In ''Attaboy'' he witnesses a good Samaritan making a citizen's arrest on a teenage boy by restraining him by the shoulder, but instead of reprimanding their son for defacing a mailbox, the parents start harassing the man for daring to touch their son. Ruffled by their mollycoddling behaviour, Sedaris points out how his childhood was less than indulgent. ''Our artwork did not hang on the refrigerator … because our parents recognised it for what it was: crap. They didn't live in a child's house, we lived in theirs.''