GaGaGooGoo World : Fisher Price McDonalds Politics

[rideforever]

My neighbours are planning a family, and they already have begun planning how hard they will torture themselves at work to get for their kids all the latest plastic toys to waggle in the face of their children saying "ga ga goo goo", with all the relatives standing around gawking and saying "ah that's so nice that's how we raised kids".

 

Where did this sorry scene come from ?

 

Children are not morons, they are not kittens, they are not brain dead.   What do they think seeing a group of gawking "adults" waving plastic around in their face, with bright rainbow colours because of course there are no other colours in the world.

 

All these people are doing is trying to recreate TV Adverts for childrens toys.   It's so sweet, look at the bright white smiles.   No it's not sweet, it's bloody stupid.   Treat your kid like a moron and lo a moron they will become.   After all isn't that your instruction to them ?

 

And after the parents have tortured themselves to get the Disney World Holiday, and all the mountains of plastic shit nobody needs or wants, and the kids are completely lost in a sea of meaningless advert life .... and everyone is really "happy", whilst also being on Ritalin and getting their procedures done at the hospital, being poor and totally fatigued ... and so on.

 

This is without dignity.

 

Oh yeah, and then these people one day end up running the country.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Let them have their fun. Truth will smack them hard in the face when it is 4:00 AM, they have had zero sleep, and the newly changed diaper is magically filled with poop again...

[thelerner]

Best toys for babies and toddlers are hand puppets, soft ones the parents can stick their hand into.  They create a wonderful interactive play time.  We had Eee Eee the dolphin, and Sally the snail.  They'd laugh and play, attack the children at random; nothing like a sneaky snail or dolphin attack.  You know what else they did, they'd go to bed, when they were told, sometimes the kids would follow.

 

I can give parents to-be bad advice because I was a parent (x3).  Theories about proper child raising are the first casualties of the actually experience. 

 

Limiting TV and electronics is a good idea, but in the real world parents need time to do things and TV isn't the worst baby sitter.  My oldest was a genius at knowing the Thomas the train world.  He knew every train by color, number and type.  We'd build wooden tracks and play with trains.  Watch the movies, it wasn't so bad.

 

As they got older, school age, limiting TV and electronics, was increasingly important.  Better grades, better hobbies, better play dates when they were eliminated, ie none on school nights.  Course it inevitably led to going  to friends houses to enjoy greater freedom. 

Edited July 28, 2019 by thelerner

[gendao]

On 7/28/2019 at 2:56 AM, rideforever said:

And after the parents have tortured themselves to get the Disney World Holiday, and all the mountains of plastic shit nobody needs or wants, and the kids are completely lost in a sea of meaningless advert life .... and everyone is really "happy", whilst also being on Ritalin and getting their procedures done at the hospital, being poor and totally fatigued ... and so on.

 

This is without dignity.

 

Oh yeah, and then these people one day end up running the country.

Welcome to colonialist culture where WEIRD is the new normal.

And as you said, the cycle repeats because these plastic kids completely disconnected from Nature will become the next crop of homeowners and policymakers a generation from now...  Now, do you think yet another generation totally illiterate in Nature from birth will likely appreciate, understand, and do ANYTHING to sustainably steward it???

Edited August 2, 2019 by gendao

[thelerner]

On 8/2/2019 at 2:55 AM, gendao said:

Welcome to colonialist culture where WEIRD is the new normal.

And as you said, the cycle repeats because these plastic kids completely disconnected from Nature will become the next crop of homeowners and policymakers a generation from now...  Now, do you think yet another generation totally illiterate in Nature from birth will likely appreciate, understand, and do ANYTHING to sustainably steward it???

Quite possibly yes.  They might have a superior holistic understanding of environmentalism then the last couple generations.  Kids programs, while heavily saccharin, generally teach (or brainwash?) a very pro-environmental message (reduce, re-use, recycle). 

 

My kids and friends children (in early 20's) generation was raised equally 'plastic' they're tending to be vegetarian and much more environmentally conscious then I and most of my generation raised in the 60's & 70s.  Ironically not as experienced in the wilderness, but more concerned, knowledgeable and likely to be activists.