No this is not another Patrick Scoble post about over-privileged children, it’s better than that. I was surfing through my feeds last night and started to laugh and couldn’t stop laughing. I then went in search of the phone, telling TW I had to call my mom to find out if she’d actually read my blog. Why did I need to call my mom at 8:30 at night to ask this question? Because, I’m about to confess, not that this is at all a secret or anything but I’m going to confess to everyone that I am one of these entitled brats – a 40 something year old entitled brat. (Upon reading the comments, it seems we are a rare breed and a breed to be despised. Whatever!)
From the original article in the NY Times:
A generation ago, adult children visiting their parents’ homes might have left with a Tupperware container of lasagna. Today, many of them stealthily make off with toiletries, groceries, sometimes clothing and even furniture. It is an apparently widespread practice, born of a sense of entitlement among young adults – and usually amusedly tolerated by parents – that gives new meaning to the phrase “home shopping.” Like most adults, the pilferers have set up their own households, but they seem not to have given up the expectation that their parents should provide for them in certain ways. They loot their parents’ houses to cut costs, or because they would rather not pay for incidentals. Or because they want things with sentimental value.
I do not believe that I have ever left my mother’s house without a pair of her socks. (Well, I have, when I lived around the corner from her for a year sock theft was minimal but did still occur.) I tend to tell people I don’t like to wear socks and it’s true. I do not wear socks with sneakers, (all of you people going ewwww, just hush because my feet do not stink, thank you), I do however wear socks around the house ’cause I do not like my feet to be cold. And, I’m horrible about going outside in sock feet and then getting frustrated because the socks are cold which then makes my feet cold. The answer to that is “get another pair of socks”. So, I obviously under pack socks and my mom has all of these great, never worn socks in the top left dresser drawer in the rose room. (I wonder if they’ll still be there when she moves to her new house in Charlotte. They’d better be or I will have to sniff out their new hiding place)
After years of doing this, one of the first things I do when I enter the rose room is to check and see what sort of new cool socks my mother has purchased to replace all of the other pairs I took home last time I was there. (It’s been a long time since I visited her; I bet her sock drawer is seriously overflowing!) TW has taken to buying me cool socks but it is just not the same as taking my mom’s. Don’t ask me why, I’m sure a therapist could assist me in figuring that out but I’m not troubled enough by it to actually make an appointment and find out!
I have also pilfered books from her shelf, though generally in plain view and when she says “No you can’t take that one,” I usually leave it behind. I say usually because while I can’t remember a specific time, I’m sure I’ve accidentally slipped a book into my suitcase that wasn’t in the original pile. 😉
I plundered her attic for old kid toys that may have belonged to me or to my children but more than likely belonged to my sister (ha take that mother of the heir to the throne!). When we lived in the same neighborhood for that one brief year, I did take a scoop of cat food because I forgot to buy it and didn’t feel like turning around and going back to the store. I also still have a small screwdriver that I thought I returned but didn’t and then just didn’t feel like taking back to her before I moved to Florida. If she needs it back, I can probably find it and return it when I take the piano sometime in the next two years. (No I’m not stealing the piano, I’ve been told to take it or else…)
I have read all of those comments on Meta Filter and I just cannot believe more people don’t do this sort of thing! I also can’t believe how many people are troubled by it, lol. I don’t take the toys that belong to mom’s s/o (though he has some that I covet). I have not stolen the rocking chair or the old school desk, though I plan to take them when I take the piano, hahahaha! What’s wrong with lifting a couple of pairs of socks (or ummm 20 pairs of socks) and some dog food?
Oh, and from the comments as well – I did take a blanket from my father and step-mother’s home without asking them. It was a Clemson throw blanket that belonged to my grandmother. I didn’t think they really wanted it, not like I wanted it, but I also thought that if I’d asked I might have been told no out of spite. TW says that’s dumb, that the evil step-mother wouldn’t have done that, but that’s how she makes me feel so I took it and have enjoyed it ever since.