This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Monday, September 8, 2008 12:00 AM

Is my kid a jerk, or is he just 2?

My son bullies me, insults his mother and once punched an old man in the nuts. I know it's probably just a phase. But what if it isn't?

Read other letters about this article

  • Sunday, September 7, 2008 11:29 PM

    another one for the anecdote column

    When my cousin and brother met for the first time, they were both four-year-old boys. My brother was kind of small and slight and sensitive. My cousin was built like a linebacker. Upon finding himself face to face with my brother, he backed up, got a running start, and headbutted my brother in the stomach. It seems funny now (and my brother doesn't remember the incident at all) but when it happened, we were horrified and my uncle and aunt were mortified.

    He's had some discipline problems in the past. I think at one point he was even diagnosed with ADD. But he's turned out to be a good kid, and last time I saw him, he was running a successful mechanic shop working on high-end cars and motorcycles and was engaged to a pretty elementary school teacher.

    I don't pretend to know what's going on with this kid--normal phase? problem that can be treated? But with concerned parents willing to face up to the fact that he's not their perfect little angel, he's not consigned to eternal dickhood by any means.

Most Active Letters Threads

740

The commendably missing element from Obama's speech

There was no pretense that human rights is our goal, or the likely outcome, in escalating the war
371

America's regression

It's almost impossible to find a nation with as many torture advocates as the U.S. has.
349

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
278

Palin: Birthers have "fair question" about Obama

Of Obama birth, the ex-governor says, "the public is still, rightfully, making it an issue" (Updated)
211

The poster boy for progressive self-delusion

Read Hayden's 2008 Obama endorsement to remember the way the left sold our centrist president to itself

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon