On ignition points.

[dreadedcandiru2]

The interesting thing about the Pattersons' experience at summer camp is that it has a commonality with sending the kids off to Exile Farm and when John got Mike a summer job selling hot dogs from a cart. Said common factor is that they're immediately proceeded either by Elly having to mediate a row between Mike and Lizzie or by Mike proposing to do something that would heap shame on the family name.

As I've said before, the children have to go away because they were never taught how to spend their time productively and that conflicts not only with Elly's somewhat unreasonable expectation that her own children should somehow behave better than she did when she was their age but with John's amnesia as regards what a pain in the neck he was when he was a child. This has the result of taking what could otherwise be a rather positive and normal experience and making it into something of a punishment owing to the refusal people have to explain themselves.

Comments

[josephusrex.livejournal.com]

The children had to go away because otherwise they would have had S-E-X.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

And thus heaped shame on John and Elly. I mean, the nerve of them doing it before they got married.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Or in Mike's case in one instance, obtained paid employment and thus be able to pay for dates that didn't involve bringing his parents along.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

I like how he pointed out that shoveling pig shit was NOT healthier than working in a billiards hall.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Poor Fiona. Sure, she started out leeching off the Pattersons a bit, but once John helped her get on her feet she did pretty well for herself. Having a job that includes an apartment is nothing to sneeze at. She probably saw it as helping out one of the kids who put up with her and gave up his room when she was at a low point in her life when she offered Mike the job. John told Mike he probably wouldn't get paid, but that seems like an odd claim -- ten to one he'd get minimum wage for working the grill and wiping tables.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

That he would. Hmmm. I wonder how much he got paid at the Farm.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Less than minimum wage, if not less than squat -- the Pattersons strike me as the type who'd point out that the cost of a round-trip plane ticket and gas money from all the driving he got to do should be pay enough.

*googles* Mike wouldn't be permitted behind the bar at the pool hall, but as long as the grill was in a separate area from the alcohol, he'd be in the clear.

Honestly, it seems like John is just against Mike doing anything for the summer that he hasn't been forced into.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

Of course John is against anything that would give Mike an easy time of things. He thinks that it keeps him from becoming ungrateful. The end result is that the more John tries to adjust Mike's attitude, the more attitude he creates.

Heh. I'd like to see John try to free himself from a Chinese finger trap.......

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, after the stunt John pulled with Mike's summer job the previous year, had Fiona spoken to John and Elly about it and it had been framed as a job that'd teach the kid some responsibility, to encourage him not to make messes (having to clean up someone else's spills would leave one inclined to be more careful themselves), and keep him out of their hair for the summer, Mike might not have had a choice in not being able to work there.