Pathetic Adult Displays in Front of Kids

[Hamish McBagpipe]

I was at a Christmas party on the weekend at a friend of my gf's. Most of those attending were married and half a dozen kids were there in and out of the host's son's room and basement TV room. Everything was fine, drinking happily away, when some guy I didn't know calls for his son out of the basement. He was about 10 or 11. The Dad tells us the boy sings in a church choir and then tells junior to sing us a song/hymn/whatever. The mortified kid starts to sing, but he can't get through the whole song. He stops, on the verge of tears, and his Dad says, "Don't you ever embarass me like that again." I would have said something but it all happened pretty fast and I could only bitch about it later. Anyway, I think this kind of stuff really [censored] kids up worse, in some cases, than physical abuse.

I remember playing hockey at about the same age. The coach's kid was our best player. There was an ongoing argument about ice time. Finally, during a game, a parent takes the coach to the bathroom and beats him up. The coach comes back, glasses broken and a bloody nose,
and takes his kid away. The guy who beat him up becomes our coach for the rest of the game. As a kid, I didn't really know wtf was going on, but I'm sure it screwed up those kids pretty bad. I know this is pretty common stuff amongst rabid sports parents.

As for me, I remember when my Dad showed up drunk to parent/teacher night when I was in about grade 5. Jesus Christ, what an [censored]. And he's acting like they are not going to know. That was about the time me and him parted ways.

Every time I recall an instance like this I usually laugh but mostly in amazement that the grownups could have been such dinks. I'm pretty sure most of us had similiar experiences and I'm flabbergasted that we come out of them relatively unscathed and not gibbering wrecks. Any stories?

[miajag81]

There was a kid on my peewee basketball team whose dad was an a-hole like that. Everytime the kid missed a shot or messed up somehow he would instantly look over to his dad on the sidelines who would be scowling and shaking his head at him. He would be on the verge of tears for most of the game. A few years later, the dad shot himself in their garage. Good riddance.

[swede123]

I must have lived a fairly normal childhood, 'cause I can't think of anything a tenth as bad as either of the situations you described. Sure, I've been embarassed by my parents' lack of style or "cool" a few times but really nothing traumatic like you described. It appears you were both brought up in a [censored] environment and are now surrounded by a [censored] environment. Sorry man. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Swede

[eviljeff]

Joe Pesci was pretty immature during that scene in Goodfellas when he caps the kid for not getting him a drink.

pwn3d!!!!11oneone

[PoBoy321]

Thankfully I've never experienced anything similar firsthand, but I've heard 2nd hand of a lot of similar situations. Now I'm generally a pretty big advocate of allowing parents to raise their children however they want, but when parents act more immature than their children, it really disgusts me. You're supposed to be a role model, not some jackass who's still upset about the fact that he missed the final shot of his peewee championships and has to live vicariously through his kid.

I just hope they aren't surprised when their kids grow up to be just as [censored] up as they are.

Also Hamish, I'm really sorry to hear about your father. Alcoholism runs rampant in my family and I've known a lot of people with drinking problems and I just can't imagine how anyone would want to put their kid through that.

My dad used to (actually, he still might) cover up the cash register at various places, (grocery store, gas station) so the community college kid has to do the math in his head. Not psychologically damaging, just a dad being an [censored].

[Hamish McBagpipe]

Um, it wasn't that bad. I don't think my Dad was an alcoholic, just an ass. And I'm definitely not surrounded by people who do this type of thing, it was a rare event that I was even at a house party of this sort. I'm not sure how you would come to these conclusions from two short anecdotes, but thanks for the input. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[asofel]

ego,

that's pretty dick. by habit i do it myself, but what right does he have to do that...at least you fell far from the tree and can appreciate a great avatar...

[PoBoy321]

Yeah, that's kind of a dick thing to do, but I suppose it could at least be construed as mildly funny. Showing up to parent/teacher night drunk is just awful.

[asofel]

poboy,

very true. not nearly in the same league as the other stuff of course...personally i'd laugh if someone tried that on me and ask them something harder back....then it'd be go time...