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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be starting to tire of dh's view of ds

60 replies

slugz · 09/02/2011 18:07

Ds is 14, and imo a great kid.

He's doing well at an ok comp, and is forecast 'A' in every subject he's taking. I've had teachers come to me to say how impressed with how well he works despite there being a lot of very disruptive kids in his class.
He plays for a football team, plays basketball for fun and is in the cadets. He has recently stopped going to badminton (not enjoying it) and athletics (has to wait a ridiculous amount of time in the cold to get the bus home). He does volunteer work with sn kids in the holidays.
When left to his own devices at home, he is prone to spend large amounts of time on the x-box. I have no problem with telling him to turn it off when it gets out of hand.

Dh seems to have got it into his head though that ds will grow up to be identical to the son next door who literally never leaves the house, plays games consoles continuously and generally just sponges off his mum. He's in his early twenties.

He says ds is immature because he makes fart jokes, leaves his stuff around, never reads apart from for school, and generally plays a bit too much x-box. Is this not quite normal for a 14yo? I don't quite get the jump from there to complete recluse. He forgets to hand in homework occasionally (maybe once a month, I know because they send emails)for which he knows the sanctions. For dh though this is a symptom of how extremely unmotivated he is and won't do anything with his life.

It's getting very tiring, because it's coming up more and more as dh is genuinely getting more and more concerned for his future, and I know he's only doing it because he cares, but i really feel like his view is massively unreasonable.

If it's relevant, dh is not ds's father.

OP posts:
FabbyChic · 09/02/2011 18:08

Is he going to University? Surely that is going to be the start of his adult life?

A Levels, off to Uni, fun, hard work and a good job?

GypsyMoth · 09/02/2011 18:09

has dh done much with HIS life??

manicbmc · 09/02/2011 18:09

You ds sounds lovely. Not many kids his age take the time to bother with SN kids.

Your dh is being harsh.

And there's nothing wrong with a good fart joke and I'm 41. I know for a fact that there's a whoopee cushion on my seat at the dining table. Grin

Flisspaps · 09/02/2011 18:11

YANBU.

DH is.

kingprawntikka · 09/02/2011 18:11

He sounds like a lovely boy, Mature rather than immature and caring about others. If he were mine I'd be proud of him

FabbyChic · 09/02/2011 18:12

We do fart jokes in here and my son is 17.

I think your husband is jumping the gun a bit to be assuming your son is going to be a nothing. He doesn't have much faith does he?

Tell him his comments are demeaning to your parenting skills. All 14 year olds are messy and why not they are only young once. Plenty of time for him to clear up after himself later on.

Tell the DH to shut it.

KatieScarlett2833 · 09/02/2011 18:12

I have son, same age, same hobbies, same X box addiction, likes a good fart joke, very popular. He's also predicted top grades wants to study Chemical Engineering.

We think he is the knees of the bee.

TheCrackFox · 09/02/2011 18:15

Your DH sounds like a bit of a twat.

saffy85 · 09/02/2011 18:15

YANBU your son is totally normal. Aren't most teenage boys messy, love their xbox and like a good old fashioned fart joke?

Confused would your DH prefer he enjoys a witty limeric? He is totally overreacting imo.

Chil1234 · 09/02/2011 18:16

YANBU... sounds like your husband is judging a normal 14 year-old by adult standards. 'Man' next door is a twenty-odd year-old feckless loser... 'boy' in your home is still developing and sounds like a regular guy

slugz · 09/02/2011 18:18

Neither me nor dh are ambitious at all. I'm a van driver and dh a care worker despite both being bright at school.

The thing is though dh agrees that he'd be quite happy as long as ds is supporting himself and pulling his weight. If he wants to go to uni, we'll support him, if he ends up with a manual job but is happy, that'll be fine too. We agree on this.

For some reason though dh is convinced that ds will do nothing at all, and will just live on the dole. I think this is what's unjustified, but I'm finding it difficult to be cross about it because it really is because he's so worried.

OP posts:
Jellykat · 09/02/2011 18:19

YANBU Sounds like your DH needs to 'lighten up'

ongakgak · 09/02/2011 18:19

what does your DH do to encourage DS off the x-box, what activities do they do together as mates/boys?

Very immature reaction to what sounds like a pretty well rounded mature 14 year old.

mrsscoob · 09/02/2011 18:20

YANBU and you should show him this thread! Its typical teenage boy behaviour, mine were the same, they are both of at Uni now and far from recluses!

FabbyChic · 09/02/2011 18:20

Its a lot of pressure for a 14 year old though isn't it? Have you discussed the future with your son? What he wants to do when he finishes his A Levels? How about some kind of apprenticeship at college.

I feel your son has enough to contend with with GCSE's and deciding what to do after that i.e further education to be harping on now about what job he might do.

FabbyChic · 09/02/2011 18:22

My eldest is 23, he spent from 12 until 19 on the Xbox and the PC all his spare time. He went to Uni after a gap year and spent the first year partying, he finishes this year with a first.

They change, there is no need to push them, they find their own levels.

My youngest is 17 taking A Levels, he will be going to Uni this year, he never goes out the door spends all his time on the Xbox and Facebook, it is what kids do nowadays more so boys than girls.

Leave him be for god sake.

slugz · 09/02/2011 18:23

Right, so we're agreed that he's being a bit overbearing.
The only thing I think that dh might have a point with is that maybe ds should have some ambitions by now. The only thing that he says he wants to do is teach outdoor pursuits. Is that a sensible ambition for a bright kid? Or is that just a complete waste, if I let him do this sort of thing?

OP posts:
edam · 09/02/2011 18:25

Do you think dh being a stepfather is relevant here? Maybe he's harsher because he doesn't have any experience of teenagers of this age (unless he has older kids of his own)? Maybe he worries more because he's a stepdad rather than a biological father? Don't mean to say he's uncaring, but perhaps his fears and intolerance have something to do with, I dunno, insecurity about their relationship.

Psychobabble stuff that is probably rubbish also says men find it challenging dealing with sons growing into adulthood - you know, like young animals challenging the head of the herd kind of thing.

KatieScarlett2833 · 09/02/2011 18:25

Ambitions? Leave him be, he's fine.

edam · 09/02/2011 18:27

Oh, cross-post. I don't think many 14yos have their entire life planned out and those who do can be a bit scary (think William Hague addressing the Tory conference as a teenager...)

He has plenty of time to find out about different careers. dh needs to stop panicking and being so demanding and unrealistic.

Did dh have his life mapped out when he was 14? Does he regret not doing that and feel he should have achieved more?

Chil1234 · 09/02/2011 18:28

Not everyone has ambitions as a child. I know you hear about actors that 'wanted to be on the stage from age 3' but not many people know exactly what they want to do with life age 14 because they don't always know that job exists. Best thing to do is give your son the chance to experience as much as possible until he finds something that really interests him.

BTW... an old school friend who used to spend all his time as a teen playing computer games now has a very enviable life in California where he is a wine expert ... and a computer game designer. Wink

slugz · 09/02/2011 18:30

Ooh, glad you said that KatieScarlett. Since you were the one whose kid wants to do chemical engineering. That made me feel particularly inadequate (not your fault) that I hadn't managed to fill ds' head with ideas of proper jobs.

OP posts:
KatieScarlett2833 · 09/02/2011 18:35

Slugs, DS came home from school one day and informed us that this was his chosen career. We just sat there smiling and nodding. Once he was out of the room we hurriedly googled "Chemical Engineering" as neither of us had a clue what that was.....Blush

We had never mentioned the C word to him, we just assumed he would go to uni and work in some completely different field from the one he studied like DH and I Wink

slugz · 09/02/2011 18:38

I think it is related to being nervous of not doing his best as stepfather. And because he's never really been around kids before mine he hasn't got very realistic expectations.
He's not being stressy at ds by the way, and they in the main have a great relationship. It's just things like last evening, he was tidying up a bit and discovered ds' cadet hat on the coffee table. Cue a massive spiel of how he's not learning from his mistakes, he'll never get anywhere if he doesn't get organised, we must plan to help him better etc etc etc

OP posts:
slugz · 09/02/2011 18:39

He didn't say any of that to ds, just me.

OP posts:
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