How Mikey Is An Example Of An Abused Child (Analyzing ‘Streamer Caught Cheating’) (Also explaining Mikey as a character)
I want to actually tell you something.
Having a healthy childhood, is VERY important.
Childhood is exploring the world for the first time, figuring out who you are, and being immersed with life in a youthful perspective.
A healthy childhood is helping kids feel safe and loved in the world around them, and encouraged that they can do anything.
The most common way healthy childhoods are sprung is from good parents. Parents who help nurture their children’s curiosity, wants and desires, while also being there to teach them about dangers, morality, and humbleness.
That is not what Mikey has.
I said this before, but I actually have to admit, Mikey is the most tolerable character in the ENTIRE Dhar Mann universe. Now, he’s NOT a good kid, but he has the most characterization out of anyone, and it seems like Dhar Mann isn’t even trying to give him any substance whatsoever!
Every time I see a vid with Mikey in it, I’m supposed to expect only one thing of him, according to Dhar Mann: That he’s a BAD kid.
Mikey is a BAD KID, for NO REASON, and NOBODY is to blame for his bad behavior, but himself. He is IRREDEEMABLE. And we’re supposed to CHEER every time he gets PUNISHED.
And EVERY TIME in these videos…
I DON’T CHEER FOR MIKEY GETTING PUNISHED, I FEEL SORRY FOR HIM.
And that ALONE, shows just how DISGUSTING Dhar Mann’s mindset is on children. HIS TARGET AUDIENCE. And every time children are a major focus in the vids, you can bet real well that Mikey is the antagonist. And if he’s not, the other kids have the exact same behavior as him.
Here’s how the formula works: Child wants to do something, they get bashed for attempting that something because of society’s expectations, child tries to find their own way around that to meet such expectations, the adults do the exact same cheating thing to expose the kid, they don’t get called out, the child gets ALL the punishment, and they’re treated as irredeemable MONSTERS who don’t commit to society.
And half the time, it’s always Mikey playing the role of the bad kid.
This character has been used so much, to the point where I think Mikey is the textbook example of why I think Dhar Mann is such a bad influence to people.
Rather than change lives, (like you CLAIM you’re doing), by being real about the world and granting perspectives about certain situations, Dhar Mann instead portrays the world as a black and white Dhar Dhar worship factory where you should commit to society, get straight As, give up everything you love, make absolutely no mistakes, never do anything your own way, and if you even SLIGHTLY consider doing otherwise, you’re an irredeemable bastard.
This leads to a ton of irresponsible messages Dhar Mann grants to children about the world. Vids that encourage racism, sexism, fatphobia, believing people’s words to a pulp, unhealthy relationships, peer pressure, overly high expectations, that money is everything, that social media is everything, stealing, scamming, and MOST OF ALL, believing that life is as simple as making a cake for someone on their birthday.
Now, this THIRTY MINUTE LONG VIDEO: “Streamer Is Caught Cheating” I think, perfectly EXPOSES why exactly I feel the same way about Mikey.
And that is: “Man, this kid’s life is awful, he deserves better treatment than this.”
And when that’s NOT Dhar Mann’s intention with the character, then there’s automatically something wrong.
If a character is portrayed as something you don’t intend them to be to your audience, then that character’s writing is automatically garbage.
But that’s besides the point.
Point is… this video just… BROKE ME.
So I want to focus LESS on the actual video, and more so on Mikey as a character. I made a post before explaining Mikey, but here, there’s even more to talk about.
I will also sprinkle in the previous Mikey videos, to further expose what I’m talking about.
So let’s EXPOSE the ACTUAL life of Mikey, from what I’ve learned in his videos.
1: It’s A Black And White World (Good kid, Bad kid, No Grey kid)
It’s a tale as old as time.
One of the most common story tropes for children, is to portray what is right and what is wrong through them. Also what’s common is that there will be two kids, one does the right thing, and the other does the wrong thing.
Now, that sounds fine on paper, but it’s really all in execution.
But let me say something about this: Right and Wrong for each kid does NOT automatically prove that one kid is good and virtuous, and another kid is a bad and awful brat.
Dhar Mann thinks that it does.
In EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. There’s ALWAYS a good guy and a bad guy. No in between. The good guys do everything 100% right and have 0 flaws. They commit to society, are incredible at work, and love and support everything unconditionally. The bad guys are bad, and have ZERO redeemable traits. They have no reason to be bad other than… they’re bad. They do things their own way, are self absorbed, and are treated like devils.
In between? A complex character? Pfft.
I already said how I feel about this in my nerd gets revenge on bully post, so I might as well repeat it here.
“Dhar Mann doesn’t write bullies as though they’re people, he writes bullies as though they’re devils. It would be fine if he wasn’t trying to make his videos relatable, but he is, and that’s why it doesn’t work. NOBODY is going to relate to these bully characters or recognize that they might potentially be like them, because they are unidentifiable to the audience.“
I wouldn’t mind this trope being used all the time IF the corniness was INTENTIONAL.
We’re supposed to see ourselves in these scenarios and learn about the world from these videos.
And if THIS is how Dhar Mann portrays the world, then he REALLY has it messed up on what the morality is supposed to be!
Even then, the morality is incredibly questionable. These SHOULD be easy! Never judge a book by it’s cover. Work hard for your dreams and goals. Be kind and virtuous.
Yet SOMEHOW, Dhar Mann twists those morals on their heads and make them even more unrealistic, by having his ‘good guys’ do the EXACT bad things the bad guys do, just to punish the bad guys, and yet somehow the good guys get away with it. OR, the good guys just tell a tragic backstory to bad guys, or give them money, and the bad guy automatically stops being bad.
So I guess what you need to escape punishment is to be the protagonist I guess.
Except we’re all the protagonists of our own stories, so…
I guess Dhar Mann believes protagonists can’t do anything wrong. So he writes the bad guys as doing nothing but wrong things, and this is exactly how Dhar Mann tries to make you cheer for the bad guys getting punished to the max. He gives the bad guys zero redeemable traits and makes them spoiled entitled brats. Because if the audience can’t identify with the bad guys, they can’t route for them!
It’s a tactic that allures his entire fanbase, and toxically makes them believe that teaching bad guys a lesson is super easy and obvious. Like, it’s extremely obvious to not identify with a bad person.
This is EXACTLY how Bojack Horseman was portrayed, because Bojack is a bad person with zero redeemable traits, and is punished and ditched for it constantly!
50% of that was sarcasm, by the way, but Bojack is a bad person. But there, the writers made him act like a legit person. They made him feel real, and didn’t go over the top with his bad actions. That’s exactly how Bojack Horseman was able to identify with a ton of people despite them knowing that this is NOT someone we should see as a role model in any way.
And it’s all the same thing with Mikey, and the rest of his family. Mikey is portrayed as the bad guy in every single one of these videos, and the rest of his family do the exact bad things, but get away with it, and Mikey is punished to the million.
We’re supposed to DESPISE Mikey as a character. Dhar Mann wants us to HATE this CHILD, and want to see him get his comeuppance over and over again. Like, “Oh, this 12 year old never learns a thing! Isn’t he the devil?!”
Because completely by accident, Dhar Mann has exposed some explanation to Mikey’s behavior. I guess the more you use the character, the more insight you get on their life.
Dang it Dhar Mann, if you really wanted Mikey to be a shallow one dimensional piece of garbage, you should have just changed the names of the character the actor plays so that nothing adds up! That’s what you do with nearly every other actor’s character! What’s the difference here?
And here’s the exposure of what I could gather from the Mikey vids.
For those who somehow don’t know, about 70% of the Mikey videos are about school. Or rather, how much he hates it.
Now everybody hates school, including myself, because it’s such an unfair system.
And from all these videos, we can assume one thing: Mikey hates school.
He finds it to be boring, and a waste of time for him, as the things they’re making him do don’t give him any sort of pleasure.
From what we can tell from this school, Mikey has a lot of high expectations placed upon him in school, none of which he cares about. He gets bad grades:
He’s expected to run a whole mile or two every day, even though he’s twelve. The teachers give tests every day, or most of them anyway, and bait their kids into rewards ONLY if they get As. As are severely important and expected of children, otherwise they are deemed failures.
Like, if kids don’t get As, then they have failed being people.
They teach these (I’m assuming) SIXTH GRADERS, ALGEBRA, AND GEOMETRY, DAILY!!!
The idea that Jayden is shown NEVER struggling or complaining about this system is HYSTERICAL.
Somehow, Mikey is the only one who openly complains about how badly he resents his school. He never wants to take the tests “Because they’re boring and hard”, and like WOW, isn’t he just a brat?
No. I don’t think Mikey is a brat for resenting tests so much, I think this is a very appropriate opinion to tests, and even if I loved tests, I’d still probably see where he’s coming from. He’s a kid, with a ton of placement and pressure on him. Pressure that, at the end of the day, isn’t gonna benefit him.
His parents also heavily expect their kids to be straight A students and love school to a pulp. I’ll talk about Mikey’s parents later, but part of that is because his parents are of high privilege in the job department. The mom is a doctor, as proven in the “Kid fakes allergy” video, AND mentioned in the “Kid makes fake sick note” video. And the dad… I don’t think it was ever made clear what the dad’s job was, actually. As if the time of this post. Correct me if I’m wrong about that.
On top of that, Mikey’s teacher, Mr Wilson HATES IT when kids aren’t there for tests, so he postpones them as long as possible up to the day all the kids are here. Not sure if that’s legal, but okay. He also makes fake websites to expose cheater. Again, is that legal? But that’s besides the point.
Despite the smile, Mr Wilson appears to be a VERY strict teacher. Whether or not he does legal stuff is another topic, but case and point, he doesn’t mess around and always expects kids to get in line and not complain. If he wants them to run a mile, he expects them to run a mile with no problem. If the kid complains about running a mile, he’ll make them do two.
I’m not against running, it’s healthy. BUT THEY’RE KIDS. THEY CAN’T RUN THAT FAR!
My middle school only expected us to make a quarter of a mile, which I personally loved and wanted to do more of, but other kids hated it and considered it to be too much for their tiny bodies.
So YES, being in a highly demanding school is a part of what makes Mikey want to get away from it and feel some pleasure. The school keeps him cooped up from the real world so much, that he doesn’t want to be trapped anymore.
That’s a part of why he tries to escape schoolwork so much, faking being sick, making fake notes, etc. That’s also a part of why he constantly tries to cheat on his exams, because he finds them boring and useless, and he’s pressured to do it perfectly. But since studying brings him hardships and discomfort, why not cheat? It’s a method that looks like he could meet their expectations, just not the way they want him to do it.
“You have to do things the right way!”
There’s more context as to why Mikey cheats than this, but for now, I want to divert attention to another aspect to Mikey. If he thinks school is so unbeneficial, than what does he desire instead?
This new video actually perfectly answers this.
This may be obvious, but Mikey is a huge gamer. Nearly every video, he’s seen wanting to play some sort of video game. He has an iPad, his own computer, and in the “Kid cheats on final exam” video, he asks his mom for a PS5, AND in this video, he wants an oculus. But his mom won’t buy him one because he’s grounded… FOR A WHOLE YEAR?!!!!
I’m getting ahead of myself.
With that in mind, you may say he’s a gaming prodigy, right?
That is, until this recent video deconfirming that by saying Mikey hates Minecraft, and he sucks at it.
“Minecraft? Bro… that game’s for babies”
“What is the best way to beat a Zombie Pigman?”
“Okay, now you’re just making things up!”
Even though in the Sick Note video, Mikey brought an iPad to play Minecraft with his friend at the mall. And he got Minecraft taken away in that video, implying he plays it a lot.
But since when should Dhar Mann want me to care about a Plot Hole?!
But yeah, like I said, Mikey loves gaming. It’s basically his sense of escapism from school and it’s pressure. He’d much rather grind for gaming than do schoolwork, as shown in the “Kid cheats on final exam” vid, the “Kid fakes being sick” vid, the “Kid makes fake sick note” vid, and especially this vid.
Whether or not he’s good at it, bottom line is, it brings him comfort.
And also in this vid, it’s shown that Mikey wants to make a living out of gaming, starting Twitch, streaming, and making money to expand his gaming horizons.
But of course, next to no one approves of that because school is supposed to be his FUTURE and his LIFE.
It’s not only gaming, there’s also a dream involving Basketball Playing. We’ve never seen Mikey play basketball on screen, but in the sick note video, it’s said that he and his friends are on a basketball team in school. He becomes extremely enthusiastic about this tournament they’re having, and even that he works hard to get good at the sport.
He has his own passions that he wants to achieve, but just lacks the understanding of what he’s doing, as it all sounds like gibberish to him. Mikey’s major flaw is that he doesn’t understand A grade level knowledge on his passions, and he doesn’t even try to understand it, rather he tries to do his own thing. This is a flaw explained COUNTLESS times in these vids.
OH YEAH, and one more thing mentioned in this vid, as to where Mikey got the idea from to use his brother for his own gain?
His friends say that DREAM only does the commentary, and he pays someone to actually play the game.
Yep, Dhar Mann is dumping on popular streamers now. Okay.
But point is, school doesn’t provide Mikey with the nurture he needs, nor do they seem to support his actual dreams and passions.
But if it’s not the parents, and not the school, who inspired him to chase this?
4: The Dhar Mann Elephant In The Room
Dhar Mann exists in the Dhar Mann universe. Yes, I know, how noble.
In the Dhar Mann universe, Dhar Mann is the single most influential person in the entire world. The god of their world, and the hero and mentor figure of the whole world. Everyone, except for the bad guys, WORSHIPS Dhar Mann.
“You’re Dhar Mann, everybody loves you!”
Written by Dhar Mann himself.
And as seen in the “Kid fakes being sick” video, Dhar Mann is actually Mikey’s favorite YouTuber, and he watches him constantly. And in the “Kid sneaks candy into the movie theater” video, Mikey is desperate to see Dhar Mann’s movie.
So if Dhar Mann really is such a great morally correct person who exposes good morality in his videos, you’d think Mikey would turn out better, right?
Because let’s face it from this information alone, Dhar Mann is basically Mikey’s ONLY moral compass. From the countless videos Dhar Mann has made about people becoming successful through gaming, sports, and other junk, that would obviously have an affect on his viewers. Dhar Mann gives such a shallow perspective on how the world works, that Mikey would assume that’s true, consider himself a protagonist, and believe that following his dreams is as easy as Dhar Mann makes it seem.
That makes the most logical sense anyway.
See? Even IN UNIVERSE, Dhar Mann has a bad influence on kids.
But if this is the case, not only is Dhar Mann Mikey’s moral compass, but Dhar Mann is Mikey’s ONLY moral compass. I already talked about how school only wanted to pressure Mikey, but what about Mikey’s family? Surely THEY grant a moral compass for Mikey, right?
5: Jayden (And Owen I guess)
So from what we’ve seen so far, Mikey has two brothers. An older brother named Owen, and a younger brother named Jayden.
Or, is Jayden Mikey’s twin? Because they’re in the same class?? I dunno, that’s never made clear. I just assume Jayden is younger because he looks younger, and is just some prodigy or something.
And Owen is out of the house in college, leaving only Mikey, Jayden, and his mom. His dad? I’ll talk about him later.
He’s the ‘good kid’ of the family. He’s adorable, he’s smart, he’s sweet, he gets perfect scores on everything, and he does next to NOTHING wrong.
It’s because of this, that the family CLEARLY favors Jayden over every other child. Thus, Jayden is NEVER blamed for ANYTHING, and keeps getting rewarded for his good behavior. He DOES actually keep secrets from his family, BUT he never gets punished for that because everyone loves him.
It’s because of this perfectionism Jayden seems to have, and how much Jayden is rewarded, that Mikey heavily resents his brother. This is made ESPECIALLY true in this most recent video, where Jayden is SO good at gaming, grades, and is gullible, that Mikey decides to take advantage of his brother and use him for Twitch Streaming. By using Jayden’s gameplay instead of his own.
He is obviously exposed for doing this, causing THE WHOLE WORLD TO HATE MIKEY. (Good lord Dhar Mann, CHILL OUT) And ONCE AGAIN, Jayden is REWARDED for his goody two shoes behavior, leaving Jayden to get ALL the love and gifts, and Mikey gets NOTHING.
Jayden even tries to offer Mikey to play with him after everything, but the mom teaches Jayden “No. Do Not share ANYTHING with your brother. He deserves nothing, you deserve everything!”
So yes. Jayden is spoiled. Whether or not he’s also a schemer from the countless times he’s known about Mikey’s schemes but never exposed them, or if he’s involved in the scamming the adults do for his own gain, is all just a theory for now. We can’t confirm exactly if that’s the case. If Jayden IS involved, then that not only contradicts ‘what happens in the dark always comes to light’, but that also proves Jayden is spoiled and was taught to commit to society, and was influenced by these awful adults to hate on his brother. If Jayden is NOT involved, then that only means that he too, is a victim of this universe’s abuse on children. He commits to their expectations, because he knows what kind of punishments he’ll get otherwise. It’s ONLY where he meets their expectations, does he actually get loved and praised by the adults. If he were to try anything different, he’d end up like Mikey.
But I DO actually want to correct something I said in a previous post about Jayden, that doesn’t hold up now.
I said: “ and they say Jayden is ‘the nice kid’ but if he actually was responsible and a good brother, he’d put in the effort to help Mikey through his school dilemmas. “
While offering Mikey help and guidance through his school issues and trying to understand Mikey would have been great, I kinda have to acknowledge that I was kind of wrong when I said Jayden doesn’t try to help Mikey.
That’s not the issue in their relationship.
Jayden DOES try to help Mikey, BUT, he tries to help Mikey in the traditional society school way, a way that Mikey doesn’t comprehend well, and thus his efforts to help Mikey come off more as either gibberish or demands to Mikey. And from Jayden’s exposure of being a goody two shoes child everyone loves, why would anyone need to teach Jayden that sometimes you have to change your helping methods to help certain people? His parents didn’t teach him that, his school didn’t teach him that, they just taught him one way, and thus Jayden is only gonna be able to help people in one way.
And APPARANTLY, if Mikey doesn’t get the message, it’s Mikey’s fault, NOT Jayden’s. According to Dhar Mann.
Gosh forbid we have character flaws in an adorable child.
Then there’s Mikey’s relationship with Jayden.
Like I said, Mikey hates his brother.
In this video, that’s made EXPLICITLY clear just how much Mikey hates his brother, for just how easy and loving Jayden seems to have things.
“You sound like my math teacher, because half the time, I don’t even know what you’re saying.”
“No offense, but the last thing I’d wanna do, is hang out with you and your lame friends.”
“Just my younger brother, so annoying.”
“In order to be in front of the camera, you gotta have personality! Sadly, you don’t have one.”
And that’s just from this ONE VIDEO.
And like I said, part of Mikey’ resentment is through Jayden’s good boy attitude, from how much his parents love Jayden and clearly favor him, and also from how much Jayden tries to push him into doing things “the right way”.
But the big one, for me, has to do with how the parents view both Mikey and Jayden. Jayden clearly gets all the love and praise, and NOT ONCE, is Mikey shown to get that same amount of love and respect, if he gets any AT ALL.
Obviously, jealousy could arise from this, and cause Mikey to hate Jayden for receiving the love and support Mikey doesn’t have, but wants.
Then there’s Owen. The older brother in college.
At the time of this post, there’s only one video Owen has appeared in. But from that video alone, Mikey and Owen’s relationship is made explicitly clear.
If anyone in Mikey’s life is as close of an influence on him as Dhar Mann, it’s Owen.
Owen is never home now, from his college, but he still puts in effort to be there for his brother, Mikey. From what we can tell, the parents do not approve of Owen’s lifestyle, and disown him after sneaking candy into a movie theater, and investing in Crypto. Wow, how evil…
But regardless, Owen doesn’t let that get him down, and he sticks to his guts on what he can do. Especially for his brother Mikey. This man goes out of his way to make any attempt necessary, just to spend a perfect movie night with Mikey, for his birthday. And when he gets kicked out of the theater for sneaking candy, he’s naturally upset, since he wanted to be there for his brother.
Owen is basically the ONLY supportive family member Mikey has, who takes time to understand him and spoil him with what he wants. He even encourages Mikey that if he fails once, pick himself back up and try again. Always.
This is deemed as BAD advice by Dhar Mann.
We are supposed to believe that Owen is the ONLY bad family member of Mikey, and that Owen is responsible for Mikey’s bratty behavior. Except, what’s actually true is the exact opposite.
Owen isn’t a wealthy guy, but he puts in the effort to be there and spend money for his brother anyway. He isn’t the most noble guy, but he makes promises to his brother anyway, to make him happy. He doesn’t get mad at Mikey, or punish him, instead, trying to teach him his methods of getting through life. He’s there for Mikey in any way he can be.
We’re supposed to believe this is an EVIL brother.
6: The Parents (And Why They’re Horrible)
I’m going to say this blunt and clear.
Mikey’s parents are TERRIBLE.
These parents are one of the BIGGEST reasons Mikey acts the way he does. WHY he is such a brat. WHY he never learns, and WHY he feels the need to constantly cheat.
Parents have a huge responsibility to raise their kid, and it’s more then feeding them and forcing them into school. It’s about being there to help your kid explore the world, it’s about influencing that kid’s joy and passion, it’s about ensuring that kid is loved, it’s about teaching them dangers and safety. It’s about LOVE.
These parents do NONE of these things for Mikey, PLUS there’s ADDITIONAL problems as well!
These parents do not respect Mikey. AT ALL. They don’t respect Owen either, from what we’ve seen. THEIR SONS.
Like I said before, theses are wealthy high privileged parents. The mom is a doctor, the dad is… something. Not only that, but they heavily expect their boys to be as successful as that high class, with straight As in school, and full society commitment. They ONLY show love for their kid, when they MEET that expectation. If they don’t, the parents are only shown YELLING at them!
And in case you’re saying “Well, that doesn’t prove the parents are bad”, it gets worse than this!
The mom CLEARLY favors Jayden over Mikey, because Jayden is such an angel who does everything she wants of him. She gives Jayden all the gifts, all the family love, and all the support in the world, because he’s the perfect kid. She even says “You deserve it”
I don’t know about you, but the phrase “You deserve it” when referring to love, is one of the most DISGUSTING red flags in a relationship that I’ve ever heard.
To Dhar Mann, love is artificial. Love is something you buy at a store. Love is something you have to work to gain. Love is something you can only have if you do everything the person wants.
You can’t go from having a parent hating a kid, the kid giving them a thousand dollars, and then having the parents love them.
If that’s actually the case, you pay say “That’s bad parenting.” “That’s a toxic relationship.” And it is.
Kids should not need to EARN love. They need to earn respect, sure, but they do NOT need to prove themselves that they are worthy of being loved by their family. Whether or not you get straight As, a good parent will still love you, even if they encourage you to do better. Whether or not you do something wrong, a good parent will comfort you when you need it, even if they teach you what you did wrong. A good parent doesn’t care if their kid meets their expectations. They should let the kid know that they are loved.
You could say, well the mom DOES show that. BUT, she ONLY shows love and support to JAYDEN.
What kind of love does Mikey get? What SHRED of decency and respect does Mikey receive?
Nothing shown on screen anyway?! ALL the love this mom gives, is towards Jayden, and she very intentionally leaves Mikey in the DUST.
Sure, Mikey disrespects her wishes. Sure, Mikey does some bad things. Sure, Mikey isn’t who she wants him to be. But he is a CHILD, who does NOT know better! There’s STILL no excuse to be so CRUEL to your own child!
This mom gives her kids a STRICT moral code they have to follow EVERY DAY, and CONSTANTLY shoves it in their faces.
“There are no shortcuts to success. You have to do things the right way.”
“What happens in the dark, always comes to light.”
“If you pretend to be something you’re not, people will find out eventually.”
“If you keep lying, people will stop believing you.”
Now, on paper, these morals don’t sound that bad. They actually sound pretty good. The problem lies in the constant peer pressure to meet these phrases, and giving your kid NO ROOM to come up with their own phrases.
Not once is this mom ever shown being supportive of Mikey’s dreams of basketball, or gaming. Not even with the PS5 incident, as she demands that the only way they can get it, if if they get As. If they don’t get As, kiss your dreams goodbye, kiddo!
And one more thing, on the non-Mikey focused videos, but focus on the mom. I’m pretty sure this mom is racist, and hostile towards a lot of people. So…
Yeah. Great parent there.
Now for the dad. Just like Owen, the dad has only appeared in one video. He is mentioned more times than Owen, though.
“Just wait till I tell your dad about this!”
This is because the dad, has strangely, NEVER appeared in the household with Mikey. He’s never shown interacting with the mom. We don’t even get any indication that he comes home at night for his kids!
So… it’s a little hard to judge what exactly this father’s relationship is with the rest of his family. Either he just has a long job like the mom does, and takes all nighters… OR, and this explains a lot more,
The parents are divorced.
THEORY, this could be wrong. But that does make sense. Now, the father does still see his boys, obviously, but it’s possible that it’s not so often. Thus, Mikey doesn’t have a lot of time to interact with his dad and bond with him from this supposed divorce. Plus, divorce has a severe effect on kids in general.
But when the dad DID show up in a video…
How has no one called Child Protective Services yet?
This dad, STALKS on his son! TRACKS HIM DOWN! SCREAMS AT HIS SON AFTER SCARING HIM HALF TO DEATH, AND STRIPS AWAY NOT ONLY MIKEY’S BASKETBALL DREAMS, BUT CANCELLS HIS DREAMS AND FORCES HIM IN SCHOOL ON A SATURDAY!
I mean, look at Mikey’s TERRIFIED face! This man looks like he’s about to beat Mikey to the pulp! Every time the dad shouts, this kid flinches horribly!
We don’t know for sure if the dad actually gets physical with his son or not, but I think the emotional side of things makes it clear.
This dad is straight up ABUSIVE.
And that’s the nail in the coffin, the real thing that makes these parents so horrible.
They’re doing nothing but PUNISHING Mikey.
Now, I’m not saying punishment is bad, but parents have to be careful when they inflict it on a kid. If you go too far on a punishment, the kid will believe you don’t love them anymore, and cause severe stress, anxiety, and horror of you as they feel the need to be dishonest with you in order to avoid such harsh punishment. It’s important to let your kid know that they are loved FIRST. And inflict the punishment SECOND. THEN you tell your kid that you will help them not make this mistake again.
These parents don’t do that.
They go HARSHER with their punishments EVERY DAY, as though it’s helping Mikey learn! And it’s CLEARLY NOT WORKING!! But they still do it anyway, because apparently, punishing Mikey, getting him out of their faces, and throwing him in school, is what’ll help him learn. And when he STILL hasn’t learned, and feels the need to be even MORE secretive, that should be a warning that the punishments are not working, and are not healthy.
BUT NOPE, Instead, the parents decide to inflict even HARSHER punishments EVERY TIME. To the point where they’re BANNING Mikey of having a future he can choose to have!
And worst of all, they get this message through by doing the EXACT same things Mikey does that they don’t approve of! Lying, scamming, scheming, tricking kids, and tricking them into doing the very bad thing they’re punishing them for!
Here’s ALL of the punishments I can think of:
“Kid Cheats On Final Exam”
Mikey cheats on his Final Exam with a website that has all the answers. This turns out to be a scam, as his TEACHER created that website to expose him, and comes to his house during the summer during a PANDEMIC, to expose his CRIME.
Then MIKEY is seen as 100% to blame, and the mom grounds him FOR A WHOLE SUMMER. Which meant zero electronics. FOR A WHOLE SUMMER.
And that’s not even the worst of it, because she encouraged Jayden to NOT share ANYTHING with Mikey for a whole summer, and she spends time with Jayden happily, in claiming he deserves it.
The last shot of the video, is of Mikey overhearing this from behind a wall. He looks heartbroken!
Mikey fakes being sick for three days, to not have to take a test. The mom found out he was faking this RIGHT AT THE START. She KNEW he was faking being sick, and yet she ALLOWED him to skip several days of school. THEN, she SCAMS her kid into believing Dhar Mann was coming to school, JUST so she can expose the fact that she knew he was lying, and so she and the teacher could rearrange the test to that same day. She didn’t help Mikey study, nobody helped Mikey prepare for this!
She SET HIM UP for FAILURE here.
“Kid Fakes Having An Allergy”
In this one, Mikey fakes having an allergic reaction to get out of a test.
Then the mom freaking TRAUMATIZES her own son, into believing he’s going to DIE!
She convinces several doctors to help her with a play act during work, to make Mikey believe he’s dying, and give him a shot he didn’t need.
We don’t see any further punishment than that, but my gosh, that’s HORRIFYING.
If I worked there and I saw this mom doing this, I’d call child protective services IMMEDIATELY.
“Kid Makes Fake Sick Note”
In this one, Mikey and his friend make a fake note to skip a day of school.
The dad TRACKS THEM DOWN, just so he can scream at them as if they murdered someone. He FORCES them into school on a Saturday to do a makeup test. AND he strips the boys of their DREAMS.
He CANCELS their participant in the tournament, AND their entire basketball career, because of this ONE SMALL THING. He strips them of potential career paths, because they didn’t commit to society 100%.
AND, he also takes away their electronics. FOR A MONTH.
AND, he bans Mikey from being around his FRIENDS. FOR A MONTH.
They took away his free time, his weekend, his hard earned game, his friends, and his DREAMS, BECAUSE HE SKIPPED A SINGLE DAY OF SCHOOL.
And if you think THAT is an awful punishment?
Even THAT doesn’t compare to this RECENT video…
“Streamer caught cheating”
In this one, Mikey wants to pursue gaming, which he sucks at (for some reason), so he uses Jayden’s gameplay instead of his, to get views, and to become popular.
He gets outed, and THE WHOLE WORLD HATES HIM.
Mikey is DESPISED by EVERYONE. EVEN HIS OWN FRIENDS.
THEN, Jayden STEALS Mikey’s dream by becoming a successful Streamer, and the mom ENSLAVES Mikey into being Jayden’s little maid.
Mikey doesn’t even get paid for being a slave!
NOT ONLY is Mikey’s electronics taken away AGAIN, NOT ONLY is he not allowed to be around his friends (because everyone hates him now), NOT ONLY does Jayden get ALL the love and support by mom IN HIS FACE…
But Mikey is thrown away in his room for a LONG TIME.
Okay, what Mikey did was BAD. I am NOT going to act like he doesn’t deserve consequences for his actions, BUT DEAR GOSH, At least make sure Mikey’s emotionally stable after being dumped on BY THE WHOLE WORLD, before you punish him to death!
But no. They don’t do that. Instead they treat him like a criminal.
Mikey is forced to give up EVERYTHING he loves to his brother.
Mikey is forced to go BROKE, for his brother.
Mikey is forced to WATCH as his brother receives EVERYTHING he wants, while he sits in the back and gets NOTHING.
Mikey does not even get his mother’s LOVE, as he’s forced to watch as the mom supports Jayden and spoils him with gifts unconditionally, while she treats Mikey as though he’s a criminal.
“Jayden, I am so proud of you.”
“You don’t have to share anything with your brother.”
This is NOT fair grounding.
This is full on EMOTIONAL ABUSE.
What next? Are they going to send Mikey to Juvie because he wants to have a friend? After all of this?
These, are, without a doubt, BAD PARENTS. They pressure their kids with work and high expectations, they play the favorite card constantly, they lie, they scheme, they scam, they scream at their children, and they punish them so harshly that it involves stripping them of a potential future.
And worst of all. We’re supposed to believe these are GOOD parents.
Yep. We’re supposed to believe these are the best parents in the world, who are JUSTIFIED in doing all of these things to Mikey!
Like, why does Mikey have such a bratty behavior?
IT’S BECAUSE THEY FAILED AS PARENTS.
7: Why Does Mikey Act The Way He Does?
So, why does Mikey act the way he does?
Why does this kid act like a spoiled, narcissistic, irredeemable brat?
Maybe it’s the school system and how badly it nurtures him and makes him feel pressured.
Maybe it’s his failure to recognize what it takes to make his dreams and goals happen.
Maybe it’s his brothers either not being there, or failing to understand him.
Maybe it’s the awful parents, doing all kinds of bratty things themselves, and punishing him to no end.
Maybe it’s Dhar Mann’s influence on this kid.
Well, in the end, it doesn’t change one thing:
At the end of the day, it’s all bad writing. It’s Dhar Mann FAILING to successfully write relatable children characters that can be of any influence to children in the real world. It’s the writing, of portraying kids as one dimensional selfish monsters, and justifying the abuse, pressure, punishment, neglect, and emotional damage, as something kids deserve.
Mikey is the BIGGEST example of writing a child poorly.
And neglect of what a child needs to live a healthy life.
If Dhar Mann wants to respect his child audience, he has to understand what children go through everyday. He needs to understand that it’s not as simple as a good kid and a bad kid. It’s not as simple as punishing a kid to make them learn. It’s not as simple as saying they should stay in school. It’s not as simple as saying they should listen to their parents.
Children need to feel heard.
They need to feel the right to explore the world on their own terms.
But in the end, Dhar Mann, has always FAILED, to give children any respect and any voice. And it baffles me that this kind of child writing is considered okay by a ton of people.
Even after this post, I doubt Dhar Mann will EVER change his writing or respect kids in any way. He’s making money, why change anything?
And if that’s the case, then yes.
This is the EXACT THING Dhar Mann does, that BROKE ME.
