Welcome to my first post on my new blog. Today's topic: Advertising that promotes brattiness in children.
Being stuck at home for the past week, I've had the opportunity to watch a tragic amount of television. Today, my sensibilities were assaulted by this:
http://www.clorox.com/our_story/media_center/index.php?movie_id=19
According to the voice over, 'It's okay to let messes happen' as the kid in the commerical proceeds to waste a large quantity of maple syrup and spill it all over the table, and then drop a meatball into a pot of sauce, causing it to splash everywhere. Meanwhile, 'Mom' appears to be perfectly fine with this behaviour, all the while wearing a white shirt that miraculously seems to repel pasta sauce.
I realize that this commercial is not the root cause of bad parenting, but more a reflection of the bad parenting that has insidiuosly crept into society. However, I really wish that the good people at Clorox would not imply that raising bratty children is 'okay'. It is definitely not okay and any child that pulls stunts like that should be promptly placed in a time out corner, after being made to clean up the mess he's made.
Lately, I've become increasingly disturbed by the obvious lack of discipline being used in parenting today. Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating physical punishment at all, although a smack on my butt when I was being hideous did me no harm what so ever. I do think, though, that children need to have boundaries set and they need to be taught the valuable lesson that there are consequences to their actions, good or bad.
No wonder so many kids out there are self indulgent, impatient, rude, and disrespectful. Parents aren't taking any control or any responsibility for how their children are developing and what kind of adults they'll become. Kids behave in the manner in which they've been allowed and if they can get away with something by being obnoxious and loud, they'll keep on doing that long after they've left the nest.
Personally, I think parents today have just gotten lazy. Maybe it is easier to just tune out your kids but if you have no interest in raising them properly, PLEASE STOP BREEDING. You aren't doing your kids any favours by giving in to them at every turn. You're only setting them up for bitter disappointment when they get out into the world and realize that they don't get everything they want, when they want it.
Yes, spills happen, kids make mess and we're all grateful for easy cleaning solutions. However, I implore advertisers everywhere to not promote this 'children free to be jerks' parenting.
For the parents out there who recognize themselves in commercials such as these, do us all a favour and take a parenting class or at the very least look up 'discipline' in the dictionary. Otherwise, you may as well start saving up for little Tommy's bail now.
