Since we don’t actually have a single FULL child at home right now, just the half child wandering in and out as his schedule permits, I’ve got time to give you a daily dose of a kid I’ve thought a lot about lately – Patrick Scoble.
First a wee bit of background. Patrick Scoble is the 11 year old son of “Scoble” aka “Microsoft Boy” (and for the duration of this piece I will refer to the adult Scoble as either Scoble or Microsoft Boy, depending on what I want to convey hehehe and Patrick as, well, Patrick!). Patrick seems to live primarily with his mom in California and visits dad in Washington state on holidays and such. Patrick does not own an iPod but wants one and being an 11 year old boy living in Scoble’s house; he heads to iTunes and downloads some podcasts. Unfortunately, (or obviously), he downloaded some “inappropriate” podcasts. Inappropriate because they have the “intended for adult audience” labels attached to them. Scoble found out and decided Patrick’s punishment would be to record his own podcasts with Microsoft Boy and that’s where it really gets fun.
I say fun because it was fun to listen to Patrick and Scoble, though I must interject that I could have gone a lifetime without hearing Scoble’s voice because he sounds EXACTLY like TW’s ex when he is interacting with his overindulged children or responding to something he’s slightly uncomfortable with but doesn’t know how to handle. Anyway, the other part of this that was fun was reading the comments that came in on Scoble’s blog regarding the podcast or more particularly to Patrick.
A lot of folks actually called Patrick a brat and worse and I’m troubled by that. They did so because he called his dad stupid and idiotic and used the word “hag” to refer to an administrator at his Catholic school. Shrug, none of that bugged me at all. He’s 11 and fathers are idiotic and stupid, Microsoft Boy in particular because he is the almighty Scoble. I’m telling you if I had to sit next to him on the red couch and podcast, I’d probably go all out and call him stupid too! I find it hilarious that these folks get all upset over a few silly comments by Patrick, an 11 year old, when Winer exhibits 11 year old behavior on a weekly basis and he’s far from 11, isn’t he? You put an 11 year old boy on a podcast with his non-custodial dad who just happens to be Scoble and proof you’ve created a monster!
Don’t these people realize that Patrick was podcasting to entertain? To cause a stir? To serve his time? To be a spectacle? Do these people really think that Patrick acts like this all of the time? And guess what, even if he does, that doesn’t mean he’s a disrespectful brat. It might just mean that he trusts his dad to understand and respect his feelings and feels comfortable enough with him to call him stupid to his face rather than giving him a “yes sir, you’re amazing Microsoft Boy, sir” and then grumbling behind his back about just how dumb his paternal parent is? I can tell you from personal experience that my kids understand that when they get ticked off or annoyed at me, they can tell me exactly how they feel and we’ve still got the mutual respect thing happening. I can also tell you that they would never tell their father exactly how they feel because they don’t trust or respect him. So folks, before you slam Patrick or his father, you might want to take a close look at your oh so respectful children and examine whether that respect is honest or not.
I do have to ding Scoble for a second though, you punished Patrick for downloading inappropriate podcasts even though it’s pretty obvious that you didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Dawn and Drew may not be intended for an audience like Patrick but you didn’t really mind all that much. Patrick knows this, you know this, Dawn and Drew know this and the rest of the blogosphere knows this. So why punish the kid at all? And why choose to make him do some podcasts? I’ll tell you why, because it was a nice bit of publicity for you, tossed you right into the spotlight as if Microsoft Boy didn’t have enough of a spotlight already. Don’t do that Scoble, I don’t think it earned you a bit of respect.
And Patrick – podcast away, just gag your dad and do your own thing. I’m tired of hearing him ask you what you’re going to do this summer or what you’ve been doing, two podcasts of that was more than enough. You are more interesting than Microsoft Boy ever thought about being.