So you have a slight idea, then. And you can't empathize with this kid at all. (You learned early on to ignore it and let the bullies move on. Any/No chance that happened to this kid?) Oh well.
(Meaning: you don't know about this kid, do you?)
Regardless of what gets posted any further in this thread:
I am bowing out. To think that the word "therapy" is even mentioned for donations on their blog is ludricious (sp? spell check won't pick up this one!)
Every person, every child, has endured their own form of childhood, whether it be totally "normal" (depends on how you want to define that), or one subject to humiliation, or one subject to abuse, whatnot. Why we're even discussing this any further is beyond me. If you are not the child in this actual article, you cannot begin to understand what he's thinking/feeling, even it turns out to be "nothing."
St. Sapphire - I do understand you're on your way home. I'm not writing this so I don't have to respond to your post. I'm so disturbed by the casualness of this thread that I'm just choosing not to participate anymore. To each his/her own thinking.
I've been in the situation of being teased, picked on, embarrassed (damnit, I hate that word, I always forget the second r), etc, yes. So yes, I do understand what it's like, and have been there, though I'm sure my own situation was likely far less intense than what you or others may have been through. (My schools had their cliques, and those who were "supposed" to be in a specific clique tended to get bullied far more than those who simply didn't fall into any of them.) My response worked out well enough for me, but was likely not the best, since it simply allowed the bullies to move on to their next victims, rather than being stopped, but what kid ever really thinks about stuff like that?
I can empathize with this kid, certainly. The thing is, I can easily picture many different possible scenarios that he may be going through that would lead to a news article that reads like this one does. It is possible that that this is just a selfish parent who enjoys embarrassing his child. It is also possible that this is a parent who gets along with his child enough that they both feel comfortable being silly and joking around together. I could very easily see the implications made by the author of the article simply being an unconscious reaction to the "wtf this family is weird, there's something wrong with them" attitude that I'd bet the author had, rather than coming from an actual reaction from the kid.
That all having been said, you're absolutely right. I don't know this kid. I don't know his family. I don't know if this is a real problem for him, or if this is useless hand-wringing over a complete non-issue. The thing is, nobody else does either. Not you, not me, not koko, and not jillio. What I'm seeing instead is a mental health professional, making rather accusatory judgement statements about a family's mental health, from extremely limited information, with high certainty. And while I don't generally hold with the concept of holding certain people more accountable than others (like saying "teachers should never swear even when they're not working" or "psychologists shouldn't call people fucking idiots when they're being fucking idiots on their time off"), one exception of this is when someone is speaking toward their professional capacity. If a psychologist makes comments about the psychological profile of the subject of a topic, and isn't merely joking around, but is seriously stating that she thinks there is a real issue, then I'll certainly take serious issue when she speaks with far more certainty than anyone could possibly have in that situation, because I consider that a
dangerous situation and that behaviour as rather
irresponsible.
As the case may be, almost everyone else (such as yourself) stating that you see this as a possibly negative or abusive situation, has spoken on more generic terms and with far less absolute certainty. I personally don't tend to assume abuse on the part of parents when I see a situation that is unusual or questionable, but I'm also aware that I've generally lived a fairly comfortable life to a supportive and "safe" family, so that may not be the same assumption as anyone else who did not grow up in such situations.
That latter fact (ie that I grew up in a generally "safe", supportive or whatnot family) combined with the fact that my family tends to joke about everything and anything also can easily explain why I don't find the joke about a "therapy donation fund" distasteful or anything of the sort. (And before you ask, yep, I've been in therapy twice before, once around 7th-8th grade for basically being a loner who had no friends, and once last year in regards to my ADD.) In my family, at least, it's merely been viewed as another type of doctor that you go to when needed. Thinking negatively of someone for going to therapy would be just as silly as thinking negatively of someone for going to an oncologist.
Anyhow, this was really long, so I'm done for now.
