Spoiled Bloody Rotten.
Thursday, 27 February 2003 21:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apollaOH MY GOD
Am watching a show on ITV called 'Spoiled Rotten' which is all about the current trend for parents to be buying their children anything they demand.
It stinks. A nine year old going into Fortnum & Masons and demanding crayfish tails? The kids going for cocktails? The five year old going into a sulk because mummy will buy the 130 quid coat not the D&G one for 1100 pounds? I'm sorry, but when I was nine years old I was perfectly happy with crisps and if I was lucky, Diet Coke. I spent my entire childhood wearing second-hand clothes because it was that or the guitar lessons I was bloody lucky to get.
How about the kid whose parents spent 10 grand on her bedroom? Or the little girls being given expensive make up to naff about with?
Are we just breeding little adults with all the demands? Do these parents not think that their children are going to grow out of those expensive clothes within months? Do these parents not consider that their kids are going to get bored with their interior design pretty quickly? Most importantly, did they not consider that their children need an actual childhood, with outings and trips with their mummies and daddies, that they need to feel that important rush when they get presented with a rare present so that they actually appreciate it?
When I was a kid, I remember getting very upset because my mum wouldn't buy me a particular Barbie doll. The only presents we knew we'd get were Disney videos and Ladybird books because they were good clean, educational fun. My parents quite possibly could've spent lots of money buying me and my brother stuff like mechanized cars or 12grand tree houses. But the point is, they didn't. I might've cried over that 'lost' Barbie, but I'll tell you something: my favourite Barbie ever was one my dad bought for fifty pence at a boot sale. It taught me that I couldn't just stamp my foot and get what I want. It taught me that some things just aren't worth it.
Ever heard the story about the expensive Christmas present a dad gave his kids, who then spent their entire Christmas Day playing with the box it came in?
"Keep them happy" seems to be the mantra of this show. WHEN will people learn that children are happiest when their parents sit and read with them? When they play footie in the garden with them? Or that great American movie cliche, baking cookies? I will always remember the day me and my dad couldn't go into London to see the Lord Mayor's parade (and thus, also my grandad). So, my dad let me make butterfly cakes. Of course, I never got past the 'cream the sugar and butter' part, cos that tastes best. I will remember my dad humouring me in my strange baseball phase, even playing catch with me in the back garden. I will remember the time me and my mum drove through thick fog all the way to Plumstead on Christmas Eve to get my gran.
For GODS SAKE... stop spending all your time at work and spend some with your children. It'll be so much better than just spending your money on them. How do you think those children feel when their friends' parents pick them up from school and they have to go home with the childminder? Because I remember the days I had to do that, and although Jane was a sweetheart and had lots of cool toys, I much preferred the days when my mum turned up at school, or sometimes even my dad. I remember always being so cross when it turned out my mum had walked instead of driven (all five minutes of journey) which meant we had to walk home. But now I sit here, hundreds of miles away trying to write a sodding dissertation and the one thing I'd really love to do is walk home from school with my mum, my brother in tow and maybe there's another little boy with us, Richard. And maybe he's been allowed to stay for tea.
Most of us alleged grown ups dream of the old days when we were kids. So why the Hell are we taking the next generation's childhood away from them?
Am really trying to get my dissertation sorted out. Have decided to try and write the introduction, the conclusion and most of the last chapter (Morrison's legacy etc). And he'll have to bloody settle for it.
Am watching a show on ITV called 'Spoiled Rotten' which is all about the current trend for parents to be buying their children anything they demand.
It stinks. A nine year old going into Fortnum & Masons and demanding crayfish tails? The kids going for cocktails? The five year old going into a sulk because mummy will buy the 130 quid coat not the D&G one for 1100 pounds? I'm sorry, but when I was nine years old I was perfectly happy with crisps and if I was lucky, Diet Coke. I spent my entire childhood wearing second-hand clothes because it was that or the guitar lessons I was bloody lucky to get.
How about the kid whose parents spent 10 grand on her bedroom? Or the little girls being given expensive make up to naff about with?
Are we just breeding little adults with all the demands? Do these parents not think that their children are going to grow out of those expensive clothes within months? Do these parents not consider that their kids are going to get bored with their interior design pretty quickly? Most importantly, did they not consider that their children need an actual childhood, with outings and trips with their mummies and daddies, that they need to feel that important rush when they get presented with a rare present so that they actually appreciate it?
When I was a kid, I remember getting very upset because my mum wouldn't buy me a particular Barbie doll. The only presents we knew we'd get were Disney videos and Ladybird books because they were good clean, educational fun. My parents quite possibly could've spent lots of money buying me and my brother stuff like mechanized cars or 12grand tree houses. But the point is, they didn't. I might've cried over that 'lost' Barbie, but I'll tell you something: my favourite Barbie ever was one my dad bought for fifty pence at a boot sale. It taught me that I couldn't just stamp my foot and get what I want. It taught me that some things just aren't worth it.
Ever heard the story about the expensive Christmas present a dad gave his kids, who then spent their entire Christmas Day playing with the box it came in?
"Keep them happy" seems to be the mantra of this show. WHEN will people learn that children are happiest when their parents sit and read with them? When they play footie in the garden with them? Or that great American movie cliche, baking cookies? I will always remember the day me and my dad couldn't go into London to see the Lord Mayor's parade (and thus, also my grandad). So, my dad let me make butterfly cakes. Of course, I never got past the 'cream the sugar and butter' part, cos that tastes best. I will remember my dad humouring me in my strange baseball phase, even playing catch with me in the back garden. I will remember the time me and my mum drove through thick fog all the way to Plumstead on Christmas Eve to get my gran.
For GODS SAKE... stop spending all your time at work and spend some with your children. It'll be so much better than just spending your money on them. How do you think those children feel when their friends' parents pick them up from school and they have to go home with the childminder? Because I remember the days I had to do that, and although Jane was a sweetheart and had lots of cool toys, I much preferred the days when my mum turned up at school, or sometimes even my dad. I remember always being so cross when it turned out my mum had walked instead of driven (all five minutes of journey) which meant we had to walk home. But now I sit here, hundreds of miles away trying to write a sodding dissertation and the one thing I'd really love to do is walk home from school with my mum, my brother in tow and maybe there's another little boy with us, Richard. And maybe he's been allowed to stay for tea.
Most of us alleged grown ups dream of the old days when we were kids. So why the Hell are we taking the next generation's childhood away from them?
Am really trying to get my dissertation sorted out. Have decided to try and write the introduction, the conclusion and most of the last chapter (Morrison's legacy etc). And he'll have to bloody settle for it.
