But he's still a child.....

[draftermatt]

When I was 16 I got a cell phone. My Dad signed up for it, I was to pay the bill every month on time to him or risk losing it (and my ass).

I got it because I was "on call" at work whenever there was no school, and I hated sitting around the house all day for no reason.

One month the bill was over $400. My mother and father both yelled at me for being irresponsible. Until I handed them the $400+ in cash and said "I screwed up, I pay for my own mistakes and can learn from them. It's costing you nothing and I don't want to hear about it anymore"

Last time we ever argued about money.

[chainedbarista]

HM: Well I can see that your f***ing company doesn't give a s*** about ruining a child's life. *click*

i can see you already beat us to it, by keeping him a baby. 18=legally competent to purchase a phone and...shockingly, be held responsible for all charges made on it.

time to cut the umbilical cord, mommy dearest.

[Taboo]

Oh, helicopter parents...

His mother is really doing him no favors at all. If anything his debt is partly because he's never been allowed to do things on a smaller scale and make smaller mistakes. It's his own fault too for not trying to take control, but she's not helping things.

If she really wants to help, she should look up classes on finance management for him or general life skills classes and offer to pay for the class if he will then use the new knowledge to work towards getting himself out of debt.

[tropicsgoddess]

Good grief, that's coddling to the max! As for the other SC, sucks to be him and has earned the nomination for stupid scammer of the day.

[Peppergirl]

I have two comments on this issue:

First, my ex-husband was a mamas boy, more than her being helicoperish. I recall us being married about a month as my large, pregnant ass sat on the floor of our teeny apartment, folding laundry. I'll never forget the look of sheer mystification on his face when he watched me and said "That's not how my MOM folds my socks!". Yeah, he was 22 at the time. And yeah, I'll not go into details about how my hormonal, fat, pregnant ass reacted to this, since CS doesn't condone violence.

Secondly, as the mother of a 19 year old boy who has ADHD and tends to be a bit of a slacker, I would stroke out if he approached me with this bill and asked me to pay it or do something about it. If he was foolish enough to get himself into trouble, he can get himself right out of it too.

That woman is badly in need of a

[jackfaire]

Btw as a fellow ADHDer the only problem I've had with my phone is all the times I've spent up to 30 minutes looking for the damn thing while I was holding it on my left hand.

The other day I went to grab it from my pocket even though I knew my daughter had it.

[Andara Bledin]

Then he has the nerve to get resentful of me because I'm not like that

Well, yeah... you're making him look bad!

^-.-^

[Bliss]

Btw as a fellow ADHDer the only problem I've had with my phone is all the times I've spent up to 30 minutes looking for the damn thing while I was holding it on my left hand.

[taxguykarl]

I agree 100% with this. With helicopter parents it's a wonder these kids can function at all. I hear stories of HP's coming to Johnny or Jill's job interview! I wonder how any interviewer can take this seriously!

They can't--and that's the problem.

I have a helicopter mom tale of my own. HM's daughter was apparently a victim of the second piece of work described here. My by this time ex-CW did some shenanigans on the daughter's state return and IDOR was after the daughter for the back taxes+interest+penalties. The mother asked about us paying the tab. The mother was polite and raised a legitimate question about advising customers of ex-CW's antics. Not sucky, but the daughter should have been the one talking.

[protege]

I've already posted about my unemployed-piece-of-crap brother on Fratching

Anyhoo, he's been out of work 2 years, and still lives with my parents. Because my mother babies him, he's not about to move out, and doesn't seem interested in getting a job. She's bailed him out *numerous* times over the years. Like when he dropped out of college because of the supposed hazing in the military program, or when he turned down a *very* good job in DC...because he couldn't handle sitting behind a desk Oh, and he tends to blow any money (including his unemployment) on beer and video games. Then he has the nerve to get resentful of me because I'm not like that

[Alpha Strike]

But he's still a child....


The cell account in question belongs to her son, has a balance of over $2K, and is cancelled for nonpayment and has gone to a collection agency.

HM: The collection agent said I should call you (gee thanks fellow phone person) to have this balance lowered.

Me: I'm sorry, but as it is an account cancelled several months ago, there is nothing we can do, especially as all the charges are legitimate.

HM: NOOoooooo!!! That's not right or fair! He was only 18. He's still a child!
*****

A lot of people seem to be confused about what "right" and "fair" really mean, because it's totally "right and fair" to hold an adult responsible for charges they incur.

And if he's old enough to be able to legally sign a contract and get a phone, then he's old enough to take care of paying his own bills.

[LadyAndreca]

My ex-mother-in-law was a helicopter parent. She's of the old-school that believes that the woman of the house should do all of the cooking, cleaning, and the like, even while holding a full-time job. Needless to say, we didn't see eye to eye on most things.

She babied my ex for his entire life up until he turned 18. Then she stopped everything and expected him to be able to fend for himself. Yeah, that was a disaster.

Plus, the ex is super-oblivious, so he's the sort that wouldn't understand what was going on. I ended up pointing it out to him at some point, after she'd gone on a bitch-fest about how he didn't take care of himself properly.

^-.-^

I'd say "are you me?" if it weren't for the 'ex' part. My mother-in-law was still cleaning my husband's room up until the day he moved out. Makes it HELL to get him to clean around the house, especially when he decides to get cranky about me pushing him around when I ask him to help with chores.

It frustrates me so much. For all I complain that my parents put a lot of unrealistic expectations on me (oldest child and all), they did a very good job of making sure I could take care of myself, and I get impatient with people who don't even know how to handle a broom.

It did make my freshman year in the dorms hilarious though. So much fail...orientation actually included 'this is how you use a washing machine'...

[AccountingDrone]

No way! I was on that same ship. Twice, in fact.

I was really thrilled to hear that I got the last handicapped cabin available ... I was worried, we had been discussing goin on a cruise, but had to wait until 10/15th to put in the vacation request with Rob's work ... and everything I had been reading on CruiseCritic seemed to point to needing to make HC cabin reservations like a year in advance [because a lot of non gimps will request the cabins for the extra space, fucking asswads] I scored cabin 6300! I looked at the plans of the ship and it is on the same deck as the promenade, so I don't have to do the elevators much, and 1 level above the lifeboat deck, in an absolute dead emergency I can probably manage 1 flight of steps as long as I have someone to carry my folding wheelchair down for me.

I plan on taking lots of pictures, I will definitely post them!

You know, we ought to try and do some sort of planned group cruise with people from CS sometime, one of the less expensive 5 days or something =)

[hinakiba777]

Okay I think this is why you have to be 19 to sign a cell phone contract in Nova Scotia.

I used to work for my old university. It was hilarious to watch the bubble wrapped little special snowflakes try to make it day to day without out their parents. Sometimes it made me really sad. Like they were totally confused by the concept of doing their laundry. They'd come to the desk and ask me to explain it.

My mother is a bit of a Helicopter Mom. It was annoying when I was in High School because she'd promise to back off, but then she'd be hovering again. I honestly feel she wants to place me in bubble wrap. She doesn't like me driving, having a cell phone, leaving campus, etc. Ironically, she wants me to keep my cell phone on me when I leave campus. Dad is more open to me learning from my mistakes, but he'll still step in before I mess up badly. But then again, I'm the baby girl. They fear the world getting at me, or me making my older brother's mistakes.

[Soulstealer]

St Thomas was one of the destinations on the cruise I took last year, and IIRC it was $2.99 a minute. It was that much out at see and at every other stop, except in San Juan, where it was on 69 cents.

Hee 69. Yes I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy. Shush you.