RANT

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My son's class had to complete "All About Me" posters for Parents' Night at his school. The kids put pictures, scrap book items, anything that had to do with them on a poster. One child had a photo of a bunch of guinea pigs he has and a drawing of cheese dogs which were his favorite food. There were photos of himself in his home. One of the parents commented that he seemed to be a simple kind of kid with few interests and that his whole life was guinea pigs and cheese dogs. What I'm driving at is when a child is just 11, isn't that what it should be: Guninea pigs and cheese dogs, unicorns and rainbows, etc.. why must it be naked adult women on top of Ferrari's...or trips around the world or "All About My Parents" posters. It would be nice if a person, especially a child, could just be themself and be respected as a fellow human being and not ridiculed because they don't have a gazillion things going on in their 11 year old life! I grew up in the 60's and kids were kids. You acted like a kid, got punished like a kid, wore kids cloths, chewed gum and played ball. You didn't wear adult cloths and you weren't sexually active. At a dance, you were awkward, lanky, and pimply. You blushed if a girl even looked your way. You never wore tight, leather pants and shaked your bottom like a prostitute on the dance floor or got caught up an alley with some boy's hand down your pants. What's so terrible about being a child in our society? Why oh why must a school backpack have a sexually suggestive picture on it? What the heck is going on here?! What ever happened to cheese dogs and guinea pigs? Now, there's sexually active 9 year olds! This is HORRIBLE! You bring your small daughter for her annual check-up and they offer her the HPV shot yet people turn their nose up at chaparoned dating, proper courtship, and arranged marriage. If [i]anything goes,
then why can't those three things come back.

I like guinea pigs and cheese dogs.

You are right, there is nothing wrong with guinea pigs and cheese dogs. That was an inappropriately snotty parent.

And ... funny thing about those types of posters. My son's usually have very little on them for the simple fact that he can't find pictures in magazines that accurately represents his interests, and the instructions are usually to cut out pictures from magazines. Coming to think of it, I wonder if I can get something in his IEP about that? It ends up hurting his grade, and it's just silly. He has lots of interests. They just don't get pictured in popular magazines.

My son did one and all it had was about 3 faces of boys with big smiles, and dogs. That's it. He told me that was what makes him happy.

It's precious, and it's the only thing that I have hung up in my house and have never taken down.

I'm with you totally!! !

I won't even begin to start in on the sexualization of childhood in our society because I will likely never stop, but I will say this: When I see little girls in bikinis, and all the little girls clothes that somehow have turned into miniature versions of teen pin-up stars that are getting pregnant at 16 and still working for disney... I'm a bit concerned for the future of our children.

I have two boys, and they sure as heck are not going to be raised to accept the common view of women, sports, and other such topics. Chaperoned dates until a certain age sound just about right considering the crap that is out there these days. I've worked rape crisis centers and the stuff that I've heard is every parent's nightmare.

An 11 year old that still can have interests in guinea pigs and cheese dogs and not follow the mainstream crap that is being shoved down their throats doesn't sound "simple" to me, they sound healthier.

Arranged marriage? Really? How do you compare chaperoned dating and arranged marriage? Are we talking about the same thing? Do you know what arranged marriage means?

Arranged marriage is when your parents choose who you are going to be married to, often when you are still a child and often for financial or political reasons, and you have no choice about it, and it has nothing to do with love whatsoever. How is that similar to chaperoned dating? How do you condone that in the modern day and age?

I hated About Me's. It's no fun when you're supposed to fill in your best friend names etc. and have nothing to put, or when you can't find your interests in a magazine to cut out. Or when you find someone from class write "I don't understand you" in your autograph section.... I'll stop now.

There's an unspoken inference in that parents words that a 'simple kid' with few interests is somehow a bad thing. I disagree.