I’m a 52-year-old father, and I’m honestly at my wit’s end here. My 22-year-old son wants to change his last name to “Carrington,” and it’s driving me absolutely crazy. You see, he was named after me, and now he wants to throw that away just because he doesn’t like our family name. He’s been talking about this since he was 15-17, but I foolishly believed it was just teenage angst that would fade away with time. But here we are, years later, and he’s still hell-bent on becoming a “Carrington.” Why?

Well, for one, he’s never liked me or my last name, and he’s not close to my side of the family at all. My parents are in their 90s and still alive. I have siblings, but my son never spends time with them, and neither did I ever let my son visit them. The last time my son saw my parents or my siblings was when he was 10 years old, and that was it. But still, that doesn’t give him the right to change his last name, let alone to that of some character name he likes.

Because he watched some soap opera called “Dynasty” and fell in love with their last name. I mean, seriously? Changing his name to a fictional character’s name from a TV show sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. I’m really struggling to understand this whole situation. We don’t have any Carringtons in our family, and it feels like he’s disrespecting our family lineage and his ancestors. It’s like he’s trying to cut ties with his own heritage, and that just breaks my heart.

If he had a valid reason, like adopting his mother’s maiden name, changing his last name to his wifes name or for religious reasons, I would probably be more understanding. Heck, if he was transgender and changing his name to better reflect his identity, I would fully support him. But this? It feels like he’s going through some sort of identity crisis and hates himself for no good reason. I’ve suggested that he consider professional help or therapy to sort through his feelings and understand why he’s so adamant about this change.

But he brushes it off, saying he’s sure about this decision. I’m his father, and I can’t help but feel like it’s my business too. After all, I named him, and our family name has been passed down through generations. Now, it seems like it’ll stop with him.I want him to know that I still love him, but I won’t call him “Carrington.” To me, he’ll always be my son with the name I gave him. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but changing his name to something so fictional just seems immature and crazy to me.

My son also has no respect for me whatsoever. He doesn’t like me, care about me, and finds me annoying. He straight up said, ‘I couldn’t give a fuck less about you or your opinion. The fact that you think I should care proves how utterly stupid you are.’ He doesn’t consider his mother’s brother or cousin his ‘family’ either, and he truly doesn’t give one fuck about what I feel about this decision.

TL;DR: My 22-year-old son wants to change his last name to “Carrington” just because he watched a soap opera and liked their name. I think it’s ridiculous, disrespectful to our family lineage, and shows a lack of understanding about his own identity. I won’t call him “Carrington” and hope he’ll come to his senses soon. Any advice would be appreciated.

First of all, anyone who asks a guy that question is kind of annoying, whether it be a female friend, best friend, girlfriend or wife. Or fucking tell them what they want to hear. Seriously, they want to hear you say, “Bear, I would rather our daughter/son be alone with the bear.” That’s what they want the answer to be, so just fucking say that. You KNOW what she wants you to say so fucking say that.

Now, as for why the question is dumb, it’s a no-win situation either way, and it’s a loaded question.

What kind of bear are we talking about? And what “man” is it? Is it someone that we know?

It’s a trick question, a loaded question; there’s no logic, and it’s not a genuine question about a hypothetical situation.

A hungry bear will tear into you and eat you alive. Bears literally rip you to shreds. They make sure you are dead.

At the same time, a strange man is dangerous too.

But still, it’s kind of a question with no “right” answer.

When you are a penny stock trader, you basically are doing stocks for poor and low-income people. Imagine trying to break into the finance world, and all you do is penny stocks for fucking poor people.

Feel bad for them.

I was rewatching the TV show Superman & Lois. In that show, Clark and Lois have twin boys who are 16. Their son Jonathan Kent was taking an illegal super drug called “X-Kryptonite”, and Lois and Clark blew up at him. I wonder if they have this energy for abortion because I know damn well Clark and Lois are pro-choice.

So I hate how they violated Jon’s autonomy.

and this applies to real life too; “my body, my choice” should apply to drug use too.

I rest my case. I won’t listen to to any other copes but here’s your proof pretty privilege exists.

Both killed influencial multi millionaire figures but one gets praised and girls thirsting for him and randos wanting to defend him in court, while the other didn’t get the same treatment because he wasn’t as genetically blessed as Luigi. In fact I see a lot of people lowkey roasting Robinson for his looks, while all I see for Luigi is how hot he is and how he’s in the right.

Many people probably don’t even realize this but it’s just pretty privilege. And I’m sure I’ll have plenty of people coping here.

Luigi is called a ‘hero’ because he killed a bad person, while Frank Castle and Dexter both kill bad people (literally all they do is kill bad people), yet no one calls them ‘heroes.

And if I write a “superhero” story about a guy with superpowers and he kills every single criminal he meets, from the bank robber to the crime lord, and leaves no criminal alive, he should also be considered a “hero”, more of a “hero” than Superman.

Every time I make a post people comment about how I’m “known” and keep telling me to “stop trolling” or whatever, but here’s the thing: everyone complaining about me has the option to block me and never see my posts, but for some reason you don’t? It’s the same with Reddit, honestly.

If I don’t like someone, I will block them because I truly don’t care about you or anyone enough to engage with them.

A 22-year-old named Cole Schmidtknecht died because the price of his inhaler went from $66 to $539: he only had enough money for rent or the inhaler, so he chose rent over his medicine.

Do I care about him? Nope, not at all. I was tired of seeing the story, so I blocked it on Reddit and Instagram because I don’t feel empathy, sympathy or care enough about this person to truly give a fuck… Honestly, if he was dying on the ground and he asked me to get his inhaler that’s next to my shoe, I would just leave or kick it further away from him.

And feel no remorse about it at all.

So complaining about me has the option to block me and never see my posts.

Look, if you’re the only one texting your so-called “friends” to check in, make plans, or just say what’s up, then let’s be real—they’re not actually your friends. Friendship is supposed to be a two-way street, but if you’re the only one driving, what’s even the point?

I’ve been there, where you feel like you’re always the one initiating every conversation. And it sucks. You start questioning if they even care or if they’re just keeping you around out of convenience. Spoiler alert: if they can’t be bothered to text you first every once in a while, they don’t.

People who actually value you will make an effort. They’ll check in, send a random meme, or even just say, “Hey, how’s life?” It doesn’t take much. But if you’re the only one holding the friendship together, maybe it’s time to let it go. Or keep these people at an arm’s length.

Let’s be real: most people don’t help others in need even when they are able to. People who donate to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital or volunteer with homeless people do so for performative reasons or to just look good in front of someone; in the end, they are doing so for their own self-interest.

If you have a friend with a toddler and they are terminally or otherwise ill and you are financially able to help but choose not to because you don’t care, that doesn’t make you a “bad person”. Just because someone got themselves in some shit doesn’t mean you have to go and deal with it.

When upper-class wealthy people don’t want to date anyone lower, working, middle or even upper-middle class people will claim “classism”, but when middle-class or “normal” people claim they don’t want to date a retail worker or janitor, no one has an issue.

I find this a tad hypocritical. You can reject and not want to date anyone for any reason; hell, you can choose not to associate with a group of people for whatever reason, but I have a problem when people reject people based on finances, looks or any reason. But when someone from an upper-class millionaire family says, “Ew, I would never date a middle-class person; they are poor,” people have an issue, but if a “normal” person says they won’t date a retail worker, no one has an issue.

This can be said for a lot of things, but I will use private school as an example. There was a Reddit post not too long ago about middle-class parents whose teen got a scholarship to go to an exclusive, elite private school, like an upper-class, six-figure-tuition, multi-millionaire-type school, and to no one’s surprise, their kid not only got bullied badly, but the rich kids who didn’t bully them just shunned them. It was an EXTREMELY classist school, and the parent was asking, “What do I do?!” Umm, how about taking your kid out? If the kid is smart enough to get a scholarship, then they could easily get into a good school with good grades. If the kid is in an environment where they get bullied, everyone hates them. They are insecure because they are surrounded by ultra-rich kids; their performance will be poor. And also, why are you shocked, Pikachu-faced, when you sent your kid here knowing there is a high probability the kid would get bullied?

Same thing with Christian parents who are people of colour: some non-white Christians will send their kids to a mostly white Christian school and then get shocked when they experience racism (I’m not saying all majority-white Christian schools are racist; I’m using this as an example). THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SENDING THEM THERE???! I can’t even get mad at the bullies at this point, but it’s YOUR JOB as the parent to protect your kid!

It would be like if you had a transgender or openly gay kid and you took him to a Christian church.

At a certain point this is just on you now.