Forced Friends

"My boys once had friends whose dad would invite us all over, get slurry-tongued drunk, and hit on me. Then hit on my husband."

How can one even follow up on that? That should be in the Hall of Fame.

Haha Bill, for a second I thought you were going to say something like "don't talk about me like that on here!" :)

It's so true. When my son was younger the parents of some of his friends made me crazy and I was always sad when I had to go pick him up because I knew they wouldn't just let me pick him up and go.

My son introduced me to his girlfriend's mom a couple of years ago, and she became a great resource for me professionally and also a fine friend. The kids have broken up and reunited frequently and gotten into a fair amount of trouble together, but the moms' friendship does not seem to suffer. My closest friendship also came about through this same kid when he was an infant, and the parents of a same-age boy went strolling by the house and we started chatting.

Dear Starshine, Why do you even bring up the name
of an American Master artist like Thomas Kinkade in
this article, I feel very offended by your comment,
I don't eat pork and have never been to Branson, MO.
Thomas Kinkade is an amazing artist who creates
Plein Air paintings like Santa Barbara Mission,
French Impressionism like Paris and Nice in France and
wonderful Master Studio paintings like S.F. Powell St,
or "New Horizons" as well as work for Disney like
"Cinderella Wishes Upon a Dream".
Oh, maybe you are deceived into slamming this
wonderful humanitarian because the ultra left told you
it is "cool". Well it's NOT "cool" and I pray that you have
the same come back to your life.
By the way Christ Jesus drank wine so why were you expecting a Christian sermon?
Maybe you should do a little research before writing
about anyone else besides asking your psychologist
what to do. She told you to "show others respect".
Even if I were slurry tongued drunk I wouldn't want to
be anywhere around a person like you. You are not
funny, you are offensive and I pray that you apologize
to Mr, Kinkade and his family.
After all how many schools and children around the
World have you helped? Thomas Kinkade is part of
Make a wish, World Vision, Victory Junction, Presley's
Place, Art for Children and has built schools in Antigua
for the Mayan orphans, Nicoraga, Latvia and all across
the United States and Mexico.
Maybe that is why a crooked lawyer, Norman Yatooma,
has attacked Thomas for ten years now with lies in the
left wing media to steal money from him.
Norman does not want the money going to schools,
he wants the money in his evil pocket. Now there is some
one that you can research for your column and let every
one know the truth about. God bless you, a big fan

Wow Bionicman I pray that you get a sense of humour. Inane maudlin diatribe. --That's about you. Thomas Kinkade's paintings, on the other hand, just lack soul - which has zero to do with whether he is a nice chap on a personal level.
Good article Sunshine; this illuminates the dark side of the intensive parenting we do these days. My parents would be lucky (unlucky?) if they saw me between 8A and 4P.

Good article Starshine!
I always felt so awkward picking my kid up at his friends' houses. It's like "pllllease stand out in front!" . If he didn't I'd have to go to the door and shoot the shi# with some parent and act like I was interested..meanwhile thinking "get me out of here!".
I love your line when you mentioned something like "if we don't like the parent, then sometimes the kid relationships go down the toilet". It's so true and I found it hard to not feel guilty about that..like I always felt the weird one for not liking the parent or anti-social. Anyway I liked your article. And by the by I think the worst thing about kid sports are the parents!

Looks like Thomas Kinkade Inc. makes enough dough with his hackery to employ full-time sock puppets like 'bionicman.'

Authorities have a view different from 'bionicman' when it comes to business, art, and using the mantle of religion when defrauding your investors.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/20...

"Most of my clients got involved with Kinkade because it was presented as a religious opportunity," Yatooma said in a phone interview. "Being defrauded is awful enough, but doing it in the name of God is really despicable."

"According to an article in the Los Angeles Times last month [2006], FBI investigators are looking into issues raised in civil litigation by at least six former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners, and have asked several former dealers to provide documentation of their business relationship with Kinkade's company."

And in recent headlines we've got:

"Thomas Kinkade firm seeks bankruptcy protection"
--The filing for Pacific Metro, the artist's production company, comes one day after a $1-million payment is due to two former gallery owners who had won a judgment.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/...

Another thoughtful and amusing column. Of course, all the parents of Starshine's kids' friends and classmates are now reading it and saying to themselves things like, "The unmitigated nerve of that woman!" and "You mean all this time she was just pretending to like me?" and "I may be a conspiracy theorist nutcake who adores weak, pedestrian art and vacations in the hinterlands of Missouri, but I never served her pork rinds!"

Dear Starshine, What paintings do you have in your home?
Thank God your eternal Soul does not depend on your
"forced friends" you meet through your kids.
Can you share more about how Thomas Kinkade helps
our children here in California and knows that our teachers
are a "Bridge to the Future"? Thank you!
Why do people eat 'pork rinds" ? when we have so much
wonderful organic food here in the USA?
Is Chester working for Yatooma? Or is he yatooma?
Yatooma is the crook who HURTS families and steals
money from the wonderful charities Thom helps through
Christ Jesus! God bless you! Chester John 3:16

Yeah but what do you do when crazy-mom is smart and has obviously been deflected a kabillion times before so she says “Do you guys want to come over for dinner on Saturday or Sunday?” You can’t ALWAYS be busy, damn it. Or when you tell her in advance you have stuff to do but would love to have her kid over to occupy your kid while you ostensibly accomplish these pressing tasks... and she simply DOES NOT LEAVE, even when you say thirty-two times, “Okay I’ll let you go now, and I guess I'll get to work...” Sometimes you have to just sever ties completely and explain to your kid why she won’t be seeing little Sally outside of school any more...