Why do I buy anything nice?
 

Wife and three kids along with dog.....

New minivan? Trashed. Ipad? Screen cracked. House? Stains everywhere, generally not cared for. Just bought a nice new laptop for the family? Frame around the screen with a big crack (just found out about tonight).

Not sure what it will take to learn my lesson. Anybody else deal with this?

****.


Take care of your shit you ****ing dirt bag.

Are the kids past the age of aborting?

Nope, my shit is my shit. My wife and my stepson don't touch my laptop or TV.

Same thing for me. Dogs destroy shit. Girlfriend destroys shit. Kid destroys shit.

I just keep buying more shit.

I do have my own stuff though, and as if by MAGIC, my stuff always seems to be in great condition.

Don't get a boat..

I have 2 boys and 2 dogs...and a wife.

All my shit stays nice.

It's called discipline. I mean, how the hell do you 'crack' an ipad screen?

It's today's society. Until they work and pay for it, what do they care.

I disagree. Get a boat, put the wife/kids in said boat, and set it a sail. In no time they will destroy it and sink.

All problems are gone.

Let's not be hasty...

Do I know you IRL? If so, get a boat...and a pool.

LMAO

Every man should have his own apartment. You keep your stuff in your apartment and just go to your house for meals and stuff.

Sounds like you would do well to purchase extended warranties and protective cases whenever possible.

Two young kids and a dog here, and even though there are toys everywhere, our stuff stays nice. We make sure the kids take care of the iPad, phones, etc. when they use them, and the dog doesn't mess with their stuff in the house. If they leave toys outside, (e.g., soccer balls) they're going to be dog toys.

My kids learned to respect our home, cars, belongings early on. You set the standard early and minimize the damage. Give them too much rope, and they will destroy everything in their site.

There was one time when somebody in the family put the jelly back in the fridge in the wrong place so I feel your pain.

Every one wins, including sharks.

get something really,really cool and then make a rule that it's only for you since nobody else can seem to take care of stuff.

then they will be tortured while you use it and they can't ... maybe they will learn.

Believe me, my kids understand respecting our stuff. But it just takes once....drop the iPad just right and screen cracks apparently (yes, it had a protective case). I think my wife somehow cracked the frame of the laptop, apparently opening it from the corner. "My" stuff goes untouched by my kids (laptop, phone, tablet), but it's still my money going to buy the stuff they use. Anyway, just needed to vent and figured this could open the door for some humor.

I'll need to have food in my apartment too, as my pantry routinely looks like it was attacked by a pack of bears.

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Perfect

I have two teenage boys. On summer vacation... and I'm away at work 10 hours a day.

When I get home, I'm usually happy that the place is still standing.

Tell your 3 kids to learn to respect shit. In my day, if I did shit like that, my vietnam war vet dad was gonna give me a whipping, which I well deserved.

Yep.

And stop buying them shit. If they want something nice, they need to pay for it with their own money, which means they need to bust their ass around the house for that $10/week allowance.

This.

This is quite possibly the funniest post ever.

Well done, sir.

Wife needs a laptop for work, kids for school work, etc. You can't just not buy stuff. When 4-5 people are handling technology especially, I'm finding that regardless how protective you are, accidents happen (especially with kids involved). You can be a damn drill sergeant about it, but as I said earlier, it just takes one drop or spill.

As long as you have kids and pets, you'll never have anything nice. Friggin' fact of life.

LMAO this made me chuckle

Apply foot to ass.


Problem solved.

At the risk of cursing myself, I'm going to disagree. I'm on my laptop 10-12 hours a day. I carry it everywhere. I've had my iPhone of almost 4 years. I'm a clumsy person by nature. I don't intend to drop my stuff but it happens from time to time. I pick up my laptop by the monitor all the time. I don't baby my stuff. In 10 years of laptop usage, I nuked one hard drive with spilled coffee (I'm always drinking coffee while I'm using my computer), and that was kind of a freak thing when a few drops snuck in from the keyboard to the hd. That's the only significant damage I've had to my tech. I think you really have to be abusing some of the technology to be breaking it on a regular basis.

Replace the nice shit with SHIT when they break it.


You know, something that does just the basics to get them through school and work.

this is why I'm not getting married and having kids. **** that shit.

My laptop is my parasitic twin. We are never separated, so I'm surprised that I don't have more problems. I think I'm on my fourth one in 15 years, but two of the three replacements were purely related to age and capacity. In the third case I decided to wipe down my screen and apparently the cloth was a little too damp. The screen converted to about a thousand beautiful colors and I said, "Uh oh." Killed it.

Yeah, I hardly ever wipe down my screen.

I remember several years ago you posted a picture where you had worn a hole in your space bar. That was damn impressive. Mine typically has a slick spot where I have worn it down, but a hole? Dang.

Ultimately, this is the answer.

There's probably some abuse related to the iPad. The laptop, I actually think that was a freak thing....it's relatively new and everyone takes good care of it anytime I've been around them. The van and the house? Major point of contention between the wife and I....I plead guilty on that one. Having been able to impose my will in those areas.

My stuff : laptop, phone, tablet, etc. looks brand new. I take very good care and things last a long time ---- also better resale value on tech. But I'm not around stuff at the house 24/7, so things happen out of my control.

I'm getting a laugh from all the people saying to put a foot in their ass....just not that simple.

Also got a chuckle from the wife ---- "you want me to try to glue the crack?" So you're suggesting that we put glue next to the new 1080P screen?

I have to wipe down my screen, nothing bothers me more than streaks and fingerprints on the screen. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard when a co-worker points at my screen and physically touches it. I have to fight back the urge to go Terry Tate : Office Linebacker.

Mohr did it first. Jane Austin's Mafia!! Wildly underrated.

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They had a story on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me that for kids today a smartphone/Ipod with a cracked screen is their generation's ripped jeans, that's its actually fashionable to go ahead and crack it right out of the box.

Holy shit.

I have 3 boys, they are well disciplined, yet still manage to break or damage most things we buy. Oh well, that's life, I buy good quality stuff and it lasts longer. There is certain stuff they know better than to mess with. We'll buy nice stuff when they're gone.

sorry for your loss

I take care of my phones, but I am really clumsy. I have a stack of of them with shattered screens.

The damn display models at the stores are probably in better condition. And they are treated like shit-- all day, every day.

I have 4 kids under the age of 6. Everything nice we ever bought has been destroyed including the ipad. We will buy nice things when they graduate high school.

You need to lay down the law before these kids turn to adolescents and wreak havoc on the rest of us.

You have a handful and I can sympathize. I only had one and a girl at that so there wasn't the roughhousing that boys will do. Waiting to buy nice, especially carpets and such, until they graduate sounds like a good plan. Good luck. ;)

Uh, she wasn't suggesting to glue the crack, that was her signal that she wants you to PIIHB.

I don't deal with it because I don't have a family BUT that is the kind of shit that would REALLY piss me off!

/EOT

prayers sent.

Always laugh at dudes who are excited about their first child. Always makes me chuckle. They have no idea the pain they are in for. Less than 1% of your life is fishing with your boy, throwing the baseball with him, or talking about things over a cold Bud.

Get a Pit Bull, train it by yourself so it knows you are the boss, the first one to break something gets mauled in front of the rest of them. This might put you -1 family member but you will be better off in the long run.

Well sure, but a healthy percentage of my free time is given to raising children and being a part of their lives - even in the most insignificant, mundane daily things. It's not going to the game or fishing, but it makes those events really special when you do have the opportunities to do them.

My dad never played Dungeons & Dragons with me, but even so I respect that he'd always try to take me fishing or hunting.

Well said.

enabler

Cynical, but there is at least an ounce of truth in that.

Sounds like they could all use a healthy dose of going without...

My kids eat at the table and don't ever have food or drinks where they will stain. They take their shoes off at the door, they start making their beds and picking up their toys(at least enough to feel like they are even if we help) every night.

If they mistreat their things, they're taken away.

It doesn't mean we never have messes, it doesn't mean things don't get broken, but they're learning to respect what they have.

In addition to that, we limit screen time to 1hr per day of tv-computer-ipad. They can earn more or lose what they have depending on behavior and actions.

This is some funny shit.
Kids are all grown here, but before I was Married and had children, I had nice stuff.
I remember waking up one day to a AM/Alarm Clock Radio and that was all that I had. I thought WTF happended to me?

No dude has any clue how much the wife changes after giving birth either.

I remember a friend of mine having a kid a dozen years or so ago, and at one point afterwards she confided in me, "I love my husband, but I would throw him in a fire in a heartbeat to save my kid." I thought that was pretty funny, and I'm not sure if it impacted my decision to not have children.

I would bet 99.999% of Mom's would say that and mean it.
Hell I got thrown in the fire and the kid was fine. She just wanted to make sure.

As a parent, I can honestly say I don't think I'd ever forgive my wife if she chose to save me over a kid. I think I can say with all certainty she'd say the same thing.

Yeah, I'm not trying to beat up on Kev. I know how hard it is to keep shit clean, and somewhat new, etc. It's a bitch, and you have to be in concert with your spouse to really make it effective.

That said, I have had siblings that have had similar issues as Kev. Primarily speaking, it's because they didn't put the effort on the front end to help protect the issues on the back end. In no way, am I saying this is what Kev has encountered, but it certainly was the case with 1 of my Brother's and my Sister. It's also been that way with 1 of my dearest friends. The flip side to all of that, is that isn't an indictment of their parenting in general. My brother, who has 9 kids, has one of the neatest Families I have EVER been around. Great kids, who have turned into great adults and great teens. It's just a function of what and where they wanted to spend their time and effort.

There is a multitude of ways to get there - and no one way is better than the other. The goal is raise them so they can become responsible, well-adjusted adults. My house looked like a tornado hit it every day. It had an effect on me. I grew up wanting more organization in my household. My kids, due to my wife and I, will probably want less in theirs someday:evil:

I was venting last night; I'm particular about keeping things clean and unblemished so I probably have a fairly high standard. My kids are really great kids and generally take care of their stuff. They've had nice things that they've taken very good care of, I cited the two things that have been nicked up (and I think one was actually my wife's fault, not the kids). But in all seriousness, the quoted above is the key. If you're at work for 12 hours a day, your spouse plays a huge role in how things are run in the household. I wish she were a bit more rigid like me, but there's a balance between that and "don't sweat the small stuff". We probably balance each other pretty well all things considered.

Is she a Facebook junkie?

Not really. Checks it sometimes, but she's not really a social media participant. She works part time also, just a busy lifestyle running all over the place with work and kids.....like most people these days.

Once the woman has the child she's going to have massive physical pain (first kid) for a solid month or two afterwards. She will often have post-partum depression of some degree. And you will now have a screaming infant and no free time. (Or money)

It's a big life change. People think they know, but they don't know it at all.

Brideowanian won't go to bed with a dish in the sink. Our house is picked up pretty well about every night. she makes sure beds are made and has the kids doing their own at a fairly early age. She works very hard to keep our house in order.

That said, my kids are little hurricanes and if she didn't my house and our possessions would probably look like Moore, Ok. Definitely not trying to project that we're in the perfect home....there are just expectations and consequences.

My son is now 9 and before he was born I packed everything nice I and my wife had in boxes and stored them in closets and that is where they will stay till after he graduates college and is living on his own.

Short of that your screwed. I will say that a laptop is not a very good thing to have passed around if your kids are young. Get a cheap desktop and tell they kids .... you F*** it up and you will go without. I did that with my sons first computer and he generally takes care of them. (Grandma upgrades her computer every two years so my son does too.)

I agree with Iowanian.... my kid (and his friends when they are over) eat ONLY at the counter or table and no where they can stain anything. The house is generally picked up on a daily basis as my wife is a clean freak to put it mildly.

It's funny how you give kids chores to not only pick up their own crap but to clean other things they have more respect on how they leave things. (not always but after time you can see a difference in their manners)

Not so much.

But then i'm not the type of guy that just let's family members run me over...

It's nice that she thinks ahead about those things.