The Itch To Bitch

William Menzies is a f/b friend of mine.  He's a 15 year old highschool student.  The other day he put a post on his f/b wall about his teacher who said that William's generation does nothing but whine and blame everyone else for their mistakes.  The teacher is right.  Then again so was the teacher's teacher and the teacher's teacher's teacher.  I'll bet they all thought the same thing about the generation of kids they had to teach.

15 is the perfect age to bitch about things.  Too young to be taken seriously as an adult. Too old to get the wide berth you give to a micro-moppet.  15 year olds have become pubescent adolescents and they don't like it.  I whined when I was 15.  My kids whined when they were 15.  Their kids will whine when they're 15.  It's a powerless age. No matter how right you are you're wrong so you may as well tilt the guilt at someone else.

How many times have we taken our tykes to task for some snafu they've commited and we're thinking to ourselves...jeez I did the same thing when I was their age?  I did it countless times.

And you know what?  We take our bitching into adulthood and aim it at our jobs, our co-workers and our bosses.  I have never met anyone who doesn't, at some point, think they're wiser than their supervisor.  Bosses don't get it, they wont listen to me, they shouldn't be in management, they have no people skills. It can't be me so there has to be something awry with the big guy. 

And then we have that one workmate who spends all day moaning and groaning, whining and wailing about every aspect of their job.  What we do?  We go for a drink after work and bitch about the bitcher's bitching. It's the itch to bitch.

I really think we're hardwired to bitch and whine.  It shifts the blame away from you.  It's always someone elses fault.  The boss is an idiot.  Guess what?  Make you the boss and you'll be just as big an idiot in no time although you'll never realize it. 

When I was 15 it was always my brother's fault.  He was older.  He should have known better.  If I Had to stay in and catch up on my homework?  My parents fault.  Failed math again.  Had a lousey teacher.  We learn to point the faux pas finger at someone else at an early age.

I think it's generational too.  My parents thought I spent too much time watching tv.  I thought my kids spent too much time playing video games.  I still watch too much tv and they still spend too much time playing video games.  80 thousand year's ago I'll bet little Neddy Neanderthal was rubbing a couple of sticks together. He was 30 seconds away from discovering fire. His father came out of the cave and said....you spend too much time playing with those sticks kid. Put them down now and don't start whining! I famished we're going hunting for a mamouth which they would eat very rare for another night. 

Yes, William's teacher is right.  William's generation whines and blames everyone else for it's mistakes.  Finally, lunch time, a chance for the teachers to head for  the staff lounge where they will bitch to each other about all the  whiney asses in their classes  and blame the kids for the lousey day they're having.