Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for July 06, 2009

The pilot has just turned on the “GET OVER YOURSELF” sign.

Oh please! Anyone who thinks their life is hard needs to come visit me in China. I do not live in nice expatriate enclave - I live in a normal neighborhood surrounded by normal Chinese people. I will NEVER complain about my standard of living, the US government, air quality, or the FDA ever again!!!

wow, when did she become so selfcentered? My paper stopped printing this when Joan was it? got pregnant. Glad I found it again!

Yesterday, she couldn’t swim with her mom and her little sister at a natrual swimming hole. Today she’s b#%&-ing about having the worst life ever! Face, Holly’s a total loser!

Oh this is just typical 13 year old ranting. Teenagers (esp early ones) have no sense of reality.

Holly has no sense…period.

Lightenup is right. Holly’s a teenager and teenagers always think it’s all about them.

Yup, Holly is perfectly norman…I remeber me then……

Sadly true. I’m dealing with an almost-16yo who thinks like that. I shake my head a lot…

Two words, Val: Summer Camp!

The problem isn’t Holly’s attitude, per se, but the fact that so many parents (Val not included) can’t tell the difference between nurtuing attitudes like that (thereby perpetuating them) and nurturing the child (which is what they should be doing).

( sounds like R.Dangerfield): ” Hey!, The kid reminds me of my WIFE, ya know a….Oh, Hello Dear, I didn’t see you standing there. Hey ! DON’T THROW THA………

For once?! She tries to make sure the focus is on her all the time, every day! ejcapulet: you live in China? you’re a lot braver than me! What city do you live in? (by the way I agree with you)

I’ve got seven daughters. EACH of them goes through this “stage.” Some last longer, some shorter.

I just ignore them.

Can anyone honestly say, they don’t think their own personal issues are the only ones that matter.

Just let’s make Holly’s life even more unbearable: tell her that from now on she and Alix will have to wash, dry, and put away all the dishes - after all, they eat, but they don’t cook. (Details to be worked out among the three of them.)

Similarly, they should start doing their own laundry…

THEN she’ll be a REAL martyr!!

Somehow I don’t think Alix will mind doing these chores at all… She’s not a whiner like Holly.

It’s too bad so few mothers insist on things like this.

One thing I’ve noticed in reading comments on “Stone Soup”, is how many adults forget about what life was like as a young person going through puberty. Either they have forgotten the way THEY acted, or they were perfect young teenagers who never ever had a problem with new and strange hormones rocketing through their systems one moment and disappearing the next. Mood swings through chemicals are pretty common during adolescence, for those who have forgotten. Jan Eliot remembers and captures those years beautifully.

How about this Holly–write an essay for grandma on how bad your life is, then see how grandma grades you on it!

(hey, that’s a “2-bird” solution)

Two words that will wreck Summer. “Summer School”. Even if it is at home. That may be her problem.

Holly’s just going through that difficult stage between two and nineteen.

A large number of people at my old high school and my college help as missionaries for the Invisible Children. Send a person 13-19, boy or girl to Africa for a week or so, and then they’ll see how things are for their age group halfway across the globe.

God, Holly. This is worse than your usual self-centeredness.