HELLION is too nice a term

[KiaKat]

I wonder if maybe he was recently adopted. If he had attachment issues, or came from a household where he was severely neglected, an event like that would be "normal."

Although in that case I'd wonder why the mom took him to a TRU at all. May have been an unexpected outburst.

Hard to say, but it does sound like he has some sort of problem beyond just being an unruly kid.

[StormCMage]

at least she was trying, he could have been the rare case of just a rotten kid (some of my friends can be grown up versions of that sometimes sadly)

He might have learned the language from sneaking tv at night (cause mommy can't stop him) and decided he wanted that game NOW and he didn't care about the gift for the other person, meanwhile the girls know how to behave

just a theory

[Peppergirl]

Its unfortunate, but I've heard of several kids like this in our local foster care system. Since he was so different than the other kids, maybe it was a foster situation.

Regardless, ST - what you did to help the mother out was fabulous. And I'm glad she seemed to appreciate it.

[AccountingDrone]

My first thought was that maybe the father isn't much of a father and the boy picked up some of the language/behavior from him, especially if the parents are divorced and the mother doesn't see what's going on when the father has custody of the boy. Of course, it's all speculation, but it is strange that the girls were so well-behaved and the mother did seem to be trying to do something about the boy's behavior.

Kudos to the OP for helping out, though.

That sounds possible... if she only has the boy two or three vacation weekends a year, HER kids would be well behaved and daddy's monster would not... especially if he gets a big dose of 'mommys wrong, you dont have to behave for her' all the time.

[tropicsgoddess]

Maybe he had a problem, maybe he didn't. Some families don't discipline their boys. I have cousins like that, even. Girls are raised with a complete different set of rules.

Not good.

On the other hand, the lady WAS trying to discipline him, so maybe he DID have some sort of issue.

I had only sisters in my family, but I know for sure that girls always get the stricter set of rules (especially as teenagers). After hearing all the sucky parent stories, I'm surprised and happy that the mom actually was happy that the OP stopped the boy in his tracks and that the mom did something about the boy's behavior after wards and was apologetic to the store employee(s) and everyone else about it.

[KitterCat]

The boy may just be a brat, or it maybe someone at home is allowing him to have his way more often at home than the girls.

I know growing up and being the only girl I was given much stricter rules and punishments than my brothers. If I did something wrong - grounded for a week, no friends, no tv, no phone, no coloring, no books no nothing. My brothers did something wrong - Mom would try to punish them, Dad wouldn’t back her up saying “their boys, they’ll grow out of it” so punishments never really worked. And now he wonders why he’s got a 20 year old brat trying to live at home.

[Polenicus]

Well, it sounds like the situation is more complex than parental suck, at least on the mother's end, as she seemed anything BUT sucky, and her other kids were well-behaved.

There are too many possibilities to even being to speculate on what's up with the boy, but I really hope his mother can turn him around eventually.

[Broomjockey]

There are too many possibilities to even being to speculate on what's up with the boy,

Yes please, especially as speculation's rather irrelevant to the story.

[Mamadrae]

The boy may just be a brat, or it maybe someone at home is allowing him to have his way more often at home than the girls.

I know growing up and being the only girl I was given much stricter rules and punishments than my brothers. If I did something wrong - grounded for a week, no friends, no tv, no phone, no coloring, no books no nothing. My brothers did something wrong - Mom would try to punish them, Dad wouldn’t back her up saying “their boys, they’ll grow out of it” so punishments never really worked. And now he wonders why he’s got a 20 year old brat trying to live at home.

Sounds like my house (I had 5 brothers and was the only girl). My stepbrother was the same age as me and he got away with murder. Once my stepmother even gave him MY savings to buy a car telling me "He's got a job he'll pay you back." I got no say in the matter, even though it was my birthday and hard paper route earned money. I knew I wasn't seeing that cash again and I was PISSED.

Sure enough not only did he lose his job 2 weeks later cause he had been ditching it to go hang out. The car he bought broke down like 3 blocks from where he bought it. I was lucky and my dad put his foot down and made the stepmom put the money back out of their savings.

But yeah, he dropped out of high school and did whatever he wanted. I was late for class to many times and got a detention, grounded for a month! Add to that being the one raising my little brother in all but signing permission slips and playing for things, yeah I was not a happy child. The woman wonders why I took off to live with friends after turning 18.

Now my stepbrother and his family are living with my stepmom and my dad. Yet she wonders why he can't seem to get his act together and get an apartment. Why would he bother when she covers everything for him and his?

[blas]

I have to bite my tongue every morning that my little brother heads off to college late, almost always missing his first class, and my parents are actually wondering why he can't get up and be on time and why doesn't he ever come home at night and why doesn't he sleep?

Sometimes I want to scream. When I was his age, I was still at home (well, actually by this exact date and time I'd moved out but I lived at home until I was 19) I had a fucking midnight curfew, no boys over, no staying over at boys' houses, no parties, if my mom didn't like my friends for any reason, I could not have any contact with them....at age 19, I will reiterate.

Baby brother has NO RULES whatsoever. No wonder he does as he pleases and is in no hurry to get out and get his own place and no wonder he is half assing his way through college....you two dumbasses are paying for it! You wouldn't give me a red cent for college because of my "awful" grades in high school (graduated with a 3.0) and if I were in school right now, I damn guarantee I wouldn't be skipping out and late every damn day.

Sorry for the rant, but the whole boys vs girls thing does hit close to home.

If only I'd been born a boy.

[smileyeagle1021]

Other than I suspect this kid already is in foster care (and that the woman is his foster mother... based on the fact that he is so different than the other two and she didn't go all mamma bear on the OP for stepping in), I'd say she could use a page from my mum's play book.
She would tell me point blank, that if at any time I stopped respecting her authority, she would turn me over to the state's authority to do as they will (which in my case I knew would be a very quick hearing in family court before granting my nazi grandmother, and I'm not using Godwin here, she really was a nazi, custody).