--- ---  # That Time I Failed Miserably at Charming My Own Son by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 18, 2017 3:41 PM UTC  by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 18, 2017 3:41 PM UTC In 2009, Jeff Kinney walked up to me at the TIME 100 party and told me he enjoyed my columns, making me instantly like him. I told him I had just had a son, and he said that in six years, Laszlo would be reading his [_Diary of a Wimpy Kid_](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Collection-Books/dp/0141336463/?tag=timecom-20) books. This seemed very cocky and not at all wimpy. Six years later, my son’s favorite author was Jeff Kinney. This was upsetting, since my son happened to live with an author, one who made him whatever he wanted for breakfast every day. Also, unlike [_Diary of a Wimpy Kid_](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Collection-Books/dp/0141336463/?tag=timecom-20), which never mentions Laszlo at all, I often write about him.  Every night for the past two years, I’ve read Laszlo [_Diary of a Wimpy Kid_](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Collection-Books/dp/0141336463/?tag=timecom-20) books over and over while he giggles. Every so often, I ask Laszlo if he wants me to instead read him my way funnier book about being wimpy, [_Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity_](https://www.amazon.com/Man-Made-Stupid-Quest-Masculinity/dp/0446573124/?tag=timecom-20) by Joel Stein, much of which is about him. Once, he said yes, but he got bored after two pages. So usually, I have to re-re-re-re-re-re-read him his favorite [_Wimpy_](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Collection-Books/dp/0141336463/?tag=timecom-20) book, [_The Long Haul_](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Long-Haul/dp/141971189X/?tag=timecom-20), which comes out as a movie on May 19\. My book was not made into a movie. Possibly because, unlike Kinney, I didn’t come up with the apparently hilarious idea of entering a smelly-shoe competition.  I arranged a lunch with Laszlo and Kinney so my son could see what a cocky, unlikable bastard Kinney is. Instead, Kinney, who has been around 100,000 more kids than I have, charmed Laszlo by drawing pictures and actually listening to him talk instead of pretending to listen to him, like I do. So I will be seeing the new [_Wimpy_ movie](http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7885613/type/dlg/sid/TIMEMovies/http://www.fandango.com/diaryofawimpykid:thelonghaul%5F197668/movietimes), likely multiple times, while angrily grinding popcorn kernels between my teeth–and hoping that when Kinney’s kids hit puberty, they will start to read my columns.  Illustrations by Jeff Kinney [_Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul_](http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7885613/type/dlg/sid/TIMEMovies/http://www.fandango.com/diaryofawimpykid:thelonghaul%5F197668/movietimes) (May 19) That Time I Failed Miserably at Charming My Own Son ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4783936/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-the-long-haul/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4783936/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-the-long-haul/"},"headline":"That Time I Failed Miserably at Charming My Own Son","datePublished":"2017-05-18T15:41:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:50.711Z","description":"In 2009, Jeff Kinney walked up to me at the TIME 100 party and told me he enjoyed my columns, making me instantly like him....","url":"https://time.com/4783936/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-the-long-haul/","keywords":["The Awesome Column","Humor"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b30776ba990803/6988cfa4ab6d77a9b16ae54b/joelsteinpiece_01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b30776ba990803/6988cfa4ab6d77a9b16ae54b/joelsteinpiece_01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JoelSteinPiece_01","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4783936/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-the-long-haul/","name":"That Time I Failed Miserably at Charming My Own Son"}}]}] ```