HELLBOY

As I promised in a previous post, I will now discuss Hellboy, my seven year old nephew.

What prompted this at this time was waiting with my Mom at the hospital ER to get her transfusion (I'll post about that later), and we were talking to pass the interminable wait in the over-full hospital. She said that she had talked to my sister the other day. And, as usual, Sis puts Hellboy on to say hi. Normally he's like, "Hi, how are you, this is what I did in school today," etc.

Not this particular day. Oh, no.

Sis calls Hellboy to the phone. He comes over and proceeds to tell his grandmother in the rudest tone, "You are making me miss my show. I'm missing parts of it because I have to talk to you." Needless to say my mom was shocked and a mite pissed. She scolded him and it apparently didn't faze him. She told Sis and it sounds like she shrugged it off.

Hellboy can do no wrong.

He is the biggest case of why there should almost never be "only children." Spoiled, overindulged, led to believe by his father that burping and farting in public is funny, allowed to call people nasty names because (again) his parents think it's hilarious, and given to rude little tantrums when he doesn't get his way--he's the poster child for all those children who are raised by others and overindulged by their parents because they feel guilty for not being there. Both my Sis and BIL have careers where they can't flex; this is a problem because Hellboy can't do the extracurricular team sports he so desperately needs to learn give and take and teamwork.

This is what happens when others raise one's child and the child plays on the guilt. Hellboy is very good at that, and I am so unimpressed. On top of it, Sis and BIL use the TV as a measure to get him to shut up and leave them alone. I've seen it myself. And that is plain old lazy parenting.

Because he either sits at a computer or in front of the TV, he's a 100 lb seven year old. Granted, he's physically bigger than most of his peers--his dad's a *big* 6'4"--but the boy has almost bigger tits than I do, and I'm a double D.

And he's arrogant, God how arrogant! "I want to watch my show," he announced to TJ when he was here for Christmas. He tried taking the remote. TJ told him to knock it off. Hellboy got pissed. TJ told him off and told him to zip it. Hellboy skulked the rest of the visit. Why? Because someone actually told him "NO!" He doesn't know what that is.

He has been told in TWO HOUSEHOLDS to leave the respective cats alone every time he's here. My cat practically needs psychiatric care after Hellboy leaves. My folks' cat hides for a week and a half until she's sure that he isn't around anymore.

Sis told Mom that Hellboy, a first grader, clocked a kindergartener at school because the poor little kid didn't get off the computer fast enough. This is a seven year old who is already a hundred pounds, punching a chlid who is maybe half his weight.

I love my nephew dearly, have since before he was born and we jokingly called him "The Alien." I'm so concerned, and both TJ and I have tried, nicely, to get the point across that she and BIL need to get Hellboy under control. We get every excuse in the book--"he's not usually like this" (b.s.), "He's better than other first graders" (which means either she's a liar or he's in juvy already), etc.--my favorite line of denial is when she says, "You'll understand when you have your own children."

That is the biggest line of bullshit on this earth. I have taught school, I have been around kids quite a bit. In fact, I have been in a roomful of seven year old Little League players who are quieter, better behaved, and certainly less destructive than this one little boy.

I don't need to have my own child to recognize a spoiled little boy who is going to be a terror in the years to come. I'm terrified that he'll become a delinquent. If they don't get him under control now, there are going to be some HUGE problems in the next five years. It certainly won't surprise me in the least.

Good Lord! If he's already clocking other kids who don't do what he wants, what's next?

I know it's bad when Dad told me after they went home after Christmas, "I told your mother, 'Our grandson is a brat' and she sadly agreed," in the saddest voice I have heard from him in many years.

With this lesson before me, our kids (when they come along) are sooooo screwed.