CWC Pics

[MysticMisty]

Does every Chandler birthday photo have to look depressing and cheap? The Chandlers could have gone to Applebee's or somewhere more fancy in Charlottesville. But BIRTHDAYS ARE EXPENSIVE. Seeing photos like this just makes me realize that Chandler's didn't care about one another at all. None of Chris's happier moments involve Borb taking him to the zoo as a kid or something fun most people would remember their parents doing for them.

I know right? That picture is like what you'd expect from a kid celebrating their birthday in class for a few minutes. Parents would bring in a cheap-o cake, everyone would sing, and if the teacher was feeling really generous they allowed the parent(s) to bring in soda instead of juice. And even then usually the birthday kid had a private celebration at home with a few friends. And Chris was turning 25! That's just extra sad.

And it's not just because Barb 'n Bob were old. You hear about grandparents older'n them doing a lot more stuff with their grandkids. They just didn't particularly care about doing shit with Chris. Just give him an assload of toys and hope he shuts up...or reads their names, whichever they wanted at the time.

 

[Axiom]

Barb does seem to give off the impression of having given up on life yeeears ago. I don't know if she's depressed or what, but she's never ever seemed anything but miserable.

 

[Coldgrip]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

 

[mst3kluv]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

Barb deserved it. She could have had a functioning son, but she chose to coddle him. Barb always seemed like the type of person who would threaten suicide just to get attention.

 

[WiseOldBadger]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

"Caring" is a generous word indeed. Remember, to the extent she raised him at all, she put in the absolute minimum effort to do so. It really took a village to raise Chris rather than Barb ( and by a village I mean nintendo, cartoon shows, Toys R us, game stores, and abusive baby sitters.) It's like she would place him anywhere as long as he was reasonably safe and out of her hair.

She probably is depressed from the isolation and embarassment he has caused her, pretty much ruining her dreams of peaceful, enjoyable "golden years" and any form of status in her little bumpkin community.

I wonder if that was what caused her hoarding.. the anxiety and depression? Or just a really strong desire for a lot of "stuff?"

 

[Anchuent Christory]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

Barb deserved it. She could have had a functioning son, but she chose to coddle him. Barb always seemed like the type of person who would threaten suicide just to get attention.

They deserve one another. Barb may be the main architect of their current situation, but Chris still does his fair share in maintaining it.

Gonna ramble for a bit. Does anybody read David Eddings? There's a part in one of his series of books where the group of main characters is forced to stay at a manor house in the middle of nowhere due to bad weather. The occupants of the house aren't villains or evil per se, they're just really unpleasant people who spend their days bemoaning their situation of living in the middle of nowhere, whilst blaming and taking it all out on one another and their servants.
One person amongst the lead characters is a Goddess disguised as a young girl, as they leave the next morning, she subtly curses the houses occupants by ensuring that they'll all live long lives, but will be stuck with one another, isolated from the rest of the world and inflicting their misery on each other until the end of their lives.

Whenever Chris and barb's living situation, or the topic of how long they'll live comes up, this scenario always pops into my head.

 

[Coldgrip]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

"Caring" is a generous word indeed. Remember, to the extent she raised him at all, she put in the absolute minimum effort to do so. It really took a village to raise Chris rather than Barb ( and by a village I mean nintendo, cartoon shows, Toys R us, game stores, and abusive baby sitters.) It's like she would place him anywhere as long as he was reasonably safe and out of her hair.

She probably is depressed from the isolation and embarassment he has caused her, pretty much ruining her dreams of peaceful, enjoyable "golden years" and any form of status in her little bumpkin community.

I wonder if that was what caused her hoarding.. the anxiety and depression? Or just a really strong desire for a lot of "stuff?"

I suppose I should of used the words 'providing for' instead of caring.

I really doubt she's embarrassed by Chris. Barb has always had an "I don't care what you think as long as I get what I want" attitude. To her, other people should tolerate her autistic spawn and not complain when he breaks rules or creeps on women because he's her little special man and he can do what he wants.

As for what caused her hoarding, I honestly think that Cole leaving was the biggest factor. She couldn't keep her eldest from flying the coop, so she compensated by accumulating garbage and stunting her youngest's mental growth, keeping him always dependent on her.

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

Barb deserved it. She could have had a functioning son, but she chose to coddle him. Barb always seemed like the type of person who would threaten suicide just to get attention.

I agree she deserves her misery and that she (well Borb) created this situation, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it made her depressed. As much as she loves being waited on hand and foot by her speshul snoflake, I bet she'd also like it if she could have a day where she didn't have to put up with Chris. Not that she deserves that, she doesn't, but I do think that even Barb would like to be away from him.

 

[WiseOldBadger]

Part of what I wonder is: who were those "other people?"

Parents of children from school or teachers? I kind of can't believe how isolated Barb is, given her vivacious and alluring time as a popular high school cheerleader in the '50s.

Like was she never part of some book club, bible study, or quilting bee in Ruckersville? Or has she just spent the past 25 years as Oscar the Grouche's poorer relation?

 

[Axiom]

Probably a case of going headlong into an irreversible long-term commitment only to discover it isn't as cool as you thought it would be. Like teenage girls who get pregnant because they think it'll be fun and learn quickly that actually it's really hard work to care for a baby. Or getting a poorly-planned tattoo. Or something. You thought it would be fun and it isn't and now you're stuck with it.

 

[Coldgrip]

Part of what I wonder is: who were those "other people?"

Parents of children from school or teachers? I kind of can't believe how isolated Barb is, given her vivacious and alluring time as a popular high school cheerleader in the '50s.

Like was she never part of some book club, bible study, or quilting bee in Ruckersville? Or has she just spent the past 25 years as Oscar the Grouche's poorer relation?

The "other people" would be everyone else. Teachers, students, employees at the local Toys 'r' Us, ect.

Barb seems to me like the type of person that would join a club and then wouldn't associate with other members because they wouldn't give her all the attention she wanted/she couldn't be the center of attention.

Barb really has spent the past twenty-five years as a miserable bitch. That and, would you want someone like Barb to join your sewing circle? Chris can't see it, but other people are able to recognize what a toxic person she is and really don't want anything to do with her.

 

[Gretchen Weeners]

To be fair, wouldn't you be depressed if you had to spend the last decades of your life caring for Chris?

Barb always seemed like the type of person who would threaten suicide just to get attention.

IIRC, Barb actually IS the type of person who would threaten to kill Chris just to get attention.

She'd probably fit in well around here, come to think of it.

 

[Picklechu]

Spoiler

http://www.sonichu.com/w/images/2/21/0940-CWCsAppreaciation.JPG

It kind of looks like he has a deck of cards on his belt. To me, all of Chris' birthday pics scream "I am mentally unwell".

 

[cypocryphy]

Does every Chandler birthday photo have to look depressing and cheap? The Chandlers could have gone to Applebee's or somewhere more fancy in Charlottesville. But BIRTHDAYS ARE EXPENSIVE. Seeing photos like this just makes me realize that Chandler's didn't care about one another at all. None of Chris's happier moments involve Borb taking him to the zoo as a kid or something fun most people would remember their parents doing for them.

What's even sadder is that typically in the western world, a 20-something's birthday is spent with friends/significant other of around the same age.

Chris just had little kid-type parties with his senior citizen parents.

 

[DeadMansHand]

Spoiler

http://www.sonichu.com/w/images/2/21/0940-CWCsAppreaciation.JPG

Girl scout cookies, your own handmade DVD on the table next to your 5 dollar grocery store cake, posing so your mommy can take a picture.
Looks like Chris had one wild 25th birthday!

What's on his left wrist? Is he using a watch to keep his sleeves from riding up or something?

 

[mst3kluv]

Maybe it's a bunch of those plastic wristbands. Knowing Chris, I bet he bought a shit-ton of those.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Re: The 25th birthday pic

Is it possible Chris's birthday parties were depressing and cheap because that's actually what he wanted? If you gave Chris a choice between Applebee's and Wal-Mart cake, what do you think he'd prefer? Give him a choice between a night out in a pool hall, or Good Burger on the couch, what do you think?

Generally speaking, Borb gave Chris whatever the hell he wanted. I'm thinking his parties were no different.

 

[Axiom]

He probably just doesn't know any better. Remember the Honeymoon comic he did for Ivy? What he thought was a 'fancy dinner' was just run-of-the-mill and really dull to most people (grilled chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes). The speculation obviously being that he'd never been to a fancy restaurant before and wouldn't have known what would've been on offer. The same was probably true of his birthday parties--he just didn't know that better alternatives were accessible, even to him. Chris also hates change (yay, autism!) and once he gets comfortable with something he's extremely reluctant to try something new. Chris was still celebrating his birthdays like a child because he wasn't aware what else was out there and wouldn't have wanted to change anyway.

 

[DJAndyMD]

Spoiler

http://www.sonichu.com/w/images/2/21/0940-CWCsAppreaciation.JPG

I think someone once said this looked like his DVD launch party.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

Spoiler

http://www.sonichu.com/w/images/2/21/0940-CWCsAppreaciation.JPG

Girl scout cookies, your own handmade DVD on the table next to your 5 dollar grocery store cake, posing so your mommy can take a picture.
Looks like Chris had one wild 25th birthday!

What's on his left wrist? Is he using a watch to keep his sleeves from riding up or something?

Chris wore his watch on the outside of his sleeve always, probably due to sensitivity

 

[MysticMisty]

He probably just doesn't know any better. Remember the Honeymoon comic he did for Ivy? What he thought was a 'fancy dinner' was just run-of-the-mill and really dull to most people (grilled chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes). The speculation obviously being that he'd never been to a fancy restaurant before and wouldn't have known what would've been on offer. The same was probably true of his birthday parties--he just didn't know that better alternatives were accessible, even to him. Chris also hates change (yay, autism!) and once he gets comfortable with something he's extremely reluctant to try something new. Chris was still celebrating his birthdays like a child because he wasn't aware what else was out there and wouldn't have wanted to change anyway.

Even if you've never been anywhere fancy, you could still see it on TV or in a movie, or read a passage in a book and get a general idea. I think it really boils down to his childlike mentality. Except for the birthday party thing to an extent. Barb 'n Bob just always gave him the laziest and cheapest birthday parties even as a kid. I know I had some really awesome parties growing up so this is probably why I'm so critical of his folks for his birthdays. Even if they couldn't afford really extravagant parties they could have taken the time to bake a cake, blow up a few balloons, throw up a few streamers, and taken him out to Applebee's instead of McDonald's or even the buffet.