One Saturday, John was in the basement watching the end of a football game when his 8-year-old daughter came down to ask when they’d be leaving for the beach. Just another 20 minutes or so, he told her.
“Eventually, the game ended and we went out,” John says. “But when I went to bed that night, I found this note sitting on my pillow. The tragedy of it all, combined with the warning — and offset by the pretty border and the flower — really make for a lovely package.”
![Never put nature aside for telivision [sic]. You burned my feelings today, and I am warning you never to do what you did today again.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4521734766_628fe5c9cb_b.jpg "Never put nature aside for telivision [sic]. You burned my feelings today, and I am warning you never to do what you did today again.")
related: Mad, but not mad enough to forego a French braid
206 responses so far ↓
#1
Greg
Wow… precocious little munchkin, or The Bad Seed waiting to bloom? It actually sounds ominous… (oh yeah do i have to say “first?”)
Apr 26, 2010 at 6:36 pm rating: 90
#2
oi
This is outrage. What’s up with kiddie PANs every other day?
How am I suppose to snark at cutesy 8 years olds? I can’t do it, not even with anonymity of internet.
Apr 26, 2010 at 6:37 pm rating: 90
#3
Elizabeth
Given that we’re talking about football, “another 20 minutes” probably worked out to an hour and a half. Team note writer!
Apr 26, 2010 at 6:47 pm rating: 90
#4
tlm
I dunno– anyone else vaguely uncomfortable with the demanding tones of the kids’ PANs lately? Seems like too many parents are so intent on being “pals” with their kids that the young ‘uns have lost nearly all respect.
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:05 pm rating: 90
#5
Woman on the Verge
I’m picturing the kid’s eyes glowing red as she stands over Daddy while he sleeps, a kitchen knife dangling from one trembling fist and a sand shovel from the other…
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:13 pm rating: 90
#6
felix
Not sure if it’s all that passive-aggressive but it’s 100% awesome.
One more for team note-writer.
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:33 pm rating: 90
#7
Having Fitz
Someone would end up with a very warm backside if I found this note on my pillow. Not only was Dad expected to drop everything because Princess said so, but then she “warns him” not to do it again? Team “You’re grounded until you’re 50″.
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:39 pm rating: 90
#8
mlw
Nice use of a comma for an 8-year-old!
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:41 pm rating: 90
#9
claw71
Of course John failed to disclose how much longer the game actually went on. When he gave her the 20 minute estimate did he simply base it on the time remaining or did he adjust for real time? Guys are notorious for quoting the time remaining on the game clock but that doesn’t include the variety of time-outs that will be utilized.
Here’s what I think happened:
John promised to take his daughter to the beach on Saturday. He didn’t specify when, nor did he stipulate that they would be going after the game. So the 8-year-old figured that the beach would consume all of Saturday’s effective time.
John got absorbed in his game and forgot about the beach. He could have recorded it on the DVR or even listened to the game on the radio on the way to, and later at the beach. He didn’t use that option. He could have used mobile updates to keep track of the game or, if he didn’t cheap out on the wireless plan, watched the game from his handheld.
When he told his daughter the game would be over in 20 minutes he was shining her on with a low ball estimate based on the fact that the 3rd quarter had just ended. Heh.
Of course each team had 3 time outs left, and the network back loaded commercials. The officials reviewed a ton of plays in the final two minutes which resulted in 20 minutes right there, not to mention the other 13 minutes of playing time. All told, 45 minutes passed from the point at which John told her “20 minutes or so” and when he finally got his ass off the couch. Then you had 20 minutes of getting the car loaded up and another 40 wasted on driving and parking.
“Or so” entailed an hour and 25 minutes. John’s lucky he didn’t have his head bashed in with an Etch-a-Sketch.
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:45 pm rating: 90
#10
Blogmella
She sounds like a vile little monster.
Apr 26, 2010 at 7:52 pm rating: 90
#11
captainbitchslap
I like how she decided that green border and green lettering would not be scary enough, so she switched to black… But left the flower in to illustrate nature.
Team “Creepy 8-yr olds”
Apr 26, 2010 at 8:04 pm rating: 90
#12
Escape Goat
Actually, this PAN was sent by that pretty purple flower … the one with the evil red eye.
Apr 26, 2010 at 8:44 pm rating: 90
#13
Joe Blow
Future serial killer.
Apr 26, 2010 at 8:49 pm rating: 90
#14
Escape Goat
If I ever wrote a note like this to my father, he woulda burnt my ass next.
Apr 26, 2010 at 8:55 pm rating: 90
#15
Catburglar
Oh, oh how I wish I were that 8-year-old. I never dared to write such a note to my father (or mother) when they disappointed me in cynical adult ways, but how many notes like this did I imagine in my head! Had I been able to simply write a note like this, w/o worrying about being “physically disciplined” for being “uppity”, how different things would be.
Sigh
Team 8-year-old, AND team parent. Kudos to all.
Apr 26, 2010 at 9:02 pm rating: 90
#16
Shannon
This kid needs a spanking — which is precisely what she would have gotten if she were my kid. “Warning” your parent not to make you wait again to be taken to the beach? That little brat would forget what a beach looks like if I were in charge (of course, that’s assuming the parent is in charge, whereas in this case it’s pretty obvious Princess Polly Prissy Pants runs the show). Team Teaching Your Kid to Respect Her Elders.
Apr 26, 2010 at 9:02 pm rating: 90
#17
Shannon
Catburglar, how did the father say one thing and do another? He told her he’d take her to the beach on Saturday — which he did. The precious snowflake was just mad that he didn’t do it according to HER schedule.
Apr 26, 2010 at 9:09 pm rating: 90
#18
Amy
Geez, I love how many people here are all about smacking around kids when they get something like this. If the girl was such a little Princess, she would have pitched a fit right then and there when Daddy said wait 20 minutes. Instead she wrote a note about her feelings. Sure, the ending sounds kind of ominous from an adult point of view, but how many eight year olds know nuance? How many eight years olds can sit down and write a thoughtful letter detailing how they were disappointed and hurt and don’t want to be treated like that again? Kids have simplistic minds. It seemed she felt Dad was putting TV before time with her.
Apr 26, 2010 at 9:28 pm rating: 90
#19
seacurs
We always had this happen to us when I was a kid. Dad would say we were going to go swimming or skiing or to Denver or Cheyenne.
But first he had to stop by the field and do something with a tractor or combine or whatever, and about six hours later we’d go back home without ever doing what we set out to do.
It has become something of a running joke in the family and is probably responsible for my habit of never leaving the house without a book (or two).
I would never have had the balls to have left a note like that. Besides, once in a while we did actually make it somewhere and it was always fun. My dad is awesome.
Apr 26, 2010 at 9:59 pm rating: 90
#20
mamason
This just exemplifies the growing sense of entitlement our children have today. I know my little one wants to eat every fucking day, if you can believe that.
Apr 26, 2010 at 10:54 pm rating: 90
#21
Rusty
What is more shocking is the side people are taking on this situation. This girl is probably the most enlightened one in this family. She’s right. I wouldnt waste a second watching any sports event on tv when I could be spending time with my child at the beach. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy your team, but seriously, Even if they win the superbowl, how is that better than qt with your kid? Its disheartening what people prioritize in their lives. I don’t care if I spent the last 167 hours of the week with my child, if she asks for that last hour of the week, it would be the easiest request to grant of my life.
Apr 26, 2010 at 11:02 pm rating: 90
#22
mamason
Never interupt my game again for nature. You burned up my game time today, and I’m warning you to never do what you did today again or I’ll be burning your little butt with the switch you’ll be getting from the backyard.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:39 am rating: 90
#23
Geek_Kittie
I’m surprised so many people consider this note an act of disrespect or entitlement. As someone pointed out earlier, if the child had truly been a spoiled brat she would have thrown a screaming fit. This seems like a quite reasonable response of expressing her thoughts and feelings.
I’d much rather receive a curt note with pretty flowers than a shrieking 8 year old.
Apr 27, 2010 at 9:12 am rating: 90
#24
Splint Chesthair
I admire the letter. It’s a great way to deal with feelings. I don’t think I’d be able to deal with my feelings that well at age 8. However, I believe the warning requires a talk about communication and meeting of the minds explaining what was agreed upon and what the child assumed and why it’s important to figure those things out. Kids can be unreasonable (shock), just this Saturday, my kid woke up and out of the blue said, I can’t wait to go to Great Adventure today after breakfast! I said who are you going with? He said, “Well my friends said they’re going and I said I’d meet them there and you could take me.” Great Adventure is 4 hours away from us and he woke up at 10A.M. and also had a baseball game at noon. He cried for a while when I told him I didn’t think we’d be able to make it.
Apr 27, 2010 at 9:25 am rating: 90
#25
sleeps
‘Never put nature aside nature for television’? That is not the thought or phrasing of an 8 year old. Team I-think-mom-is-behind-this-note. Many years has wifey been brushed aside in favor of the football game. Now, finally, she can use her child in the ultimate form of passive aggression.
Apr 27, 2010 at 9:29 am rating: 90
#26
Wordtinker doesnt smith
Am I the only one who gets the irony? She isn’t being disrespectful. She’s repeating exactly what she hears from her parents all the time.
Apr 27, 2010 at 9:30 am rating: 90
#27
D
My first thought is that yes, this kid is spoiled and/or her parents don’t discipline her, just because that seems to be the norm nowadays. Personally I find it disgusting when a parent lets their kid do whatever they want without respect for others.
On the other hand, I do remember being a kid and being disappointed by broken promises again and again, and while I would never have had the courage to write a note like that, I can say that it taught me that people don’t keep their promises, they cannot be relied upon, and that nothing people say can be trusted. I am a very, very distrustful adult now and am usually shocked when someone is nice because I expect the worst.
Of course a few instances of this growing up is to be expected and won’t generally leave somebody scarred for life, but when the parent makes a habit of showing that their word is no good, what’s the child to expect later on?
Apr 27, 2010 at 9:48 am rating: 90
#28
oi
I have second thoughts.
everybody is harping on this kid for warning his dad but I think it’s more disturbing that she wants to go to beach because it’s a superior activity than watching tv. When I was a kid I wanted go to beach because it’s a freaking beach not because tv would fuck up my eyes or me. (I don’t claim not being fucked up individual…) oh and she’s got raw talent for PANs. Look at her specimen. she got cutesy border, flower, illusion of greater good intesions instead of a real problem, and most important warning via note! I have a notion that when she grows up she’d beat around the bush so much that proverbial earth would go bald.
Apr 27, 2010 at 10:18 am rating: 90
#29
Cady
Whoa. This kid is not f*cking around.
Apr 27, 2010 at 11:04 am rating: 90
#30
Woman on the Verge
I love how everyone is getting all Parenting Preachy! Get a grip. This is NOT a parenting forum. This is a HUMOR forum. Take your “she’s the kid; don’t be a friend be a parent” crap somewhere else. If you don’t get it, I’m pretty sure we can get Little Miss Never-Put-Nature-Aside to write you a note.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:15 pm rating: 90
#31
Sam S
I thought all girls are usually very sweet-natured until they suddenly hit adolescence.
Christ, can you imagine this girl turning 12? The dad better wear a cup made out of titanium.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:34 pm rating: 90
#32
GhostWriter
I’m calling Bullshit on John. His story doesn’t add up.
If they had actually made it to the beach, she’d have never written a note like that. Unless she’s really Stewie Griffin, which makes John Peter, and only supports the notion that he never got out of the basement.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:40 pm rating: 90
#33
Sooky
I wonder, did he even bother to talk to her the next day about having hurt her feelings? Maybe tubbo can put his kids before TV next time. Just record it mate. Watch it later when you get home after the kids are asleep.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:43 pm rating: 90
#34
Team notewriter
Who watches football when they could be at the beach?
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:55 pm rating: 90
#35
Lowell
Team Daddy!
Kids are spoiled little brats.
Apr 27, 2010 at 12:58 pm rating: 90
#36
Luna (the other one)
LOL Since I can’t thumb anyone right now due to a computer glitch that may or may not be my fault, everyone awesome just consider yourselves thumbed. You know who you are.
Apr 27, 2010 at 1:43 pm rating: 90
#37
El Cerebro
Oh, the PAN notes I wrote when I was that age!
Good thing my dad kept them…I’ll have to submit a couple of them one of these days.
P.S: I did not turn out to be a serial killer, well, not that I’m aware of anyways…
Apr 27, 2010 at 2:05 pm rating: 90
#38
sirrix
This is not passive-aggressive. It is a direct letter which requests something actively, not passively. Passive-aggressive is becoming the new “your/you’re” on the internet. It’s really quite sad that no one knows what this means.
Apr 27, 2010 at 2:28 pm rating: 90
#39
Denny DelVecchio
Oh to able to take a red pen to that!
Little Miss Sunshine wants to play in the passive-aggressive big leagues, she needs to be able to hit the pitching.
Apr 27, 2010 at 2:40 pm rating: 90
#40
Melissa B
My parents once burned my feelings… i retaliated … by burning other things.
Apr 27, 2010 at 3:59 pm rating: 90
#41
Rosie L
It seems like a lot of adults have forgotten what it was like to be a child. When I was 7, I remember crying because my mom was too busy to plan my birthday party with me, when my birthday was three months away. When you are a child, little things like this can be utterly crushing. I hate that this note and so many like it seek to belittle and make fun of the hurt feelings of kids. Once you grow up, you realize how unreasonable you were being, but kids don’t know any better, and their feelings are painfully real to them.
Apr 27, 2010 at 4:33 pm rating: 90
#42
Cordelia
Team Sarah Bernhardt!! I love that she not only went over the top with her melodramatic note but that she was wily enough to wait until *after* she got her beach trip to issue her thinly veiled threat. Ten to one says this little girl will be showing this note to Barbara Walters before walking down the red carpet at the Oscars one day.
Apr 27, 2010 at 7:15 pm rating: 90
#43
James
Wow, this letter really scares me. Everything about the note has been worked to convey her sense of superiority, it seems that every nuance of it has been thought out ever so carefully. It seems that her parents have taught her appropriate skills for expressing her feelings and encourage her creativity, the kind of parenting that usually leads to well adjusted thoughtful adults, but she writes this purposeful cold blooded warning instead. Clearly any physical discipline, or I suspect any type of punishment what so ever would only make her behavior even more pronounced. I know it is only such a short message and I know nothing else about this girl but I really suspect she might be developing into a sociopath. Does she have any more notes for us?
Apr 28, 2010 at 4:12 am rating: 90
#44
having a child doesn't make you a parent, ignoring one makes you an awful human being
I teared up when I read her note. She is awesome. Her dad is a loser. I hope my future little girl is just like this.
She’s definitely more intelligent than the majority of crappy parents commenting on this page.
Too bad most of you think parenting is “Do what I say, or else.”
Idiots.
Apr 28, 2010 at 10:07 am rating: 90
#45
Helen
Sorry guys, but I’m with the 8-year-old on this one, mostly because I was exactly like that at eight.
Lets put it this way- instead of crying in front of her parents, who would probably have given her something to cry about, she stomped to her room and wrote a note. Sure, she’ll get told later that it wasn’t appropriate, but at least she never made a scene.
Fun fact: one time I wrote up every curse word I knew on the computer when I was angry. And saved it. My mom still laughs when she remembers.
Apr 28, 2010 at 11:13 am rating: 90
#46
eyehearta2
There’s football on in April? I thought only hockey, eh?
Apr 28, 2010 at 1:44 pm rating: 90
#47
James
I think crying and having a tantrum is much more acceptable and understandable if done in the heat of the moment. It may have been accidental that this one letter is psychotic, but it certainly needs to be dealt with and discussed with her very strongly about the absolute inappropriateness of this letter, and for her parents to try and work out if she lacks empathy or has other sociopathic tendencies. It is very kind natured of many of the people in here to relate with her emotions and assume just because she is young, that she can’t be a psychopath. Psychopaths are indeed real and this little girl has done something indicating she could well be one. KEEP AN EYE ON HER!
Apr 29, 2010 at 12:57 am rating: 90
#48
pit pat
RE kids repeating what they hear, don’t chastise my 6-y-o neighbor kid when you hear him say “why are you always busting my balls?” He got that from daddy, word for word. And so much more. Sigh.
Apr 29, 2010 at 9:57 am rating: 90
#49
Julie
This is why I had all of those abortions, so I wouldn’t get passive aggressive notes.
Apr 29, 2010 at 10:55 am rating: 90
#50
Zenrage
When are you clowns going to learn that social organizations are only based on a willingness to co-exist and that “family” only means as much as the emotional and psychological bonds maintained by the people within it.
Yet you idiots want to blame the kid because she reacted negatively to the way her father treated her based on a respect that the father FAILED to live up to, but the kid is supposed to show regardless?
Apr 30, 2010 at 1:34 am rating: 90
#51
HeatherW
Well, I’m gonna get back to the matter at hand (being the hilariously melodramatic PAN written by an 8 year old and not the socio-political banter that’s been taking up too much space) and say that, if dad “burns her feelings” again like he did this time, daughter might just wish him into the cornfield.
May 1, 2010 at 2:01 pm rating: 90
#52
BarbaraEBj
I have never thought it positive for kids to FEAR adults. I call that abuse.
May 2, 2010 at 1:50 pm rating: 90
#53
Chris
Sounds like a bright (but misinformed) young lady. She should have that energy and intellect redirected to some chores. We should not judge the parent.
May 11, 2010 at 11:41 am rating: 90
#54
JamiSings
If I had pulled that as a kid I would’ve been spanked and told that the world doesn’t revolve around me.
May 23, 2010 at 8:32 pm rating: 90
#55
Woman on the Verge
This Urban Dictionary entry for football minute is apt: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Football%20Minute&defid=4999045
May 31, 2010 at 10:13 am rating: 90
#56 Funniest notes of 2010 | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com
[...] You burned my feelings [...]
Dec 31, 2010 at 12:09 am rating: 90
Comments are Closed