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

[Mamadrae]

Also, I too have ADD. If I said to my mom "Mom, I just racked up a $2000 bill but I don't have any money. Since I have ADD, could you pay it for me?" she would probably have a stroke from laughing so hard.

I think me and her would get along way to well.

[blas]

Anyone who isn't already aware, my bf's mother totally helicopters his older brother, and it's made for nothing but disaster.

I think it's to the point where he will NEVER move out. He's lost any incentive to get out and try to make it on his own.

And due to her over-babying of him, he takes full advantage of it and it gets my bf into a lot of hot water if he dares do anything that upsets his brother.

[MadMike]

that is the line I am going on =) Explorer of the Seas 2/5/10 =)

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

[AccountingDrone]

Definitely had fun. We went on Royal Caribbean. Not sure of any advice to give.

that is the line I am going on =) Explorer of the Seas 2/5/10 =)

[mariamousie1]

I guess that first guy is lucky that he's "still a child" in his mother's eyes since she'll clean up his mistakes and pay all his bills until he's no longer a child. I wonder when that will be, since apparently the legal definition of an adult means nothing to her?

Also, I too have ADD. If I said to my mom "Mom, I just racked up a $2000 bill but I don't have any money. Since I have ADD, could you pay it for me?" she would probably have a stroke from laughing so hard.

[Berys]

Not going to give any specifics here, but I think I may know that mother in the first story. That sounds like the exact speech I've heard trickle down to me through the grape vine, as well as the same actions from the kid. Lets just say the 'kid' I'm thinking about has just barely missed jail time recently. Personally I don't think he has ADD, just a crazy mom but I'm not at all qualified to say either way.

[Mamadrae]

My sister in law is a partial helicopter. With her boys she is relatively normal, just seems to think whenever something happens it the fault of the boys. Her only daughter though apparently craps out gold and sparkles to her mother.

Then she wonders why the daughter has behavior problems in school and such, while the boys are normal though a bit on the jumpy side when something goes wrong.

Granted, this is also the woman who in college HAD to have her own place, complete with furniture and decorations and the like. She however, could not afford it while working part time and going to school full time. Who foot the bill? Her parents. Even now her parents bail them out of finanical issues all the time.

Yet she wonders why the rest of the family had zero respect for her and was so upset when I ripped into her for calling me a bad mother because my 3 year old had never used a glue stick before...*hiss*

[MadMike]

Did you have fun? Which line/boat did you go on? Any spiffy advice?

Definitely had fun. We went on Royal Caribbean. Not sure of any advice to give.

[Andara Bledin]

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.

^-.-^

[AccountingDrone]

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.

I turned mine off too, for that same reason. I did turn it back on in San Juan just so I could check on things with my friend who was taking care of the house and the kitties while we were gone.

Ouch, definitely no roaming charges!

Did you have fun? Which line/boat did you go on? Any spiffy advice?

[smileyeagle1021]

I actually did get a job from an interview that my mom was there for... then again, that was at a Carl's Jr. we frequented and the manager knew us, overheard me and here talking about how I needed to find a job, he walked over and said
"hey smiley's mom, hey smiley, did I hear right that you need a job... because if you're interested you can start Friday."

That said, helicopter mom pisses me off too. I have ADD and have been treating it the 'old fashioned' way for 5 years now (using mental training, diet and exercise, rather than some stupid pill), and while I do have money problems, that has nothing to do with ADD... it has to do with not being able to earn enough money to cover my school expenses and not being eligble for financial aide.

[MadMike]

I know that I am turning my cell off when i go on the cruise in Feb ... I don't want to know what the roaming charges for St Thomas or Haiti are!

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.

I turned mine off too, for that same reason. I did turn it back on in San Juan just so I could check on things with my friend who was taking care of the house and the kitties while we were gone.

[jackfaire]

I got a job that way I was waiting for my then gf to get out of her interview was in there for 30 minutes. Came walking out with the interviewer who asked if I was her next one pointed out that no I was just waiting for my girl and the woman said, "Well you start on Monday too"

[nuthing12]

The most plain and simple thing to this is that having ADD doesn't automatically equal higher spending rates. Self control over your own fiscal responsibility does. At most, it's a contributing factor but no more. I have friends with ADD and they don't have piles of defaults, ergo ADD is NOT the deciding factor for being buried in debt.

You should have asked why if they knew their son had a cell phone (and is still obviously lorded over by his parents since he's only a "child"), why they didn't they step in to enforce his use of the phone? If they want to pass off the blame for their child's mistakes, pass the blame right back onto the parents. Then sit back and have a laugh.

[AccountingDrone]

There was an article on ABCNews.com recently about how your family can sabotage your job interview...focused mostly on spouses showing up to the interview, but it might have mentioned parents....

LOL I got a job once showing up at a job interview with my first husband ...

Special circumstances though, he was going in to sign some paperwork for a nuclear plant shutdown, so it was a process involving taking the MMPI, some other bogus test, filling out the application and peeing on demand for the company that was hired to do some work at a nuke plant. I was hanging out in the waiting room and someone stuck their head in and asked if i was *the* machinist. I sort of misunderstood and told them yes, as I am actually a machinist by training. They thought I was someone else who was scheduled to come in but never showed. They got the person on the phone and they had gotten a different job, so I got offered the job in their place. Not entirely my specific field, but I had worked on enough valves to qualify as an ASE certified [3.2] valve tech. And that is how I became a rad whore

Ah... I remember these sorts from my AT&T call centre days. Especially when I was on the next ladder rung up and would get people who the first rep had already said no to. Nothing brightened my day like putting notes in the main account window that 'X has been told several times about roaming. NO credits to be given.*

How stupid do you have to be to expect that 1- You won't get charged for being in another country with your phone, and 2- that a rep won't look back into your account to see if it's been explained in the past.

I know that I am turning my cell off when i go on the cruise in Feb ... I have a moto 9M with the internet package, and I can just see some sort of charges from my phone autoconnecting to update or something! I am just going to read ebooks on the kindle my brother gave me for christmas last year. I don't want to know what the roaming charges for St Thomas or Haiti are!