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Raising a person in a culture full of types | The Outline

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My 12-year-old son indulges in a lot of unpleasant behaviors. During Fortnite mania a couple years ago, for example, he said my wife and I were “fucking [him] in the ass” because we made him stop playing to go to his cello recital. He negotiates relentlessly, often pursuing the kind of flawed strategies that feature in articles about game theory: Can I have ice cream if I clean my room? Can I have the ice cream first? Now that I have eaten the ice cream, why should I clean my room? I am naming these habits not just because I want pity, as all parents do, but also to make clear that they are behaviors and not identity. I do not want you to write off my son as a type of person, because he isn’t anybody yet. That is my whole damn raison d’etre, here. The other thing you should know for the purposes of this discussion is that my son and I are not biologically related. He has not met his biological father, who was 30 when he took up with my wife, who was then 17. The less said about this ma

Dan Brooks Jan—31—2020 01:59PM EST My 12-year-old son indulges in a lot of unpleasant behaviors. During Fortnite mania a couple years ago, for example, he said my wife and I were “fucking [him] in the ass” because we made him stop playing to go to his cello recital. He negotiates relentlessly, often pursuing the kind of flawed strategies that feature in articles about game theory: Can I have ice cream if I clean my room? Can I have the ice cream first? Now that I have eaten the ice cream, why should I clean my room? I am naming these habits not just because I want p

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