Official Rant of the Day Thread

[MO_Hacker]

I raised 4 kids. I was outnumbered. Someone had to be in charge and, as the oldest, I appointed myself boss. I made them understand as early as I could that this was the situation they found themselves in. I also made them understand that I would be consistent and would always enforce the rules. I also made them aware that there were sure and swift consequences to breaking the rules. I wasn't cruel or unreasonable, I just expected them to act like human beings and do as they were told.

They knew I was going to have my way, after all, I was the boss. It was merely a matter of how much pain they were willing to endure before they behaved. You know, they all turned out to be decent human beings, don't hate me, and have actually told me I was tough but fair. They have also said that a lot of times I was a perfect excuse to keep them from doing things their buddies wanted them to do.

I don't understand how being excessively permissive can possibly be good for kids. How will they ever learn how to deal with the rules society places on them if they cannot be taught to live with them at home. If no one teaches them how to properly behave, how could they know anyone cares about them? Parenthood is a responsibility to your kids and to your society at large. There may be a reason so many kids are getting into trouble....it could have started at home when they were little.

Enough soapbox for me...I just feel strongly about this.

Well put C Tech, I have two daughters and they are total opposites as far as how they are disciplined. The older one was/is the type that if you tell her to do something or not do something she complies right away. The younger has spent more time in time out or in her room in less than half the time. She's a little headstrong, like her mom.
Anyway, my take on parenting is that you have to be consistent and let them know what is expected of them. When they step out of those bounds the consequences will be swift and fair. I think "time out" works if you are consistent with it. Threatening a child with time out or my personal favorite "If you don't stop throwing a fit right now we'll just leave!" and not actually doing it does no good. Children can figure out pretty quick that you're just bluffing, especially when they have been threatened with it before with out the parent actually taking action.

 

[provisional]

Went to our local "Lone Star Steak House", with our youngest daughter, and her family. Ordered an appetizer, and a pitcher of Miller for my wife and I. The appetizer shows up, the ice teas show up, sodas show up, but the beer goes MIA. We ask about it, and the waitress says she will check on it, since it had to come from the bar. Next thing I know, we have 2 mugs of beer delivered to the table. Wait a minute, where's the pitcher? Manager comes over, and informs us they no longer sell pitchers of beer any more, only mugs, and bottles. This after selling me $5 pitchers for many years. I'm devastated....Quick math...Pitcher $5, and holds 4 mugs of beer. New beer delivery system is one mug/bottle at a time @ $2 each. Strike one. Our dinner salads show up which, are far cry from what we received last week, size wise. Same size bowl, much smaller portion. Strike two. Grand Children order "kid's meal" steak dinners. They get breaded chicken strips instead. Strike 3. Reason? They were out of children portions of steak. #3 was totally unacceptable since they could easily cut a steak up to make a child's portion. :bicker:

Out come; It was not a total disaster. The manager made it good, and is hoping we return in the near future.

 

[ClairefromClare]

My golf league got rained out again last night. Six times so far this season.

As for grabbing other people's kids--much easier to do if you have some of your own with you. Then your a parent exercising group disclipline, not some strange pervert.

 

[Harry Longshanks]

My golf league got rained out again last night. Six times so far this season.

As for grabbing other people's kids--much easier to do if you have some of your own with you. Then your a parent exercising group disclipline, not some strange pervert.

:quiet:

 

[ClairefromClare]

:quiet:

:embarrassed: Omigosh! Not much of a defense, but it was awfully darn early.

 

[AHacker'sHacker]

:embarrassed: Omigosh! Not much of a defense, but it was awfully darn early.

Claire, Harry seems to be a very hard taskmaster. :soldier: Due to the post being a morning response with the time beginning with a five I will forgive you.

 

[ClairefromClare]

Claire, Harry seems to be a very hard taskmaster. :soldier: Due to the post being a morning response with the time beginning with a five I will forgive you.

Thanks, AHH--but he's just returning several favors there.

 

[bogeyme]

My rant: We had some family in from Florida for the weekend for a family reunion. Their daughter wore a UF sweatshirt in Buckeye country. I had to give her a hard time about it. She's lucky it was only the second time I had met her or I would have removed it from her. :laughing: Then she wouldn't even go into "Buckeye Corner" when we were at the mall. Yes we have a store that is just Ohio State and nothing but Ohio State.

 

[AHacker'sHacker]

Thanks, AHH--but he's just returning several favors there.

I figured that might be the case.

 

[Harry Longshanks]

Something in my house smells like a$$ and I can't figure out what it is!

Spoiler

Preemptive: No, it's not me.

 

[Ty_Webb]

My rant:

This actually happened a little while ago, but thinking about it still winds me up. I live in New York and work in New York, taking the subway to and from work every day. Lucky me. There's like an unwritten rule that if you're on the escalator, you stand on the right and walk on the left. Anyway, one day I'm walking down the escalator to the subway and as I'm about half way down, some woman steps out in front of me and starts dawdling down. I can hear a train pulling into the station, so want to go quickly in case it's mine. The woman that stepped in front of me obviously hears it as well and picks up the pace. I subsequently discovered she was heading in the Queens direction and I was heading in the downtown direction. Anyway, about ten steps from the bottom you can actually see the trains. She sees that the train that is now sitting in the station is going downtown (i.e. it's my train), so she stops and just stands there waiting for the escalator to carry her down. She also managed to stop just next to the last person in the standing line. If she'd taken one more step, I could have got past, but no. So we get to the bottom, taking maybe 5 seconds longer than we should have only for the train doors to close right in front of my face. It was about 15 minutes before another train came along. 15 minutes may not sound like very long, but when you spend the whole time thinking about new and interesting ways to hurt someone, it feels like a long time. Words cannot describe my feelings about that woman. Certainly not words that I can use on a forum such as this. What a selfish *ahem* (love this smilie by the way)

 

[JB]

That would have driven me crazy TW.

 

[Diane]

Ty - Perhaps the woman was from England and had her sides mixed up. :wink:

 

[bogeyme]

Apartment complex management companies. I guess I can't complain too much since the company I work for does this but I'm dealing with companies other than mine. My wife and I are planning to move in October. We are moving from my father in laws place to an apartment. We have looked at one place and ruled it out after having been told someone would be there to show us the apartment and when we arrived no one was there. We left a message on the machine in the leasing office and my wife got a nasty phone call from the property manager saying they had been having problems with the girl that is supposed to work the weekends not showing up, but assured us that someone would be there the following week. We didn't go back.

I then made an appointment to look at the apartments that my sister lives in. We had to cancel the appointment so on Saturday I called and left a message during business hours and told them that we would not be able to make the appointment on Sunday and would like to reschedule for a different time on Sunday. That was about 3 weeks ago and we have not heard anything back from them. There's #2 off our list.

Finally yesterday (I know it's only been a day) I sent an e-mail to a complex that is still under construction asking a few questions about somethings I thought about after having a conversation with one of their employees. I have yet to hear back from them. I'm hoping that since it's still under construction that things are just being delayed and I'm not being ignored. I'm running out of time and places to move.

 

[bonknhead]

My rant:

This actually happened a little while ago, but thinking about it still winds me up. I live in New York and work in New York, taking the subway to and from work every day. Lucky me. There's like an unwritten rule that if you're on the escalator, you stand on the right and walk on the left. Anyway, one day I'm walking down the escalator to the subway and as I'm about half way down, some woman steps out in front of me and starts dawdling down. I can hear a train pulling into the station, so want to go quickly in case it's mine. The woman that stepped in front of me obviously hears it as well and picks up the pace. I subsequently discovered she was heading in the Queens direction and I was heading in the downtown direction. Anyway, about ten steps from the bottom you can actually see the trains. She sees that the train that is now sitting in the station is going downtown (i.e. it's my train), so she stops and just stands there waiting for the escalator to carry her down. She also managed to stop just next to the last person in the standing line. If she'd taken one more step, I could have got past, but no. So we get to the bottom, taking maybe 5 seconds longer than we should have only for the train doors to close right in front of my face. It was about 15 minutes before another train came along. 15 minutes may not sound like very long, but when you spend the whole time thinking about new and interesting ways to hurt someone, it feels like a long time. Words cannot describe my feelings about that woman. Certainly not words that I can use on a forum such as this. What a selfish *ahem* (love this smilie by the way)

You're way too nice. If it were me rushing down that escalator, the moment she stopped I would have said loudly, "excuse me!" and make my way around her to the left. My wife hates when I do things like that, but then again, she's way too passive.

 

[Diane]

You're way too nice. If it were me rushing down that escalator, the moment she stopped I would have said loudly, "excuse me!" and make my way around her to the left. My wife hates when I do things like that, but then again, she's way too passive.

Bonknhead - You have obviously not spent much time on NYC subways. NY'ers do not do subtle - a direct approach works better.

 

[Blue Arc]

You both are way to nice. You should have shoved her fat ass down the escalator and then taken a flying leap over where ever she crashed and said "oops! My bad! Sorry about that!" I mean it is New York after all...



:laughing::laughing::laughing: Just joking!

 

[ClairefromClare]

My rant:

This actually happened a little while ago, but thinking about it still winds me up. I live in New York and work in New York, taking the subway to and from work every day. Lucky me. There's like an unwritten rule that if you're on the escalator, you stand on the right and walk on the left. Anyway, one day I'm walking down the escalator to the subway and as I'm about half way down, some woman steps out in front of me and starts dawdling down. I can hear a train pulling into the station, so want to go quickly in case it's mine. The woman that stepped in front of me obviously hears it as well and picks up the pace. I subsequently discovered she was heading in the Queens direction and I was heading in the downtown direction. Anyway, about ten steps from the bottom you can actually see the trains. She sees that the train that is now sitting in the station is going downtown (i.e. it's my train), so she stops and just stands there waiting for the escalator to carry her down. She also managed to stop just next to the last person in the standing line. If she'd taken one more step, I could have got past, but no. So we get to the bottom, taking maybe 5 seconds longer than we should have only for the train doors to close right in front of my face. It was about 15 minutes before another train came along. 15 minutes may not sound like very long, but when you spend the whole time thinking about new and interesting ways to hurt someone, it feels like a long time. Words cannot describe my feelings about that woman. Certainly not words that I can use on a forum such as this. What a selfish *ahem* (love this smilie by the way)

D.C. is the same way. I got really good at "excuse me!" at the top of my lungs while plowing through with both elbows pointed out.

 

[Ty_Webb]

D.C. is the same way. I got really good at "excuse me!" at the top of my lungs while plowing through with both elbows pointed out.

Had an interesting one yesterday on the way down the same escalator. Some woman with a pushchair sitting on the step on the left side with the pushchair in front of her and a friend of hers standing next to her. The woman in front of me when we reached this point said something along the lines of "what? are you ****ing kidding me????" No sign of movement.

As to the excuse me bit, I do that if I'm half way down and someone is just standing there, but on this occasion I barely had time to think (and I never just blurt things like that out - it's the English in me). In retrospect, I should have just kept walking and taken her down with me. Bit harsh with the woman with the pushchair though.

 

[Osahar]

I'm not one to usually dread going to work in the morning. I like what I do for a living. But right now all I want to do is crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head to hide from what I know is coming.

At 7:00am EST today the NHTSA released the official rules for the CARS Act (aka Cash for Clunkers), so I'm going to spend my entire day taking calls from my 58 dealerships asking how they register, when can we start taking deals, when can our customers start claiming their vouchers, etc, etc. Umm...guys...I don't work for the US Government - they have a help line set up for this stuff and you have access to the exact same information I do. Hell, probably more since they get info from their respective state dealer associations and other related industry groups they belong to.

Shoot me now..please? :confused2:

 

[Hanks]

:stickbeat:

I'm not one to usually dread going to work in the morning. I like what I do for a living. But right now all I want to do is crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head to hide from what I know is coming.

At 7:00am EST today the NHTSA released the official rules for the CARS Act (aka Cash for Clunkers), so I'm going to spend my entire day taking calls from my 58 dealerships asking how they register, when can we start taking deals, when can our customers start claiming their vouchers, etc, etc. Umm...guys...I don't work for the US Government - they have a help line set up for this stuff and you have access to the exact same information I do. Hell, probably more since they get info from their respective state dealer associations and other related industry groups they belong to.

Shoot me now..please? :confused2:

No gun smileys are avail. so how 'bout an old fashioned beat down? :stickbeat:

 

[bogeyme]

Good luck with that Osahar.

 

[Osahar]

Thanks guys - and the beat down would work too.

It's a great thing for anyone owning a qualifying vehicle for the program looking to get something new though.

 

[ClairefromClare]

Thanks guys - and the beat down would work too.

It's a great thing for anyone owning a qualifying vehicle for the program looking to get something new though.

All I can suggest is

a) Get your dealers to start communicating with you by email, and
b) Put a vacation-type message bounceback on your email, telling them (more politely) what you just said.

 

[Osahar]

LOL, I wish that would work.

So far it seems like I have them trained better than I thought. I've had a few phone calls and/or emails, but not NEARLY as many as the other managers around have been getting from their zones. :banana: