bikes and went for a cruise. we had to stop to chat once again about traffic in a big city, riding single file, paying attention to others and being aware on the road. hunter kept locking up his brakes infront of me (was on lucky 13 with the coaster front brake only) so we had another talk about paying attention.
we rode by the garage sale and fell right back to the i want this i want that. he saw a telescope i guess he wanted ($100)
and said, "oh i'd like you better if ya bought me that"
my reply was, "well it was the bike or the telescope and i thought you'd like the bike better"
his reply" well you should just buy both for me" and we had yet another little talk about greedy children.
still he was after the telescope and the entire way home, "maybe we can go back and get it", "would be cool if i had both etc etc"
he was so worried about that telescope, he ran into nadine so hard it knocked her clear off her bike. i mean flying like superman knocked off her bike!
i was pissed! (but hid it well)i asked him "didn't we talk about paying attention"
and the reply "well i learned my lesson now, if i'm good the rest of the weekend can i have the telescope?"
i was ready to snap, but hid it well. i told him the lesson should have been learned before his aunt ended up with a bloody knee, sore back/leg from an crash that didnt need to happen if somebody had been paying attention.
he also learned ya don't always get what you want, and he pouted until he went home on sunday.
i told him unless he changed his attitude, he wouldn't be invited back for the weekend and he still acted like a misrable spoiled brat.
of coarse as soon as it was time to leave, he was back to happy go lucky hunter that wanted to stay all week. he even called his father and asked if he could (without asking us)
so again he pouted all the way home. no good bye, no thx for having me over, just i didn't get what i want so i have no time for you.
now i know that alot of this is due to his dead beat dad (single dad living with his new girlfriends/kids) but theres no excuse for the lack of manners. he does have a very loving/supporting family (including us) and he never goes without. it just dad that doesn't do much for him. he's constantly hitting up na's father for money cause he spends all his on disk golf. (how much can a god dam frisbee cost?)
not all kids think a new bike is like a new car, some of em just assume the world is theres and there entitled to everything!
