Adventures in Babysitting

Do you have children that need to be looked after?
Are they rude?
Condescending?
Spoiled?

Send them here.
We have a whole bunch of them,
Yours will fit right in.

Our Summer Students are a pain in the arse.
Spoiled, pampered and a little too haughty.

I want to tell them ...
you ain't all that,
nor are you a bag of chips.
And even if you were,
you'd be Sour Cream and Onion.
I hate Sour Cream and Onion.

They're Summer Students.
Not even Articling Students, yet.
They haven't finished school,
they have no clue what they're doing,
yet they insist on acting like they do.

The worse part is that they cannot fend for themselves.
I don't know what parents are doing nowadays,
but whatever it is ...
stop doing it!

You're raising an entire generation
of spoiled brats
who cannot take care of themselves,
have no respect for others
and insist that the world owes them.

Today = Straw = Broken Camel Back.

One of the students comes over to
the network printer next to me.
Not everyone gets a printer, especially the students.
There are several high speed printers
on every floor for people to share.

So the student comes over to the printer.
I conclude that he has sent something to print.
The printer makes no sound.
It's not printing.
Printer Boy just stares at it.

I type at my computer and make no eye contact.

I can see him out of the corner of my eye.
He looks up at the shelf above the printer.
Squats down and opens the cupboard below the printer.
Opens the printer tray.

It's clear there's no paper.
Not in the printer,
not below in the storage area,
not above on the shelf.

Printer Boy stands there for about 30 seconds.
Stands on his toes again to look at the top shelf
(he's short),
squats down and opens the cupboard doors,
checks the printer tray.

The paper has not magically appeared.

He stands there another 30 seconds or so.
I continue to type at my computer,
avoiding eye contact.

Printer Boy goes through the routine again.

Really?
The paper is not going to just appear, you know.

Then finally:

PB: Do you know where I can get more paper?

Me: Supply Room

PB: Oh.

(I know he hesitated to see if I would volunteer to go.
I don't. Screw that!)

Printer Boy finally walks away.
He surprises me by coming back with a package of paper.
I really expected him to just forget the whole thing.

As he opens the package,
I ask him (already knowing the answer),

Me: Did you tell them that we were out?

PB: Oh. No.

Me: Well, that wasn't really smart, was it?


And you want to be a lawyer when you grow up???