News & Politics - Dad Teaches Lesson By Selling Presents On eBay

mcdreamylover · 12-24-2004, 09:40 PM

From http://www.click2houston.com/news/4023385/detail.html:

Quote:

Dad Teaches Lesson By Selling Presents On eBay
'Naughty' Kids Will Not Get Presents

POSTED: 11:02 am CST December 24, 2004
UPDATED: 11:04 am CST December 24, 2004

HOUSTON -- The father of three children went from playing Santa Claus to playing the Grinch after he determined his children were being naughty instead of nice, and taught them a lesson by auctioning their presents on eBay.

And they'd better watch out -- the tree may come down, too.

A Pasadena information technology specialist decided to auction the presents because the youngsters, ages 9, 11, and 15, had misbehaved.

"One thing we teach around this house," said the man, who asked the Houston Chronicle not to reveal his name, "is that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people."

"BAD CHILDREN get no Nintendo DS. Santa will skip our house this year," the man announced in his eBay posting to sell three DS systems with PictoChat and Metroid. Also offered were three games for use with the system. "No kidding. Three undeserving boys have crossed the line. Tonight we sat down and showed them what they WILL NOT get for Christmas this year. I'll be taking the tree down tomorrow."

Thursday night, the auction wound down with bidding at $465.01 -- below the price the man had set.

"If you don't buy them, we'll return them to the store," the seller known online as magumbo--2000 reported on the site.

The man refused to divulge his reserve price, saying late Thursday that he would probably list the items again.

"These are normally really good kids," he said. But in a single day, he added, the boys fought one another, used vulgar language and gestured obscenely.

The man blamed at least part of the family discord on being lax.

"It seems like we'd say what we were going to do, then bend and back off a little," the 41-year-old father said. "We'd ground them for a week, but they'd really be grounded for three days; we'd take away video games, but they would still watch television. It decayed to the point that groundings don't work, putting them in their room, timeouts don't have any effect."

The man and his wife announced the possible punishment in a family meeting earlier this week.

"We told them to think about what kind of brothers they were being, how they were treating their parents and what kind of men they were going to grow up to become," he said. "We told them they were destroying each other and the calm and peace in the household. It had to stop."

The boys pledged to be nice, but were back to their old ways the next morning.

The next evening, a second family meeting was held to announce that about $700 in video games would be sold on the computer auction site. The oldest boy, the man said, responded with a challenge to carry out the threat.

The father said his wife has been in tears since the final showdown. "I don't do it outwardly," he said, "but I'm crying on the inside."

***Jerry D*** · 12-25-2004, 12:13 AM

I think that's a really crummy thing for that father to do, but maybe the kids really did misbehave. Still, the father must be an attention hound, because I'm sure he could have just returned the gifts instead of making a big spectacle out of auctioning the gifts off on eBay.

JW77 · 12-25-2004, 01:07 AM

Hmm...I don't know that that's going to make them any better. Next time they'll probably just do that stuff when their parents can't see or hear them.

Sparrowhawk · 12-25-2004, 01:31 AM

Actually, I'd do something like this to my misbehaving kids (I don't have any, so this means little

)

If they were bad, take back the presents. Maybe have one spouse call the other and pretend to be Santa asking for the presents back

*Lauren · 12-25-2004, 01:35 PM

The kids (at least the older one) sounds like maybe they do need thie lesson. When the father threatened to sell them, to then challenge him to carry it out? Boy, you're asking for trouble.

secret boyfriend · 12-25-2004, 06:32 PM

this reminds me of the episode of malcolm in the middle where lois cancels christmas. maybe that's where he got his inspiration. i wonder just how bad they were behaving?

No1important · 12-25-2004, 10:34 PM

I just think the father is a real big jackass. What his kids did is no diferent than what other millions of kids do daily.

*Juli* · 12-25-2004, 10:52 PM

Wow, kids can be little assh*les. I probably wouldn't go that far but I can see where he is justified in doing it.

If they weren't being such brats he wouldn't have resorted to extreme measures, especially the older ones. There is NO reason for them to be acting like that, egging the parents on to carry out the threat.

Sell the presents and teach the kids that being a spoiled, ignorant brat is going to get you nothing. Maybe next Christmas they'll be better behaved.

Messed Up Girl · 12-25-2004, 11:10 PM

I think the kids are to blame, but by doing something like selling presents? That's an even crummier way for the father to respond to his kids' misbehaving.

Mandy Renay · 12-26-2004, 02:26 AM

I read this earlier. I don't have a problem with it. If my kids were bad and I kept warning them and they didn't listen, well.

California_ here_ I _come · 12-26-2004, 03:15 AM

I understand grounding you kids, or even giving them a spanking every once & awhile, but this? I'm sorry, even if you're kids are total brats to you, you shouldn't go as far as to auction their Christmas things off on ebay. It's Christmas, don't ruin that. I mean, cut the kids some slack. I think that the father should've just made it to where the kids had to wait a couple extra months before getting their presents.

- Jen - · 12-26-2004, 03:44 AM

good on him, its not like the parents didnt warn the kids that if they didnt behave they would be punished and have their presents taken away.

Maybe they will learn to have some respect for their parents and each other.

Elizajoey · 12-26-2004, 03:52 AM

I have no issue with what he did, although I agree that he just could have taken the stuff back to the store.

What I do find confusing though is that fact that they needed 3 Nintendos - thats what I call spoilt - why would you ever need 3. At my place, we had a Super Nintendo that my brother and I shared - that way you always have someone to play with rather than annoying your parents all the kind.

Seriously though, 3!?

- Jen - · 12-26-2004, 05:08 AM

yeah i dont get that, why does anyone need 3 nintendos ?

*Juli* · 12-26-2004, 05:31 AM

We used to share any game systems like that between 7 kids! Imagine if every one of us had one. 7 nintendos!

We were never that spoiled.


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