Do You Complain? Thoughts. Plus My Bout With COVID.

Some people seem born to complain. You may have someone you know immediately pop into mind. That person who just always finds something to bemoan about, whether it’s the food they got for lunch or that 70 degrees is just too warm for their taste (crazy people!). Maybe you are that serial complainer and I just called you out?

I just sat my teenage son down tonight and had a talk with him about such complaining behavior. That child complains about everything under the sun, most notably at the dinner table. Tonight the pizza I reheated was “too crunchy”.

The thing is, it’s never just an offhand, “Aw, this is crunchy and I’d prefer it soft…”. It’s an entire meal of hearing about nothing but what that present complaint is about. Always a huge ordeal and usually it’s something minor that normal folks could just perhaps mention and move on or not even mention.

I sat my son down and I started off asking him to think about our meals over the past couple months with our young foreign exchange student, Haru. I asked if he remembers Haru ever once complaining, about anything, ever.

Of course, being the smart aleck 13 year old, he said that Haru complains in his head. Nice try bucko.

I told my son that it seems like he, himself complains at least 2 to 3 times each week at meals, while Haru has never complained once.

Before y’all think I’m some awful cook or anything, it’s complaints such as: too much food, too crunchy, the texture isn’t to his liking, too much rice, too hot, the noodles aren’t wide enough…really the list is ridiculous.

I told him I’m done with complaints. I explained that complaining boils down to an ungrateful heart. I told him there are people in his school, in our neighborhood, even next door, less fortunate than us. When he complains, he’s not grateful to God or to his parents for what he’s given.

I then brought up the people we saw when we visited India. He asked why I bring them up every time. I told him it’s because he saw first hand the destitution that we saw. I reminded him of the woman who came to the car window, who only had one hand to beg with, the other was literally missing, and she was holding a small baby. I explained that he’s never seen anything such as that and he needed reminding apparently.

I told my son that tomorrow everything we have could be taken away, which is why we need a grateful heart. We could be struck by a fire and lose everything or his father could lose his job and we’d need to live on bread and water.

In his usual fashion, he said he was tired and would likely forget our talk tomorrow. God is good and granted me strength, I calmly told him that the next time he starts complaining, I will simply say, “You’re complaining.”

There’s one thing I didn’t mention that he will learn when he grows up. When you’re older and if you maintain an air of complaint, people identify you as such and tend to dislike you or avoid you. I have yet to meet someone who likes a complainer. If he continues with his complaining behavior though, I may mention such words of wisdom to him. But, we all know that children know better than their parents, according to them.

I get it though, when I was young, I tended to complain a bit. However, I learned a couple things through trial and error. 1: complaining accomplished nothing and 2: nobody cared. Slightly cynical, whereas now I prefer to have a grateful attitude against complaining.

I recently had COVID, catching it just a couple days after having surgery on my head. I did feel pretty miserable for a few days there but didn’t go around complaining to my friends and family, I always stated that I was on the mend and feeling better than the day before. It would have been understandable up to some point to bemoan how awful I felt, but to what end? Would it have helped anything? I really am grateful I didn’t feel even worse than I did and didn’t end up with an infection after my surgery, and I think a positive attitude actually helped with recovering.

However, I will complain about the COVID treatment Paxlovid, lol. That medication was horrible! It may have sped up my recovery, or might not have, but the side effects were horrendous and not worth it. My mouth is still suffering from it, and I still have heartburn from it. My husband stopped his after just a couple days, he couldn’t handle the side effects – the “Paxlovid mouth” and other gastric issues it caused. Their whole insistence of only 6% of folks being affected is pure lies, as everyone we’ve talked to who’s taken it, has suffered the same issue. It’s not worth it, my mouth tasted like a rancid garbage can and my tongue still hurts many days after my last dose. This is more of a warning than a complaint. Never again Paxlovid, never again.

For now, I count myself blessed to be on the other side and steps closer to hopefully soon feeling all better. I have my post-op tomorrow, which I think will go well.