ASSHOLES ARE MADE

[Duchess]

I was wondering about all the little kids who won't have presents on Christmas morning because their parents choose to spend the money on drugs instead and that for some of them Christmas will be just another day, another year with another disappointment. I can see where that might "shape" a person into an adult asshole.

[Donovan]

Sadly enough, poor kids often don't know they're missing at all, and it's been my experience that hardship often breeds character. Some of the worst assholes I ever met were the privileged kids who got everything they demanded at Christmas and wanted more.

[Duchess]

I agree that spoiled people tend to be big assholes.

Little kids that don't know what they are missing. Jesus. I was going to say kids deserve to have something under the tree but they don't have a tree either.

[HairOfTheDog]

I've met more assholes from privileged backgrounds than those who had to struggle, too.

Definitely a good number of Affluenza sufferers out there - having just about everything and respecting just about nothing.

I do think that neglect and abuse can breed assholes who mimic the behavior and priorities of their asshole parents.

But, agree that sometimes those same circumstances build character and produce some of the most compassionate people who are fully committed to never being anything like their parents.

Course, plenty of loving and responsible parents end up with asshole kids, too.

Hell, for me, it's really hard to know what makes people into assholes, and heroes, and everything in between.

[Maggot]

Sadly enough, poor kids often don't know they're missing at all, and it's been my experience that hardship often breeds character. Some of the worst assholes I ever met were the privileged kids who got everything they demanded at Christmas and wanted more.

That's true kids that see the real side of the fence not just the painted side tend to care more for the truly needy and not just the shams.

[sally]

I think I mentioned before that my parents were like June and Ward Clever on drugs. They were freaks, but they were middle class and I was never neglected or went without. My husband on the other hand grew up in poverty. Every time his crazy father asks us for money he says he made my husband the man he is today for not giving him shit. He owes everything to him for dropping him and his brother off here with nothing but a jar of pennies. Okey dokey Apu, you crazy fuck.

[Maggot]

There's not a shit ton of people out there that made it out from the circus and the big tent Sally.........I'm proud of you, and if I had more money I would buy you a bigger car and some shoes that fit better.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Sadly enough, poor kids often don't know they're missing at all,

Got to disagree with this part, trust me, poor kids know Very Well what they are missing. Many end up resenting the people that put them there.

[sally]

Sadly enough, poor kids often don't know they're missing at all,

Got to disagree with this part, trust me, poor kids know Very Well what they are missing. Many end up resenting the people that put them there.

Yeah, I agree with that. I don't really think my husband is too happy with his dad for forcing him to come here and live in bug infested apartment with no electricity and eat catfish out of the Halifax river.

[ramseycat]

These days I think the poor kids know what they are missing. There is so much in their faces. I'm sick if the privileged kids and their gimme attitudes. Leah who was raised with out ever wanting for anything. Could have college paid for. But no, she sits on her ass and expects her father to turn over all his hard earned money to her. And then the drunk driver that killed 4 people and got probation. Disgusting.

[Cynical Ninja]

Most of the homes I have visited in the last month or so? No tree, no decorations, no greeting cards, no Christmas.

Other things were in abundance though empty alcohol bottles and cans, ashtrays piled high, pets that are probably half starving and drug paraphenalia left lying around.

It is a case of “so you can afford bottles of vodka, and a dozen cans of beer and drugs and cigarettes but you can't afford decorations from a £1 store or cleaning products?”

[Duchess]

Most of the homes I have visited in the last month or so? No tree, no decorations, no greeting cards, no Christmas.

That makes me feel very sad when there are children are in the home. I figure adults made their bed, let them lie in it but kids didn't sign up for this crappy shit.

[Cynical Ninja]

The fact I always carry a breath mask and antibacterial plastic gloves with me is a little insight into the state of some of the so called “homes” we visit sometimes.

I can remember visiting a house not long after I started and thinking “why do they keep all their garbage in the house? There are 2 empty wheelie bins outside!”

I'm off for Christmas but on call during new year so people will be even drunker than they are normally.

[Donovan]

To clarify my post: kids don't understand the material things they don't have. The emotional neglect they ALWAYS recognize, and the material stuff they only learn to resent in hindsight when they grow up and see how other kids had it in comparison. I have a laundry list of fucked up shit rolling around in my psyche thanks to the parents, but "not getting an Xbox" isn't one of them. That's more a suburban kid problem. We were happy if there was food to eat. Big family + compulsive gambler = a whole lot of skimpy meals.

[Cynical Ninja]

I'm really dubious about all this online gambling shit, compulsive gambling has always been a problem in society but now its so easy to access loads of different gambling its bound to make things worse when your gambling fix is but a mere click away.

[Donovan]

There are and were a lot of problems with it here, until they banned it and made it harder to do. Then one of the biggies collapsed and didn't pay off people, which killed a lot of interest. People don't trust online gambling like they did.