Just a couple of examples of what I'm talking about. We head out to the farm like usual, and they go to explore and play and whatnot. They are gone about 15 minutes or so, when they're already back in the house, claiming they are tired. His friend drags out the bag of toys they brought, comes out with a GameBoy, and proceeds to flop onto the couch. Two straight hours go by, he never moves, absorbed in the game. Erik just kinda sits around, idly fiddling with some small toy, bored (he's already said that he doesn't want to play it, because he only has a certain amount of screen time and wants to save it for something later). Erik gets bored enough to go find something to do, his friend doesn't seem to care. Eventually, we said something to the effect of "why not go play instead of playing games all day", and had lunch. Watching a movie with lunch, they decide to find something else to do, and not long after they leave, here comes his friend, back onto the couch, out comes the fuckin' GameBoy. Eventually, we asked him where Erik was, and when he answered he didn't know, implied he should go find him, and he still tried to play the game out the door. Yes, we took it.
Another example. Not long ago, he had some other friend over. We had dinner and tossed in some cartoon. His friend got comfy to watch, and Erik, after less than two minutes, got up to leave. When I asked him where he was going, he said he was gonna go play in his room. When I implied that this was rude, he sat back down, and a few minutes later got up again, asking if he could go get some toys from his room and bring them down.
This kind of thing happens a lot, it seems. Now, I have no other evidence of other kids, so I dunno if this is a generational thing, a regional thing, or a personal thing, but it really, really bugs me. Even as a child, I understood the social situation of being a guest or a host. I sure as Hell wouldn't have ignored someone that I had invited into my home, nor would I have ignored my host had I been the one invited. It just kills me to see this, to watch these kids act as if the invitation to come over, much less an extended period like a sleep-over, is nothing more than a chance to change one's environment for several hours, but not any kind of show of desire to have that friend nearby.
Lots of things I see, I try to ignore, I really do. I accept that this child is not me, and will not react to things the way I would/did. I accept that he was raised in a different setting, a different region, and a different era, by parents from different settings with different ideas. I accept that the country is different than it was 20 years ago, and schools are different than they were 20 years ago, and thus kids will be much different than they were 20 years ago. And, because of all this, I'm really trying to accept that basic social standards and mores MUST be different. Doesn't change the fact that when I see them acting in these manners (and, more to the point, without manners), I'm just struck by it. It just blows me away, it really does. A friend treated me like that, I wouldn't wanna be around them much more.