I wonder if today’s adult children’s attitudes toward their parents have changed. Or maybe they are still trying to get what they need at all costs? This is exactly the situation that arose after my son gave an ultimatum to his mother and her future spouse: either you buy me a motorcycle or there will be no wedding. An acquaintance of mine shared this story with me. Somehow he and I got to talking about young people today.
The friend who told this story recalled how his mother was getting married for the second time, and he could have made her wedding not happen. However, he decided to make concessions and told his future stepfather that they could only get married if they bought him a motorcycle or there would be no wedding. The story took place in the eighties, at that time my acquaintance was barely eighteen years old.
Adam (that was my friend’s name) had been with his mother since he was a child. His parents separated when he was barely nine years old. Adam’s mother worked in commerce, so they lived pretty well, to say the least.
Adam confessed that as a child he used to eat black caviar with spoons. When Adam was eighteen he learned that his mother had a man she was going to marry. Adam was not happy with the news, to put it mildly. The boy went into a rage. He could not accept the fact that there was someone else in his mother’s life besides him.
Mom’s man tried many times to talk to Adam, but he wouldn’t listen to him. The boy told his parents that it was either him or me. And then each time he added that if he told you to choose him you would never see me again. Mother shed tears day and night, but Adam did not think of giving up and was adamantly against his mother’s marriage.
Then the parent’s friend got fed up, and one day, when he came to their house, he said to Adam:
– Your mother is a beautiful young woman, why don’t you want her to be happy? I’m ready to fulfill your dream if you let us have a wedding.
Of course Adam had one: he had always wanted a cool motorcycle, which he immediately told his future in-laws:
– First buy me a motorcycle, and then get married…
In less than a week Adam got a brand new motorcycle, and a month later his mother got married.
The story of an acquaintance left a bad residue in my soul, I do not understand how he could be so selfish and cruel? I don’t understand what exactly were the feelings that moved the young guy at that time? What if his mother’s friend had turned him down?
