Have you ever known any kids who you thought were bad seeds?

I don’t think I could actually say, “bad seeds”, as in natural born sociopaths but I have known several that were completely out of control due to wussy parenting non-skills. There was one little boy in my daughters Kindergarten class that was obsessed with guns and wanting to shoot things. He ended up joining the Army, so I guess he has kept his gun obsessions and desire to shoot things under the canopy of military service. LOL

I knew some kids who were pretty wild at times but nothing pathological. They were all just kids and all have turned out OK.

My daughter used to work in a pediatric mental hospital. Some of the kids were there because of abuse of various kinds, but she had one parent who said, “I don’t know why! He just came out like Chuckie!”

I knew some kids that were wild and troublemakers, but almost always if you track it back, it goes back to the parenting skills. As I get older and meet adults that are wild and troublemakers, I am finding that the same holds true. Specifically late 20’s to early 30’s age range. My stepdaughter has an uncanny skill of finding the exact one guy that is a complete douchebag and then latching on for dear life. When we meet the parents, it all becomes clear why the young man is nothing more than an out of control man-child.

I’ve known some rather bad-behaving kids, though the ones that I knew well enough to have an informed perspective about, I have notions about what sorts of things that behavior was about, at least roughly. I would not think the reason for it was medical/physical. I would say that it was clearly psychological, but in a more subtle way than thinking of it the way the question here’s description puts it. I would say it was due to the input into their psyche from the parents/family/others/culture, not necessarily specific trauma or bad conscious intentions, but many patterns of behavior and unhealed issues that get expressed in the children whereas the adults are stifling the expression of those issues, which they got from their family (mainly) and also others/experiences/culture.

That is, I’m pretty sure that most/all of the very bad behavior I’ve seen from kids can be traced back to adult behavior they were exposed to, mainly from their parents (or other close adult relationships).

Adults tend to have “more adult” ways of acting out, including seeming to show (and even convince themselves of) their “best intentions”, and/or blaming the kids.

I worked in a mental hospital 50 years ago. We had a 9 year old on the most disturbed ward. He was on 24 hours surveillance.
He had attacked his mother with a nine inch kitchen knife. He was very bizarre. Transferred to another hospital so I don’t know what finally happened.

Sure. People often want to blame rotten kids on bad parenting, and we have all seen that, but what is the excuse in the case of a family where all the kids are fine, and one is just a dirtbag?
Truly, some kids are born funked up, and even the very best parents can’t change that.
I have known some of those.
I have also known kids who were very special and good, in spite of a bizarre upbringing.

@Patty_Melt Very true. That is why I don’t excuse abusive people because they had shitty or abusive childhoods. Once you are an adult it is up to you to CHOOSE your behavior.

@Patty_Melt In the cases where I have known the family well enough to have an informed opinion, I am seeing reasons other than “one is just a dirtbag”. For example, the one is a dumping ground to draw attention away from the behavior or certain adult family members, particularly when the child was tending to get into conflicts with said adult family members by calling attention to those adults’ behavior that the adults’ egos couldn’t handle being exposed. And yes, in the cases I am thinking of, the parents did a pro job of appearing to be “great” parents with the “best intentions” to outsiders. All the more reason they needed to (subconsciously or otherwise) “sacrifice” the kid that was threatening the adult’s ego.

Not that there may not be kids who are just really entirely messed up by something else, but I haven’t personally known any well enough to comment beyond that.

@Zaku Yeah, tons of hidden psychology like the scapegoat kid and the golden child and the black sheep and all sorts of subconscious roles being projected but, it has also been proven that sociopatholgy is very much a bad seed trait of brain pathology in many instances.

On our block were two brothers who constantly competed to win ‘The Event of the Year Award’ (there was no trophy or certificate, just annual bragging rights).

The older brother tried to rob a bank where he’d worked and had just been fired. He drove up to the drive-up teller window and passed a note that said he was holding another teller (who was inside the bank, and fine) hostage, and to give him $10,000….or else.

He stupidly sat there for so long that the cars behind began beeping, so he got nervous and drove off. The cops got him before he even made it off of bank property. He did significant prison time.

The younger brother (I’m pretty sure) never went to prison, but would do bizarre things like suddenly running into someone’s back yard late at night, grabbing their clothespin bag from the clothesline, then take a dump in it and put it back.

( I’m sorry….I should’ve left that last part out….)

Anyway, their parents were divorced, but pretty nice, hard-working people, and I have no guess as to what brings on this kind of regular, malevolent behavior…..

Technically, the kids are not bad seeds. Their parents had bad seeds that produced the kid.

And yes, I have known a couple. One went to prison. The other hung himself./

@elbanditoroso Mental illness can inherited, depression, alcoholism, pooping in clothespin bags the list is long. haha
All kinds of genetic connections there.

The bad “seeds” I’ve come across come from bad fruit.

As a child, there was a young girl in the neighbourhood who had an older brother. Both were part of our regular play group. This was in the days back in the 60’s and 70’s roaming the neighbourhood playing until the streetlights came on.

Kelly was a tomboy; her older brother suffered from a stutter. None of us questioned it and just accepted them as they were. Their mother was strict. I can remember her coming out of their house and belittling her children in front of us when we were playing basketball on their driveway.

When Kelly was 18, we had all moved on in life, mainly onto college. The news filtered down to us that Kelly’s mom, one of our high school English teachers, had been murderded in her home. It later came to light that it was Kelly who shot her mom, robbed the house, and took off with an underage girlfriend across several US state borders before being caught.

Today, it does’t surprise me. Kelly had anger issues from a young age. Her brother had issues as well. It is unlikely that they were ever addressed. The mother was a teacher that was feared by the students, as well as us. I don’t remember ever seeing their father.

I think of Kelly often. Her name was found on a social website ~15 years ago, and I sent her a message. No response has cropped up. I have to admit that I am thankful. As much as I want to support her, she still scares me.

@Patty_Melt Do we know what the cause of the brain pathology is? It can be tricky to know what is cause and what is effect and what is side-effect, etc. I’ve read several convincing cases that asocial behavior and brain hormone imbalances have been strongly correlated with lack of physical contact and empathetic connection with others during infancy.

@Zaku, while that is sometimes true, there are also cases which have nothing to do with access to parental closeness.
Take a look at autism. These children have tremendous difficulty handling parental affection, not the parents’ fault.

There are all sorts of brain function anomalies.

There are people who “see” a certain color with each different number.

My daughter insists she knows what gender various numbers are.

Trust me, not all bad kids are born bad, but many are. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that far more are cultivated.

Two boys, brothers, who lived down the street from me growing up. At the time we chalked it up to how religious and strict the parents were, but maybe the kids were just born mischievous, conniving, and a major pain in the neck. Hopefully, they straightened up as the aged.