RUG RATS

Those little "treasures" we all would love to bury

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I've always thought of my cousin Kyle as a good kid. I'm 22 and he's 14, we love the same music share the same interests, we're generally best buds at Christmastime and Thanksgiving (since these times are the only times I get to see him). I figured he was a very smart kid.... until my dad came home about a week ago from my grandparents with a horrible story to tell.

Kyle had gone and stayed at a friend's house for the night (we'll call him Jake), my aunt figured this friend was also a good kid, and thought he was very mature for his age (also 14) since he was always at their house and very polite. The next afternoon when my aunt picked Kyle up she instantly knew something was wrong, after twenty minutes of trying to pry info out of him, he caved. The previous afternoon, the boys had been watching the popular mtv show Jackass, and Jake got this not so bright idea to do their own jackass stunt.

Jake, Kyle and Jake's 19 year old brother all headed outside. Jake had this container of liquid and poured it all over his own head, armed Kyle with the water hose and his older brother with a video camera. Jake told Kyle "If anything goes wrong, spray me." Jake then lit the the liquid. This little "Jackass, was just dancing around with his head a flame. When he decided that it was a little too hot, he told Kyle to put him out. Unfortunately, whatever this liquid was, has a reaction to water. The flames spread and continued to do so over his entire head, until the older brother ran got a blanket and smothered the flames.

By this time I'm thinking wait, this happened the previous afternoon and Kyle's telling this almost 24 hours later? Turns out that this kids moronic parents hadn't taken the kid to the hospital until almost 2 days later! They claimed "Well he wasn't complained about any pain..." That's because all of the nerve endings in his head were killed, so he couldn't feel any pain. Now the funny thing is that just last Christmas, Kyle and I were talking about this show, and he told me "As much as I like Jackass, I could never pull a stupid stunt like them." Right Kyle.

We haven't heard anymore news about the kid and his condition, but I have a feeling when we do, Kyle will be mark to blame for the whole thing and a law suit will go into effect.

Kids1103-04

 My dear husband and I became engaged when I was nineteen; we married when I was twenty and he was twenty three. At the time of our marriage I was a junior attending college on a full scholarship; I am now a senior and planning to attend graduate school next year. Furthermore, though we are economically stable, we just bought our first house and we definitely do not have thousands of dollars to spare. When we married, we did so with the understanding that an immediate pregnancy would be devastating financially (since half of our income was a stipend from my scholarship) and to my career. Besides all of this, I have babysat children all of my life, and I don't find them incredibly fascinating.

All of this, of course, didn't keep the majority of our acquaintances from asking (before we were even married!) how many children we wanted, when we wanted them, etc. We have asked some of our other married friends, and this seems to a be pretty common question.

My worst personal experience of this kind, however, happened right after we became engaged. My then-fiancé was working as a coach for a club sports team; the team had a lot of "away" meets, and I would generally go with them on the team bus. Mothers of the team members were often recruited to come as chaperones, and let me tell you--- most of these women were usually quite affluent, very bossy, very full of themselves, and completely enjoying their temporary roles as bus-tyrants. You should have heard the way they spoke to the hired bus drivers-- as though they were their own personal chauffeurs. We were frequently lost because of their "navigating," and they never admitted it.   

Anyway, one of these women was particularly bad. She discovered the bus speaker system early in the trip (shudder) and used it throughout the trip. At one point, she decided to chat with me. She asked how long we had been engaged, etc. Then, as I was expecting,

"When do you plan to have children?"  I was trying to be diplomatic, so (instead of saying, "Yeah, I don't like kids.") I said something like, "Oh, we don't' know... not for a while!" "Well, how many do you want? Boys or girls?" (like you can pick!!!!)

"Well, if I had one, I'd really want a girl... I've always--" She cut me off immediately, sneering, and exclaimed "Oh! Boys are SO much better than girls. It would be much better to have a boy." She then proceeded to argue with me about which sex is the better one!

I was astounded. Honestly-- she condemned me for my opinion, which has nothing to do with the sex of a baby, anyway! Furthermore, one of the funniest parts in that her child (a boy) is the bane of the club as he is whiny, weak, and annoying.

Still worse-- my husband's friend, "Mark," was adopted after his parents tried for years to become pregnant on their own. After they had been married for years but before Mark was adopted, one lady asked THEM if they had any children; when they quietly responded that they did not, she sneered and sniffed, "How selfish!" and walked away. Some people are just amazing....

Kids0911-04

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