that is so horribly cruel! the poor little boy was crying and they just kept laughing!

forget about an Xbox--how about some caring, decent parents?

oh my god ;-; that is DISGUSTING. i started to tear up a little bit...he just...looked so sad =/ sick family.

Those people are horrible people

This child was sooo good natured about his cruel parents doing that to him, I just wanted to adopt him. My daughter watched it with me and she asked if he could come live with us. These parents should have court-ordered parenting classes if they don't have anymore common sense than that.

that just makes me sick...I hope he gets an xbox and some better parents.

this is annoying on the parents part because kids don't really understand not having enough money, but is weird to me is the "turn to the camera and cry jonathan"
it seems like they put this on the internet for what the guys from engadget offered - an xbox for the kid. i dunno, it's annoying on so many levels. it's annoying because they did this to the kid and it seems like they are just using the kids depression for their our gain.
i feel bad for that kid. it's just really sad.

go to the youtube and read what the guy says:
My mom decides to buy my brother an Xbox 360 for christmas. We leave that night and return the next morning to find he has sneaked a look....just as my mom thought he would, this is the result...and yes he did get the game i will try to post the second video

so the kid opened his gift the night before and mom found out, and wanted to get him back.
at least this isn't as horrible as we all thought, and he did get the game. that is SUCH an important part that all the blogs are leaving out, and i just caught it because my boyfriend asked me to visit the youtube for it to see the comments.
i'm not saying that it isn't mean, but still, at least he got the game, and it was for a reason - the kid opened his presents before christmas.

maybe they thought it would be a clever and funny joke..but they were badly mistaken. that little boy looks so crushed! but the worst part is that they keep laughing and filming, even telling him to "turn ti the camera and cry, Jonathon". no one hugged him or consoled him. it is hard for a young child to understand what's happening in that situation. that family appears to extremely heartless in this video. if I were them I would be ashamed to have it on the Internet.

even if he peeked..so what? it is a child's nature to do so. it probably didn't make for wonderful holiday memories to have a tape of a family making a child miserable on Christmas morning. so what if he got the X-Box anyways...it still wasn't very nice.

wow... that poor kid. i can't believe how well he handled it. i probably would have freaked out a bit more and yelled, cause honestly, who thinks that is a cute joke????

we often give each other gifts in mismatched boxes, but usually it's the box that is the sh*tty part, not the actual gift. geez.

One of the comments says, "You have enough money to be fat but not enough for an XBox 360?" Haha.

how sad! that's so mean! how could you do that to your child?

Okay dudes, I just wept. Seriously. WTF would you do that to your child, even if he sneaked a freakin peek? Just... just. Sheesh.

kitkatherine explained it and now I don't really think the par5ents did such a horrible thing because trhe kid got his xbox at the end. It is a nice lesson for the kid tho, don't sneak peeks before xmas. i mean I wouldnt do that to my kid cuz it is pretty mean.

This poor kid needs new parents, not an XBox.

What a horribly disgusting thing to do to a child. I can just imagine this poor kid dreading Christmas every year because of this. People do not understand the damage that they do to children by doing things like this...

I feel so bad for him, whether or not he eventually got the game. Even if you were playing the prank, why would you let it go far enough where he is crying and so upset... That is horrible.

nvm my comment before. I just watched the video and omg that is so f***ing cruel. wow. I thought it was like you know harmless little thing and they showerd him the xbox later but they were laughing at him and telling him to look at the camera and cry?! horrible!!!!!

That is so cruel! Even if they gave him a freaking xbox, the point is that they are really horrible people. I don't know if anything would make this kid feel better after this trauma.

I read about this on another site a couple days ago. This is absolutely terrible.

I'm appalled! His parents are hideous! This type of psychological cruelty (or any type or degree, for that matter) is inexcusable, especially when conducted by a child's parents. Regardless of their reasons for doing this, or the fact that the child got an Xbox in the end does not lighten the harshness of cruelty of this situation. I fear for this child's emotional state while growing up in such a household. What else might his family or parents end up doing later in his life?

Did anyone offer to send the parents to sensitivity class?

"Psychological cruelty?" Jesus...the human race is doomed. The kid still got the XBox. There are millions of kids out there who don't even get the new clothes. This kid will be just fine.

nice note, kitkatherine. that makes it actually pretty funny instead of f-ed up.

kitkatherine, He actually did not get the game. His brother lied and said he did because people dogged them on Youtube! Engadget has found the little boy and his family and confirmed that he did not get the game so they are going to send him a new XBOX and some games.

Here's the link to the story.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/29/worst-parents-in-the-world-punk-kid-i...

P.S. Isn't that kid just too cute! He should get into commercials or acting. Too bad he has a sucky family.

well, i just read the brother's thing, i hadn't gone to the engadget site simply because the blog i read this on before had not linked back to engagdet, just mentioned that they would give him one.

that sucks mostly that the brother lied. so the parents really were awful, sorry i got my info wrong, usually the original source is the best - but that is never really true these days is it?
now i'm jut mad that the brother lied...
poor kid ... that just sucks more.

That was just cruel. My heart went out to the poor kid. His parents are just mean.

I can't believe they did that to him.

And I can't believe they posted about it on the internet.

i hope he gets his xbox after all this. and i wish i could adopt him! his family is just cruel

That's just terrible. Reminds me of the year I lied over something stupid and to teach me a lesson, my mom made me open all my Christmas presents even though she returned them all. Yes, I got a "smaller" Christmas a few weeks later - but that sure hurt. And this on the advice she got from a counselor.

So it's cruel that they laugh about bashing his hopes of getting an xbox 360. Not cruel to not give one to him. Just curious - if they didn't buy one, where did they get the box?

Yeah like was mentioned earlier if the mom would lay off the donuts and twinkies they would have enough money for a game!! Hey lets take an empty twinkie box and stuff it with carrots and celery sticks and give it to the mom for Christmas next year. That little boy should go to a jeweler get an empty ring box put a big rock in it from outside wrap it and give it to his mom for a present, NOW THAT"S FUNNY!!!

Aww. What a horrible thing to do to a kid on Christmas Day. I'm sure he is a little pain in the butt mischievous sort of kid, but still Christmas isn't the time for payback. Poor thing. I don't know how anybody can even stand to see a little kid so crushed and heartbroken on Christmas Day.

That was really awesome of engadget to hook the kid up.

Ok, so I'm going against the grain here and saying this was genuinely funny... well, the first half of the video anyway. I was giggling... but then when I saw Jonathan look so sad and pitiful and start crying... well, that sucked. I would never do that to my kid (if I ever have one) but yeah, there are people who don't even get anything at all for Christmas (hell, I didn't, and believe me, that sucked an egg coming back to school the next year what with everyone bragging about what they got!) so he should be happy he even got some lousy clothes.

But still, those parents were wrong for doing that, and the mom needs to lay off the KFC and doughnuts for real!

Really the worst part was that they were laughing hysterically at him.

How could they laugh at their son as he's crying like that? That's terrible!

I started to watch it but I stopped myself. i really dont need this to ruin my week. His parents are assholes for sure.

That is the meanest thing I have seen. I cannot believe parents would do that.

The family can't afford an Xbox, but they bought the camera to film it? No offense to anyone who struggles with their weight(I, myself, am over weight) -- but did you see the mother? It costs money to eat that much!

THI SIS CHILD ABUSE!!!1 is there a law or something!!! they must be punished!!!

people keep and keep doing this "jokes" they are A W F U L

I know they can't afford a x box... but they coudl afford to laught at his face, to search for box...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRG...

I AM SO SO MAD!!

I can't believe some of the people on here are actually supporting the fact that the parents are mean because they tired to teach the kid not to look at his presents before Christmas. He shouldn't have looked at his presents.

HE STILL GOT HIS XBOX 360. It just wasn't shown in this video. But he also got a lesson in not snooping.

I agree with others: he doesn't need an xbox, he needs a new family. My parents would have never done anything like that to me--WHO WOULD?? Getting him an xbox is just going to give his horrible mom and the rest of his family an xbox too. All for humiliating and breaking the heart of that little boy.

apma - you are right. He shouldn't have look at his presents before Christmas, his parents, who know what is better for his son moral and strength, have the right to teach him a lesson, and what a better way that LAUGHING AT HIS FACE. Really really educating.

I do agree that he should snoop, but... do they have to humiliate him so he can learn a lesson, wait minute... maybe yes...

Ok, as a kid I TOTALLY peeked at my presents one year. Or two. Doesn't every kid do this?! And I'm saying, if my parents had given me and empty Barbie box, I'd still be scarred!

As a kid, you're able to feel pure uncomplicated sadness, and the realization that this is a lesson/consequences does not set in. Plus, he doesn't start crying until they really laugh hard at him--those are embarrassment tears, not disappointment tears.

And the family lied about giving him the Xbox later, as Engadget found out.

I am still mad... they did humiliate him, and THEY TAPE IT!

they knew their child was going to suffer a disappointment and embarrassment, what a better way that tape it to immortality... ok I am exaggerating.. but MAN!!!

"look son, this is the tape when nanny and granpa make me cry for an x box.... and this tape is of your aunts recital"

Hi, that is terrible! All they kept saying was: We can't afford an Xbox... how about you hug your son and say sorry for laughing at him. Terrible!

Regardless of the circumstances before or after the incident in the video, what the parents did was cruel. It was a form of emotional abuse, to bring a child's hopes up and dash them "as a joke" and then laugh and laugh as he begins to cry to himself. No one hugged him or comforted him in any human way. If you know anyone currently in the field of child psychology they would agree.

Wow. Like this has never happened before. I think the only bad part is that it was on YouTube.

That kid will grow up, get over it, and have a funny story to tell about the Christmas his parents got him an XBox.

What kid hasn't peeked at their presents? I accidentally came across a bag full of my unwrapped gifts one year. (I swear, that time it was an accident. This was before my mom learned how to hide the presents well. All she did was put the bag on the other side of the bed!) My friend told & my mom was pissed. She thought I deliberately looked for them. I never convinced her it was an accident, but I still got the presents.

"turn to the camera & cry...", damn, those are some awesome adults. Even if they did give him the x-box later, that's still some f'd-up mess.

He probably won't get to play the xbox anyway because the parents will be using it.

I do find the references in posts to weight to be horribly rude, however. Crappy parenting is crappy parenting - regardless of weight and finances.