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Learned Helplessness

When a child/student gives you a perpetual "idk" face when you ask/they are asked, to do some menial task that is well within their ability to do so, but they want you to either do it for them, or just give them the answer.
Susie should stop displaying such obvious learned helplessness and tie her own damn shoelaces, the idiot is thirteen!

The students suffer from a ridiculous amount of learned helplessness whenever they are asked to go over something their science teacher *just*freaking*disscused*.
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Learned Helplessness

A disease for which the main symptom is never learning how to do simple tasks for yourself. Always asking others to do things for you--especially in the workplace. A carrier of the disease is usually fully dependent on coworkers and the employees below them.
"Hey Susie, I'm going to need you to put postage on this for me. I just never learned how to use the postage machine...I have learned helplessness"

"I've had learned helplessness ever since I got promoted to CEO. Can you copy this double-sided for me? I just can't bring myself to figure it out."
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A vacation, feeling more like an obligation, that involves visiting or staying with family.
So Joe where are you taking the kids for spring break vacation? We are going on an oblication to Boca to visit my mother-in-law.
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Surf Dracula Syndrome 

A phenomenon in film/television series, most notably streaming series, where the main premise is drawn out to such a point that it takes an entire season or more to get the parts of the series the audience is actually interested in seeing.

For example, if a series is titled "Surf Dracula," a majority of viewers would tune in expecting to see Dracula surfing by the first or second episode. However, the entire first season would instead be tedious padding and backstory before finally ending with Dracula surfing in the last five minutes of the season finale.
I watched "Smallville" on Netflix the other day. Dude, it was ten seasons of filler before he finally flew! Major Surf Dracula Syndrome!
Word of the Day on October 24, 2026
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