Grown Ups Don't Shoot Laptops

[Summer Hathaway]

20. "Calling Dr. Frist

Dr. Frist to the courtesy video monitor, please."

Yes, remember how we all laughed at Dr. Frist's 'diagnosis' of Terry Schiavo via a short video clip?

And now we have you 'diagnosing' a family and all of its members from a FB clip. My how times have changed.

I am assuming you have never met the people involved here. But that doesn't stop you from analyzing them from your own perspective.

I hope that the Ms. Jordan sends her dad a bill for her shrink when she has to spend a couple of years figuring out why it was ok for her dad to curse her on YouTube, but it was not ok for her to curse her dad on Facebook."

Amazingly you have already determined that the events in question here will lead to untold psychiatric problems in future based on - on exactly what? Your say so?

"Bitch and moan about how much you have sacrificed for the kids, about how hard you work, about the six hours you wasted and the loss of $130. Tell us that you are deserving of unconditional love from your child, because of all the things you have done for her."

I just watched the video clip (for the first time). I heard nothing said about 'being deserving of unconditional love'. But you've decided that's what is being said - even though it wasn't - so I suppose we should all just accept your insight into people's minds, even if they are people you have never met nor interacted with.

"First, bonus points for waving a cigarette around as he tells his daughter how she ought to act. Yes, in real life he probably cusses out his girl while smoking. But what kind of parent does it on YouTube? Answer: a parent who is proud of his faults. A parent who is telling the world (in its face) this is how I am, love it or leave me alone."

I saw a man smoking on camera. Amazingly, you were able to determine from that trivial fact that he 'is proud of his faults', and is sending 'the world' a message - a message which you fabricated out of your own head. I could be wrong - not having your incredible insight - but the smokers I've known smoke because they enjoy it, and there is no message attached.

"what kind of kid writes a Facebook entry about how mad she is at her family? Answer: a kid who is trying to tell the world this is how I am, love it or leave me alone." Or it could be a pissed-off kid just venting to her friends on FaceBook. But apparently YOU have all the answers, and it couldn't be as simple (and obvious) as that.

"... alarms go off in my head whenever someone brags about how they placed their steel toed boot squarely on their child’s negative emotions, nipping those dangerous things right in the bud." Steel-toed boot? Negative emotions? Let's not even consider the idea that a parent might think it wise to curb their child's negative behavior by warning of the consequences of said behavior.

"Quadruple bonus points for starting off his rant with the assurance that he must love his daughter and supply all her needs, because he spent six hours on her computer yesterday and 130 bucks. At this point, I can already see the problem ..."

Yes, of course you do, Dr. Frist.

"Dad here does not think he owes his daughter six hours or $130. He thinks he made a deposit in the Bank of “I love you daddy”, and he expects a return on his investment."

Astoundingly, you KNOW what this man - a perfect stranger to you - actually thinks and doesn't think. I'd have to say that Dr. Frist was a rank amateur compared to you. Having the ability to KNOW what someone is thinking or not thinking at any given moment is truly remarkable.

"He knows that his family has serious communication problems. That is why his daughter is telling her Facebook friends about her problems rather than sitting down with the family to work them out. And guess what. If there is a communication problem, it is not the kid’s fault. Because she is not the parent, no matter how much her parent may wish that his daughter could be the perfect mother-surrogate that he thinks he deserves. Yes, he does think he deserves it."

Again I am duly impressed with your ability to KNOW the inner workings of someone's mind - including knowing that this dad "wishes" his daughter be a mother-surrogate, and "thinks" that's what he deserves. As if you even had a clue what goes on in this family - or any other, for that matter - other than your own.

Kids, especially teens, are often uncommunicative with their parents - and vice versa - because they choose to be. It is not always the kids' fault, any more than it always the parents' fault. In fact, 'fault' is not even always the appropriate word to describe a lack of communication. There are times when parents and/or kids prefer to communicate on certain topics with solely with their age group or confidants of their choosing - which is not a failure on anyone's part.

"The rant about how bad he had it as a kid and how he had to leave home and work and put himself through college is supposed to prove to the world that he deserves a chance to be a child finally."

I didn't hear any 'rant'. I heard a simple statement (which millions of kids have heard from their parents and grandparents) about what their personal experience growing up was. Again, your assumption that anyone making such a statement is trying "to prove to the world" that they deserve to "be a child finally" is preposterous.

I had never watched this video clip before tonight, but I have read most of the OPs on the topic and the replies - because I found it comical that (a) such a non-event became a topic of such melodramatic proportions, and (b) that people who hold themselves out to be liberal/progressives were so quick to jump to utterly ridiculous conclusions without so much as a dollop of evidence.

I have seen replies insisting that there was physical abusse and/or sexual molestation of the daughter at play here, that using a gun to destroy the daughter's computer was 'proof positive' that this dad intended to shoot his daughter in future, etc., based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

I've also seen broad-brush statements about "people like that", implying that southerners, gun-owners, and everyone else one chooses to categorize as "those people" are, by nature, always up to no good and should be viewed accordingly.

I originally read this OP because you usually choose to write about topics of political or social importance. You've missed the mark entirely on this one - and I find your psychiatric analysis, based on what YOU believe total strangers to be thinking, wishing, or trying to convey, downright laughable.