Oct17
To Put it Bluntly, Kids Are Assholes.
Oh goodness, did she really just say what I think she said??
Several months ago I was having a bad day and venting to the Queen about my kids. They’d been driving me batty in one form or another, most likely throwing tantrums or doing their daily wrestle-till-someone-takes-it-too-far matches. Whatever the case they had me one Celexa pill away from murder, when she told my something profound, as only she can.
“Oh Sara, kids are just assholes.”
I alternated between shock that she’d just uttered the words out loud, and wanting to laugh my ass off at the sheer truth of them. How many moms haven’t called their kids a name or two under their breath as they dealt with tantrums, school problems, teenage attitudes, or any of the other joys of motherhood? It takes a better woman than I not to think a naughty thought or two when one of my kids has just broken a jelly jar on my kitchen floor, despite repeatedly telling them to get out of the fridge. And that scream I get when my two year old decides he will NOT do whatever I am telling him to do? Yeah, I’m dropping an F-bomb or three in my head then too.
Naturally I had to laugh when my blogging-buddy Cate at Monkeys and Marbles posted a Friday haiku recently mentioning how she loves her son, even when he’s being an asshole. I could appreciate the sentiment, being in the midst of Terrible Two-ness ourselves with Damian. I know Cate is a good mom, like the rest of us she would never say that to or around her son, it’s just a thought that gets her through in the hardest times. We all have our bad moments, and if the worst of them are contained in our heads, I’d say that’s doing pretty darn well.
Apparently one of her readers begged to differ. They left a comment stating “That you would ever call your child an asshole is horrible.” Either they didn’t understand Cate wasn’t ever saying it out loud, or they did and didn’t care. Cate was stung, and felt the need to explain herself, not that I really think the troll deserves it.
You show me a mom who has never thought badly about her kids, and I’ll show you someone who’s never had a two year old.
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61 Responses to “To Put it Bluntly, Kids Are Assholes.”
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cate Oct 17th 2007 at 01:38 pm 1
i really couldn’t have put it better myself! i love my boys dearly, with all of my being….but they have their moments! it’s so good to know i’m not the only mom who thinks her kids can be asshole at times!
Beckie Oct 17th 2007 at 02:11 pm 2
Amen… Although I have to say, two was a breeze compared to three so far. At least the first part of the twos, she was still somewhat agreeable!
Bekah Oct 17th 2007 at 03:16 pm 3
Zephra Oct 17th 2007 at 03:40 pm 4
If that troll says she never would call her kid that (even in her head) she is lying. We all do it. And BTW, 3 is way worse…just so you know.
Shauna Oct 17th 2007 at 05:24 pm 5
So true.
Any mom (or parent) who hasn’t had those thoughts about their kids just isn’t around their kids enough.
Coma Girl Oct 17th 2007 at 06:09 pm 6
The woman who left that comment can not possibly have (or have ever known) a teenager.
At least your two year old behaves like that because he doesn’t actually know better. When my 20 and 16 year old wrestle until someone takes it too far, it’s enough to send me straight to the bottle…to crack it over their heads!
Write From Karen Oct 17th 2007 at 06:14 pm 7
Are you kidding me?! I’ve come up with NEW bad names for my brats, er, boys. *grin*
Just wait until they hit the tween/teen years. Holy smokes, talk about the mumbling under your breath, the eye rolls and the back talk - and then there are my children’s bad habits to contend with. *grin*
Seriously. I called my 14-year old son a jerk under my breath one day and he heard me. I was MORTIFIED! And he looked crushed. But honestly? He really was being a jerk. So, I decided to come clean. We talked about it and he left the discussion understanding that just because I’m mom doesn’t mean I’m not human, that I get my feelings hurt and that I lose my temper when he’s being difficult. I think kids need to understand that they have to answer for their behavior and just because they’re having a bad day, it doesn’t give them the right to take it out on the ones in close proximity.
I still felt horrible, though. And what did I learn? To mumble a bit more quietly. lol
Erica (crummy cupcake) Oct 17th 2007 at 06:28 pm 8
Can I add my 2 cents and say,”Husbands are assholes, too!”
Sometimes I think there is just not enough crack in the world to block out the self centered neediness of humanity…
PS - thanks for making me laugh out loud on a bad day!
tiff Oct 17th 2007 at 06:32 pm 9
Agreed. I think it is a totally normal thing to secretly call your kids names, when things get hard to handle. I do it. I pride myself on being a patient mother and muttering to myself about my kids misgvings helps me to keep my cool.
~JJ! Oct 17th 2007 at 06:51 pm 10
I love that quote. “All kids are assholes”…truer words have ever been spoken.
And depending on the parents, they sometimes stay assholes forever…the apple doesn’t fall….
SummerM Oct 17th 2007 at 06:53 pm 11
Damn straight! LOL It’s the threes that does it to me, those are crtainly the asshole years. LOL
TX Poppet Oct 17th 2007 at 07:18 pm 12
Although my own children are practically perfect in every way
, my sisters and I were capital A Assholes. Once my mother told me her shrink advised her to leave us and never come back because we were so awful. I told her he was right. Lucky for me she just laughed and stayed with her “adorable little pack of rabid wolves”. Ah, the terrible twos, threes, fours… If we couldn’t laugh at them we’d slit our own wrists.
manda Oct 17th 2007 at 08:17 pm 13
kids are assholes. i’ve thought a million times during toddler temper tantrums.
biodtl Oct 17th 2007 at 08:35 pm 14
Oh please - kids ARE assholes. Mine just got done being assholes 5 minutes ago. Now they’re perfect. Until they start up with the assholery again. The troll clearly has either never had a 2-3 year old, is a liar, or is batshit crazy. And an asshole.
Julie Pippert Oct 17th 2007 at 08:39 pm 15
Oh are they ever. Like my five year old mocking me. Niiiiiiice.
Threes kick it, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Mostly.
I have thought it too, and agree most of us feel it. There are rare exceptions, but they are rare. The rest is denial…and remember the saying about guilty dogs pointing the finger and throwing the first stone.
I will call my kids on it. If I’ve been telling them What To Do (you know, positive discipline way) and no avail, I’ll just lay it on the line, “Dude. So rude. So not cool. This calls for a time alone in your room. Come right on back when you can be Pleasant. But not one second before that.”
Phil Oct 17th 2007 at 09:26 pm 16
I am a decent human being, and I am an asshole at times. It just goes to show that are kids can be the same. Love em dearly, but they can make us crazy.
Namaste.
MamaLee Oct 17th 2007 at 09:54 pm 17
Amen. I’ve used many ca-ca words to my kids in my head. I have a terrible 3, a hair-raising 4.5 and a sneaky 6 year old. Lots of f-bombs in this here brain-o-mine.
Mrs. Fussypants Oct 17th 2007 at 10:26 pm 18
I NORMALLY reserve that special word for children who aren’t mine, or have wronged one of the Monkeys.
What I tell the (older) Monkeys is, “Hey, That’s NOT how we roll!”
Recently, my 6 yr. old responded with, “Oh Yeah, Mrs. Farty-pants!”
Hmmm…….maybe I’ll make an exception. THIS TIME.What a ^*^*&^*&!
Mimipz5wjj Oct 18th 2007 at 05:40 am 19
LOL! Well said… I tell my boys all the time to stop being “pickles” or “poopyheads.”
Nell Oct 18th 2007 at 09:01 am 20
I can think of some other names too… if only it ended when we made it past the twos.
HamIam Oct 18th 2007 at 09:44 am 21
I once got so upset with the all-day LONG antics of my kiddos that I sat them down and said, very calmly, I might add, “Look - you guys are being rude, disobedient, and destructive. That is the behavior of a shithead - and I am not raising you to be little shitheads, so STOP.” My daughter gasped and said, “Mama that’s a BAAAD word,” I said, “I know. And, just so we’re clear - you are NOT a shithead, so stop acting like one.” LOL…sometimes you just have to level with them…IT sunk in with them, because they were good as gold.
In the Trenches of Mommyhood Oct 18th 2007 at 10:56 am 22
I’ve borne a few here in the Trenches.
And the fridge thing? I JUST got a fridge lock at BabiesRUs. Best thing I ever did. Am cursing myself that I didn’t do it sooner and save months (maybe years) of yelling!
Blue Momma Oct 18th 2007 at 11:10 am 23
I would never call my kid an asshole.
Why?
Because he’s not an asshole. He’s a little shit.
People need to relax and not take themselves so seriously or they run the chance of becoming exactly what they protest. Assholes.
christina Oct 18th 2007 at 11:22 am 24
my mom called me an asshole when I was being one.
I turned out well rounded.
one of those days « monkeys and marbles Oct 18th 2007 at 12:10 pm 25
[...] to you all for the support! and thanks to Sara for havin’ my back…your rock [...]
Leann I Am Oct 18th 2007 at 12:55 pm 26
This is a great way of explaining motherhood. I try to steer clear of the bad words around mine, but I call the little one “demon spawn’ and “evil baby” all the time. I always say it with a smile and she giggles.
We’ve always called our kids names. Nothing too severe, but “poopyhead” and “fartface” are pretty regular in our house! There’s nothing more pitiful than a kid crying on the playground because someone called him a “cacahead!” They are too young to be taking themselves so seriously!
Erin Oct 18th 2007 at 01:14 pm 27
This goes right along with feeling reluctant to say that you love your kids more when they are sleeping. Or that you are counting the minutes until nap/bedtime. Which I do, nearly every day.
But it is true, kids are assholes. Cute ones, but assholes nonetheless…
Lela Oct 18th 2007 at 04:19 pm 28
A person who reads that and doesn’t agree on some level is a person either without kids, or doped up on too many sedatives to give a rats ass what her own are doing.
kerry Oct 18th 2007 at 05:03 pm 29
My daughter and step daughter can be the biggest bitches - but I still love them. There will be a day when I tell my daughter to stop being a bitch as my mother did to me. I never once thought my mother didn’t love me. Like she said all kids can be assholes… and all adults too! We are people - human - imperfect little asshole bitches - right?
Secret Agent Mama Oct 19th 2007 at 06:00 am 30
I’m with Blue Momma, they aren’t assholes, they are little shits!
Anyone have a little bitch? I do sometimes. I mean, come ON, apples and trees PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
Oh, The Joys Oct 19th 2007 at 10:35 am 31
Some days there are TOTAL assholes. (And they KNOW it.)
Blondie Oct 19th 2007 at 11:12 am 32
Love your blog! And you are right. That woman was a troll.
Mary mert Oct 19th 2007 at 11:15 am 33
My husband and I mutter to each other about animals eating their young and legalizing child abuse (i’m a survivor of child abuse myself), to lighten the situation when either of us gets to hot headed. We would never actually eat our young or beat them.
Much.
Some people are critical and waaaaay too serious. Those are the people who need to laugh the most. I have a low tolerance for people who are dry and can’t ever see the humor in things.
Jess Oct 19th 2007 at 12:07 pm 34
Hi I am Jessica and I have called my children names in my head. I firmly believe it is ok to think it. I also believe repeating it over and over in your head keeps you from saying it. After the 400th time my child has whined ” I don’t wannaaaaaa” “whiney little brat” just pops in my mind. Not sure why it just does.
Worker Mommy Oct 19th 2007 at 01:58 pm 35
I think I’ve said worse under my breath in my most frustrated of moments.
Jerseygirl89 Oct 19th 2007 at 03:03 pm 36
This is why I’m glad I taught before I had children - I knew they were going to be little assholes and that I’d love them anyway. Although it is more difficult when they’re YOUR assholes.
That said, I try to keep my swears to a minimum around the kids. But the word “brat” may have been uttered a few (hundred) times.
Yer Mama Oct 19th 2007 at 03:31 pm 37
Oh sheesh.
I have a couple little assholes myself.
Now they are not always assholes, it’s selective, and frankly they learned their habits from those who raised them.
Well I mean their Father of course.
No, but that being said, as sure as I’m a Mother, my kids can be litle assholes. (Ask the family, my sister is famous for muttering out of earshot my son is an asshole in training, the childless smart ass she is.)
Now I’d hesitate to say it to their faces, but I can almost bet my life by the time they each turn 16, they’ll have heard it out loud at least once.
In turn, I’m sure I’ll hear much much worse as they spew their asshole behavior my way as young adults finding their way through life, in fact. if they don’t I won’t have felt I’ve raised them up right.
Muttering “asshole” after my son throws a freaking matchbox pick up at me, and hitting me square in the forehead… that was his Dad’s back in 1976, you know hard, pointy,metal…Is like meditation, it keeps me from wailing it back at him and saying…”How do you like it?! Yeah that’s right, you wanna ‘nuther?”
Suburban Oblivion…Goddess | Housewives (and others) Gone Mad Oct 19th 2007 at 03:45 pm 38
[...] Suburban Housewive’s “To Put it Bluntly,Kids Are Assholes” [...]
S Oct 19th 2007 at 07:15 pm 39
That is freaking hilarious.
“Mom.”
“Mom.”
“Mom.”
“Mom? Mooooooooommmmmmm?”
“MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
crunchy carpets Oct 19th 2007 at 08:01 pm 40
assholes, cheats, liars, back stabbers….where does it end!!!
colleen stallan Oct 20th 2007 at 03:45 pm 41
Hi I agree with ya 100% funnier still is saying it in your head to a child whos autistic and never getting a response anyway-now thats total frustration to the max.And yep the 2s are pretty bad but hey it just keeps going but at different stages and ages,by 10 its not so
constant anymore just annoying.
Retirement Girl Oct 21st 2007 at 05:49 pm 42
That little phrase pretty much sums it up for why we (Mommies) get so frustrated when those precious little faces become the bottom end of their posteria! Why is it that the male gender tends to not see that the same incidence? Because they are assholes too! Remember they once had a “Mommy” who cuddled, cradled and kept on giving that damn pacifier even after the ripe age of 25.
At least mine did, what a shock when we moved in together after we were married. I did not think twice to let someone know that he could move back home if he did not like the conditions. No Refrigerator elves, No bedroom elves and no damn take out the garbage elves!
Remember this…..little assholes have a bigger one around the corner!
Mama Luxe Oct 21st 2007 at 09:24 pm 43
I think the definition of one is a person who shows no regard for or even awareness of the feelings of others…which is pretty much what I understand to be normal development for a child.
So, yeah.
Of course, it would be bad to call your child that regularly…and if you find yourself operating on that principle as a basis for your parenting, you’re setting yourself up for a bad relationship.
But to think it once in a while? Of course!
You have this beautiful, sweet, amazing life in your care but when you are haven’t had a break from that child in what seems like forever and YOU really need to take a shower or make dinner or whatever and all the kid wants to do is smear cookies in your carpet and write on your wall in permanent marker…yeah, you’re gonna think it…at least fleetingly.
Joe Oct 21st 2007 at 10:43 pm 44
Narcissistic Bastards if you ask me.
Gray Matter Oct 28th 2007 at 11:16 am 45
You know, my kid is 7 and more importantly so are his asshole friends. You haven’t seen assholes until you’ve hung around 7 year old assholes. And, when they’re not being assholes they’re being dicks.
Jo Nov 4th 2007 at 04:05 am 46
When my oldest was younger I called him an asshole under my breath constantly. I didn’t like the kid…he was a jackass.
Nowadays though I call him an asshole out loud. That’s right, when my 16 year old gets me with a real smartass zinger or has me in stitches I’m not afraid to look at him and say “You rotten little asshole I’m cryin’ here!”. It’s a form of endearment for us at this point so there! :p
Paula Nov 7th 2007 at 10:23 pm 47
you think you are surviving the 2,3,4’s wait till your precious little assholes turn into 15,16,17 year olds they become knowit all i do what i want to do whatever you are the worse mother ever supreme assholes !! I have barely survived 1 and have 1 more to go trying to make it minute by minute
jacoplural Nov 8th 2007 at 09:19 pm 48
listen, kids grow up to be like their parents. keep abortion legal people!
Random Crazies Strike Again | Suburban Oblivion Nov 10th 2007 at 09:14 am 49
[...] reply to my To Put it Bluntly, Kids Are Assholes [...]
Michelle Mar 16th 2008 at 03:14 pm 50
I must be evil. I told my 12 year daughter she was “being an asshole”. She needed to hear it. It’s not cute to humiliate her 11 year old sister in public by calling her an elephant around a ‘cute boy’ just to look ‘cool’. At what point are kids not just children and need to learn how to be reasonably polite and nice PEOPLE? I have preached ‘do unto others’ until I am blue in the face. She needed to see what she looked like to others. She didn’t look cool at all.
jim Mar 29th 2008 at 05:12 pm 51
My daughters are assholes too!!
Ages 6 and 9.
I think I am beginning to hate children in general. I had to yell at a little asshole at Pizza Hut last night for eating out of the salad bar with the serving spoon, and I enjoyed yelling at him! I should have whacked him in the head but I decided to be nice.
My kids are assholes and I blame the root of all childhood evils, the Disney channel.
And if I had to live my life over again I would make sure I chose to be GAY or preform my own vasectomy. I think I would preform my own vasectomy twice just to be sure nothing bad was going to happen.
bms2000 May 8th 2008 at 03:26 pm 52
My two assholes are both in timeout, because I don’t care who started it.
Where is that martini recipe…
bmom212 Jul 22nd 2008 at 07:31 am 53
lol, I just found this because I literally googled “what to do when your kid is being an asshole” out of anger & frustration
*sighs*…I love my kid endlessly but today? ommfg she is such.an.asshole.
Anom60611 Sep 12th 2008 at 03:45 am 54
Well, cursing your kid under your breath or behind their backs isn’t all that bad BUT if you do it infront of your kid calling them “Trash” or “Garbage” or something like that it really gets annoying to the child. *I would know haha* They’ll just get more rebellious and by the time you’ve called them an asshole/jerk/trash, they’ll just start ignoring you; or atleast thats how I deal with it.
PS: Yes, I’m a teenager and my mom DOES call me shit but I don’t really give a nutshell now. I mean, who cares right? She says something, goes into one ear, out the other. Just like talkin’ to a tree.
poppa Oct 5th 2008 at 09:58 am 55
My kids are assholes 24 7
Carrie Oct 23rd 2008 at 11:43 am 56
Funny what comes up when you type in the Google search box, “my kids are assholes.”
I really thought I was the only one to think that.
joe marshall Oct 25th 2008 at 08:30 pm 57
who would ever neglect children like this and call them assholes? None of you people have the patience required to be a parent. Who do you think any of you are calling your kids assholes? My mother called me an asshole today and it lowers my self esteem, and it sets an example that shows me my mom is truly not fit for parenting, and none of you people are if you think calling your kid an asshole, get some common sense.
Dave White Nov 17th 2008 at 07:12 pm 58
Come on now and cut the sugar coating… Anyone who claims they haven’t thought their children are not punks, jerks, etc… It all leads to the same out come… An asshole. I am a single dad who has raised two kids from ages 4 & 18 months to now they are 14 and 17. The oldest always treats me with respect and listens to what I have to say. The younger one swears at me, calls me names, and acts like an ASSHOLE every time he gets a chance. I don’t blame him; because I can see what the dirt bag he calls mom fills his head full of. So in retrospective, no the kids are not assholes, they are just acting on what they see and hear from their roll models… There parents. I guess that would make us the ASSHOLES!
fred Nov 23rd 2008 at 05:54 pm 59
I’m 51…. It never gets better, kids. My Mom is 70, I still worry her. Celibacy is the answer
fred Nov 23rd 2008 at 05:56 pm 60
by the way, fuck you Joe.. you are an asshole
Mrs. Schmitty Dec 20th 2008 at 08:27 pm 61
ABSOLUTELY AND POSITIVELY!