Kortney said:
I have a 3 year old brother and he is the most polite, courteous and downright cute human being on the planet.
In short: It depends on the kid, and it depends on the mother.
And I am with you. Some of them are little shits that do need a good smack over the face.
Wow a brother who someone actually likes. Two of my mates hate their younger brothers.
OT: I baby sit an 8yr old girl and her 11yr old brother. The boy has behavious issues which cause him to become easily angered and violent. He also has a tendancy to want to do things his way and if he cant then he will go into a major huff and try to run off if he can (not when we are out in an unfamilar place thankgod). He touches my stuff even having been told that certain things are out of bounds but i still find them touched and once even broken. They stay the night often and end up driving me nuts. The girl isn't too bad but easily upset, she also talks far too much and loves nothing more then jumping on me to the point where i swear at least two ribs have been fractured because of it(oh and i rarely get paid for babysitting them, im more like a free best friend).
I treat them like second family, their mother and father are really nice but their mum suffers from severe depression and tends to kick them out for ages to get a break. Their 20yr old sister prefers her mates or computer rather then spending time with them and helping them on the times that she babysits them. She swears infront of them, listens to heavy metal, both she and her mother try to get the girl into "fashion" sense of what looks right and what doesn't rather then letting her make up her own mind. And the lad is aloud to play games meant for 18yr olds. I have actually watched him (aged 9) blowing up monsters or people and he knows a fair bit about the weapons he uses.
I hate watching them being spoilt and let off too easily. If the lad misbehaves when out with me im aloud to smack him (the girl included but she is usually fine), i can also ban him from getting sweets if he has money. Trouble is, as soon as they go home he gets let off and somehow ends up with sweets anyway. His mum/dad always say if they misbehave they will get grounded. No the don't. They stay in their rooms and make a noise so get kicked back out again. Drives me crazy.
When the lad broke my Rubix cube (a £10 birthday gift) which they had both been told time and time again to leave alone, the bugger decided one morning that since me and his sister were asleep that he would pull the stickers off and change them around, giving up half way through so that when i went to use it later that day everything was muddled. The stickers were ruined so i couldn't put them back on. I went down to their house and told their dad. He laughed (well, until he noticed that i was upset and angry, after all, it might just be a Rubix Cube but it was a present and how would he like it if his son had damaged something of his). He told me they would get me a new one, i said i would find a pack of the stickers and just replace them, rather then paying £10 for a new cube when the stickers were cheaper.
I never did find where to get the stickers. Instead the kids came up one day with a cheap crappy £1 immitation of a Rubix cube that they had gotten from a show. I was extremely pissed off that they thought this was going to replace my present. Needless to say i havn't used it.
Any way, i think its all to do with the parents. If the child/children are spoilt or not taught correctly then they learn that they can get away with things. They learn to grow up and litterally not care about others. When the kids don't use manners, my mum gets angry with them but as i point out, they don't know any better because their parents havent learnt to teach them properly.
