Anna: Unattended children will be traded for donuts… (or sold as slaves)

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Just wanted to point your attention to Anna’s latest post:

I saw this sign at Elder’s Bookstore, a happy little used and rare bookstore near Centennial Park here in Nashville, that said “Unattended children will be traded for donuts” and then a second one that said “Unattended children will be sold as slaves.” I thought the first one in particular was funny, but didn’t think much else of it until today.

I was at our local Home Depot, picking up a few things on the recommended cleaning list from Green Housekeeping when I became aware that there was a message playing over and over again over the speaker system in between songs and such. “Parents do not let your children climb on shelves. Keep an eye on your children as there are many hazardous items…” And so on and so forth.

And I thought, what parent in their right mind would let their child do any of the things that the message was warning against? I mean, I know kids will be kids and all and would definitely do everything on the message and then some if left to themselves, but the warning was to make sure that parents didn’t let their kids do any of it.

{Read it all}

  • Hotspur

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

    True story: Without giving away all my personal information…

    My spouse and I are blessed to have wealthy parents (her parents, my in-laws…who wonder what she sees in me) who will foot the total bill for ANY private school in Nashville without blinking for our five-year old daughter. Whole package – K through 12… and beyond.

    Yes, it’s nice ;-)

    So we began school shopping about two years ago. I went to a now defunct military school nearby so I was fairly familiar with the local elite schools…at least from the perspective of 30 years ago.

    Observations:

    1. Man, these schools (and their parents) have become way too snobby. At least we had a sense of humour before the yuppies invaded during the 80′s. My late father was a private school administrator and used to comment upon how this problem was getting worse every year.

    I’m a Sewanee grad and the Domain was NEVER this bad.

    2. Kids are not supposed to be kids anymore. They are “mini-adults” from day one. One of the schools we went to had all the children’s bathrooms plastered with the type of achievement/competiveness posters you routinely see in private-sector companies. Being the son of private school head – I do understand that there is A LOT of pressure from the parents to help their kids become more competitive in the real world.

    Do we really have to do this with K-6 graders?!?

    3. Our daughter went to private religious pre-school with a class chock-full of Belle Meade kids all applying for the best schools, etc.

    Long story short: a majority of the kids have been wait-listed by the elite schools.

    Why?

    They don’t know how to read at 1st-3rd grade levels.

    That’s right: 5 year olds are now supposed to read at the pace of pre-teens. The pre-school head was recently dismissed as a result of all the wait-listing.

    I think my spouse and I were the only ones to question why 5 year olds were supposed to be reading on that level.

    We’re not hippies (ok…we do dress like them; goth fashion was left at Sewanee…) or Montessori types, but we refuse to push a small child that much.

    Bottom line: kids aren’t allowed to be kids anymore. Adults today have no tolerance for childhood. It’s just plain sad to have that fact confirmed on a daily basis with the bookstore and Home Depot stories mentioned.

    My advice for anyone concerned by this problem: be very,very honest with your kids (within reason, consider the age).

    I am beginning to chat with my daughter about what it was like to grow up in the 70′s and how kids were treated then (not well…) Let them know that they have their parents in their corner. It’s tough to be a small kid in a kid-unfriendly world.

    Epilogue: We took a pass on the name schools and chose the local Jewish community school for our daughter.

    They think kids are kids and have their priorities right.

    Can’t beat that.