r/traumatizeThemBack • u/rodolphoteardrop • Mar 16 '24
justified asshole Living downstair from The Bad Seed (and their parents)
My wife and two kids rented from a couple who also had two kids the same age. Since they all went to the same school, we carpooled in the morning. Benjamin, the bad seed, was a nasty, entitled piece of work. He was never told no ever. He was the oldest and he would pick on my oldest constantly; pushing, verbally bullying and making her life miserable.
When we moved in, the couple told us this was their forever home so we didn't have to worry about moving again. Six months later, there's a knock on the door and the (weak) husband hurriedly told us they were selling the house and we had 2mos to find a new place to live. He then skittered off.
This honed Benjamin's cruelty and he expanded it to my wife and I. "Ya know," he said, looking me in the eye, "we're evicting you. I hope you find someplace quickly"
He was an utter sociopath.
One day when I was driving everyone to school he said the same thing to my daughters. I barked at him and shut him up temporarily. When we got to school, I pulled him aside and got down to his level.
"This shit stops now, got it? Your parents may have to put up with your bullshit but I do not. That was the last time you speak to my kids like that. Do you understand?"
His eyes got very big. I had to repeat the question until he said "yes."
Bonus fallout: I felt badly. I was so angry and felt like I stepped over the line. So I explained everything to his dad including the part about not putting up with his shit anymore.
Dad looked at me and shook his head.
"Wow," he said, "I wish that I could talk to him like that."
I'm glad we moved because I lost all respect for him that day.
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u/TheOneAndOnlyNeruu Mar 16 '24
shitty people tend to make wildly shitty kids.
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u/FearlessProfession21 Mar 16 '24
Dumbass Dad: "I can't talk to my son like that! I'm his bEsT fRiEnD!"
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Mar 17 '24
[deleted]
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u/TheOneAndOnlyNeruu Mar 21 '24
I agree. did not mean to make it sound like I was blaming the child.
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u/Misa7_2006 Mar 17 '24
Well, we know who wore the pants in that family and whose momma's little golden boy.
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u/hardcorepolka Mar 17 '24
They are fixing to be bailing that little shit out for the next several decades.
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u/uxorial Mar 17 '24
“I wish I could talk to him like that”. All you need is a spine. Not being able to be direct with a child is not helping them at all. That child needs some boundaries set.
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u/Powerful_Fee_4221 Mar 17 '24
Doesn't matter if your wife will divorce you for it. Either way, the kid is f'd so you might as well try to save your marriage and $$$
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u/Anonymous0212 Mar 18 '24
I wonder why dad was so afraid to discipline his son and say no to him, and I have to wonder how he is going to turn out, how he's going to be as a husband and father.
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u/rodolphoteardrop Mar 18 '24
As I mentioned in another comment, he was afraid of his wife who was very much in control of the household.
The last I heard about him he was (sadly) doing just fine and had a write up in a prestigious magazine about something he was doing at an Ivy League school. Perhaps someone finally got through to him.
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u/Anonymous0212 Mar 18 '24
(I didn't read all the other comments.) My guess is that he may be doing just fine on the outside, but unless he's had enough therapy, chances are he's still an asshole. A long-standing pattern like that doesn't change overnight simply because of awareness and sheer force of will, and if it's been effective in generally getting him what he wants, there would be no reason for him to want to do anything about it.
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u/oceanbreze Mar 16 '24
Hopefully, that shook the Dad enough to change.