Posted on by Californiacontrarian

It’s Not My Fault

When my granddaughter, Kate, was 3 years old, she had a bead from an art project stuck up her nose. When my daughter took her to the doctor, he asked Kate how the bead got up her nose, and Kate responded, “It’s not my fault as the bean jumped up into my nose!” She said it with the determination and an accompanying look that only a three year old could have. Was she convinced that the bean actually jumped or was she just making it up to save face? Neither the pediatrician nor Kate’s mom challenged her, as what difference did it make?

When one of my daughters was in 5th grade, her classmate, George, did not have his homework one day. “Where is your homework, George?” the teacher asked. George responded, “It’s not my fault, as my dog ate my homework!” His classmates and the teacher probably believed George’s excuse – the first time he used it. However when he continued to regularly blame the dog, everyone realized that George often just failed to do his homework. The 5th graders did not believe his excuses, and soon they all started to feel sorry for poor George, but then what difference did it really make?

At one of my first jobs the start of the workday was 8am, and for 30 minutes we all worked on a common project. Everyone was expected to show up on time for this session, but my coworker, Dave, was consistently late, and sometimes would not show up till 8:30, when the work was finished. Although the rest of us would have to do his share of the work, initially we thought that it was legit when he said, “It’s not my fault, I had car trouble”, but it really got old, week in and week out. His insistence that he would regularly have car trouble was more than sad. He was a pitiful character that no one soon actually paid much attention to, but what difference did it really make?

When you are three and do not own up to what you did . . . Oh well what can you expect from a three year old! George with his ‘dog ate it’ excuse was sad even for a ten year old, and thirty year old Dave and his car excuses were pitiful.

Who/what are you when you are sixty-nine and still cannot own up to your failures? On 5/31/17, a failed candidate blamed just about everybody and close to everything for losing a recent election. She whined that it was not her fault, but rather blamed her loss on Comey, sexism, Wikileaks, the mainstream media, the electoral college system, the DNC, etc., etc., as well as 1000 Russian agents. Calling her “sad” or “pitiful” would be kind, as this is very close to pathological, but then “what difference does it really make!”

 

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