The most surreal customer I have had to date

[Andara Bledin]

Kus, keep an eye on your surroundings. If you start seeing a large amount of dry, wooden furniture, fireplaces, and no doors where there should be doors, run!

Run where? There's no doors!

^-.-^

[Imogene]

Run where? There's no doors!

^-.-^

Do like Duke Phillips* in the episode of The Critic where Jay writes the paper laying the onus of good movies on the movie going audience that wins him a Pulitzer. Just bust straight through the wall.

*Duke Phillips is a registered trademark of Duke Phillips International Television and House of Pancakes.

[Gurndigarn]

Quoth Andara Bledin

Do a quick google on "helicopter parents" and you'll get quite some interesting results.

This is FASCINATING...

I love topics like this. Makes me appreciate my parents NOW as a responsible 30+ year old!

It's even more surreal when you're on the receiving end. "Can you tell me why you fired my son?"

"Your son is eighteen years old, so for privacy reason, I'm not allowed to divulge etc. etc."

"But I need to know so that I can tell him what he did wrong...."

"[Long, leagalease that means essentially, 'NO']" I informed your son of the reasons when I fired him. If he wants to tell you, that's up to him." And dude, if your son can't figure out what's wrong from the guy lowering the boom, he's got troubles beyond what you can do for him.

Even if I wanted to (I didn't), the person who was fired was from a different race from me. I was not going to open myself, or my company, up to anything that might resemble a lawsuit. The biggest problem was that he was a substandard employee. He did a sloppy job when he did his job at all, and was late often enough to be an annoyance. I had no specific smoking gun, and we didn't have any good employee writeup forms at the time (I like what we have now), so I had no paper trail. Now, he had potential, and hopefully being fired lit a fire under him for his next job... but he wasn't going to live up to that potential unless he had consequences happen to him. And in the meantime, while I had reason to fire him, the documentation was shaky, and when his father called up, I wasn't going to risk him being protective enough to try suing us/me.

[Rahmota]

Wow. All I have to say is just remember where your towel is kusangi. It may come in handy oh and don't panic.

This is what happens when you dont take responsibility for your actions and dont let people fall down and get hurt. There is a difference between protecting a child/person from harm and sheltering them from the the world.

[Becks]

I didn't realize that The Jerry Springer Show has branched out with traveling theater troupes and put on free shows for unsuspecting businesses.

[mariamousie1]

That's horrible! If I were you, I wouldn't date this guy. Let him find his own dates.

[Dreamstalker]

It's even more surreal when you're on the receiving end. "Can you tell me why you fired my son?"

A friend of my mom's who is the mother of an Aspergers kid did this very thing (FTR, I think he was fired because he didn't know how a schedule worked). She coddled him way too much, now he's over 30, still living at home, completely un-self-sufficient (inefficient?)...and really creepy He was/is definitely way, way too sheltered.

[WanderingSaint]

Sadly I have to deal with these 'kids' and their Hellicopter Parents (OMG, thank you for pointing me to that article. I was just calling them Terry Cloth Straight Jackets!), because I am in that age group. I am either working with one of these 'children', have them in my classes with their parents constently pokingthier noses in and disturbing the class or work flow in some way by either their meddling or their childs slacking, or I have to avoid DATING one.

The dating part is extra hard. I don't know, maybe it's just my luck, but I'll get kind of interested in a guy... then go to where they live and see all the signs and behaviors. Or I find out the guy is 34, still living off his parents money/with his parents, and I thought by his behavior he was my age (21) and just a little immature. Nope. Ugh.

Also, never be a freind with one of these 'children'. Their parents will keep invading the friendship, and FORBID if anythign goes wrong! Then you get 2AM phonecalls from their father asking why your not hanging out with thier precious baby anymore.

[Chazzie]

That's horrible! If I were you, I wouldn't date this guy. Let him find his own dates.

I'm happy to see I wasn't the only person who misinterpereted the title for a moment!

[blas]

Hey, I thought Surrealism was my thing. Oh well, I'm glad to share with you, Kus!

The "kid" in the story sounds just like DipShit my trainee, minus the swearing. He is 40, still lives with mommy, and I don't know how the hell he even drives or remembers where to go every day.....

[Diablo]

Hahaha, this is just what I needed to read about after a phone call I got from my roommates mother. See, I'm a 26 year old living in a freshman dorm at college. I was supposed to get an apartment from the college but a paper screw up landed me in the dorm. I don't really have a problem with it because if anything I've learned from the navy, its how to live with people around the age of 18, in cramped conditions. I should also mentioned I just got out of the navy and its my freshman year which is what screwed the school up with my housing. Anyhoo.... Two of my roommates are alright but third one is a ADHD nutjob that has never lived out of mommy and daddy's control. We are just getting feedback from our teachers over our grades this semester and when asked by "Skippy" I told him my grades. Well, I guess he told his parents his and my grades when he went home. The first call I get when I get to my parents place for Winter Break (Yeah I guess I'm one of those mid twenty losers shacking up with his parents) is from Skippy's mom telling me that I didn't help her son enough and that I have a responsibility as an older person to help out my roommates. The best part? I'm a mechanical engineering major, he is an english major. What the hell? We aren't even in the same classes? I pretty much told her to go to hell and have a Merry Christmas. I didn't spend six years and two deployments in the middle east to baby sit some hyperactive anime freak instead of earning my degree.