This is horrible, WTF is up with some parents??

[lost-in-nj]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2069184.ece


THERE can be only one thing worse than not getting the present you want this Christmas – and that’s finding your most wanted gift is just an empty box.

But that’s exactly what happened to this young lad – who thought he was unwrapping the Xbox360 console he had been dreaming of all year.



I know it says he got one a WEEK later

but come on......


poor kid


lost

[NYC_SKP]

1. You know the whole gift thing is bullshit consumeristic crap.

Hand made gifts, gifts of our time, gifts of doing favors for others, these are real gifts.

I'll never forget what Bush said after 911 about shopping, don't stop shopping, in so many words.

Like kids need xBoxes to become good citizens. :shrug:

[lost-in-nj]

2. no kids don't need Xboxes

that is not the point I was trying to make.
it's how cruel some adults can be

yes I know about home/hand made gifts. I baked this year
for family and friends and I did shop some to.

doing favors for others should be year round though..... :)


I agree with you 100%

lost

[NYC_SKP]

6. Happy season to you!

And year round, too!

I'll bet your baked goods are yummy!

:toast:

[Genevieve]

3. what you said. .eom

[trof]

8. Yeah, this is wrong on a number of levels.

Top of the list is the consumer/advertising/TV cabal that makes kids think that getting the new 'whiz-bang' is a life-or-death thing.
I hate that.

The kid's parents?
I dunno.
Seems to be a harsh lesson.

When I was about his age (post Santa true believer) I found all of my presents (before they were wrapped) one year.
I thought I was really cool for discovering the hiding places.
My mom found me going through them.

She talked to me about how one of the best parts about getting presents was that they were SURPRISES.
She was right.
She went ahead and wrapped all my presents.
And I knew what each one was before I opened it.
I was miserable and I NEVER went on a Christmas present hunting expedition again.

[pitohui]

9. i'm not so sure she *was* right

i've never been pleased to be surprised, i think it must depend on the psychology of the person

you were searching for the gifts because you wanted to know and it's better to know than not know in my experience

i've always been much happier with the gifts set up and that i knew about in advance than the surprises -- it probably doesn't hurt that a complicated expensive gift that has to be set up in advance just HAS to be better than some shitty surprise

[trof]

10. Sorry, but that sounds...kinda strange?

I like surprises.
Good ones, anyway.

[Blue Diadem]

4. I think it was way too long a time to "teach him a lesson".

I could understand a quick shock of a few minutes, but that was IMO cruel. That and laughing at the poor kid. Kids will be kids, they'll snoop and do things they aren't supposed to do. But, IMO, the lesson the kid learned was how to be humiliated by suffering disappointment and being laughed at over it.

[mopinko]

5. only people who never said to a kid

"you are getting a lump of coal" can wag their finger at this family. i have threatened my kids many times over things like earning money to get gifts for the sibs, and pitching in with baking. they never worked, because the kids know me. but i have been very tempted to find a way to give the me, me, me, me kids a little something to think about.
putting it on youtube might be going a little far, tho.

[alphafemale]

7. Shoot. That was nothing.

And the kid actually GOT the present he wanted. Putting crappy presents in deluxe boxes is one of our honored traditions. The more horribly inappropriate the gift the better the laughs and accolades.