Am I too Picky?

Offer to fix their faucets.

Dbdblocker wrote the following:

I assume you have already taken the first step which would be to ask them not to do that?

Well, you raised 'em. Why did you raise such dumb kids?

I don't have that problem. Wrong sized washer? The screw should bottom out before the washer gives away.

My grand-kids and nieces and nephews are pretty smart. :-)

I am lucky....My kids are smarter than I. The grand kids are getting there also. Tough getting old. (G) ww

I have the same problem, but it's my *mother* that does it. Goddamn old farts and their refusal to change...

Their mother raised them.

I hear you... I'm continuously amazed/horrified/terrified by this and related behavior.

IMHO, the root cause is a near complete lack of simple common sense...

so lack of a proper father image?

So blame their mother and praise the kids for doing as they were taught.

OK, as long as we are being cranky old farts . . . why do modern faucets use fancy "cartridges" that cost $20 to replace, instead of a

Yes, it's a crying shame that the ability to teach was evidently lost in your family at least one generation before that of your kids...

At the grand kids home faucets likely drip, and over torquing saves water...

So offer to fix their faucets or better yet show them how, and install ball valves at your home, over tightening a ball valve will just tire out their arm:)

=3D=3D I have a sister who wrecked every set of taps in my house. I screamed at her so many times about her penchant for over-torquing but it was hopeless trying to get through to her. I finally installed expensive taps that can't be wrecked easily and even after that she had to try and give that final thrust to make sure the tap didn't leak. Its a pathological sickness that she was born with...no other explanation fits. =3D=3D

You have failed as a father.

When you had the opportunity when they were growing up to instill some iota of engineering principles, critical or logical thinking or device / appliance servicing and repair, where were they? Out with their peers, at the mall, getting into trouble, experimenting with drugs / alchohol, vandalizing other people's property, playing video games?

You ask a trick question, Kimosabe.

YOU are responsible. Notice I did not say to blame.

As with any newbie on the job, it is YOUR duty to tell them what is acceptable and what is not. You may not ass-u-me that someone else has taught them. You have every right to tell them what is acceptable at your house, and that you don't care one whit about what they do at home.

After some teaching them some rules and boundaries and your do's and dont's, if they don't do it right, then they are lost.

Think back to when you were coming up. Who did you learn the most from? And how?

I learned the most from two types: the kindly teacher, and the hard ass. They both have their merits, and their timing.

Good luck, Grasshoppa.

Steve

If I had to guess, I'd say it was because his mother ran off with a Spanish dance instructor named Gomez who had shiny patent-leather shoes and a pencil-thin mustache.

Gomez ultimately became a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman in Toledo and, pardon the pun, "cleaned up."

Replace the standard faucets with ball valves.

You subject line is a clue...you feel guilty because it bothers you that they aren't careful with your property? So, first step is to ask them not to grind the faucet so hard. Next step, have them help when it needs to be fixed. Last step, have them do one while you help. Just making up for missed opportunities...most of us didn't get to do all we wanted with/for our kids.

I recently got some pix of grandson's eighth grade graduation party...invited whole class of 40 or so, held in the yard with dancing in the barn. Noticed that almost every pic had one or two kids with iPods in their hands. It occurred to me that they must be texting, and why text when ur at a party? My daughter told me they actually asked each other for a dance by texting! R u kidding? WFT?

As for the country being done for, as long as Sarah Palin draws a crowd, I'd be ready for the funeral service.