Comments on: Comments on 3136

Post number 3136

jedrek — Tue, 05 Sep 2000 23:21:08 -0800

Training toddlers to compete. This reminds me of the Dilbert episode where Dogbert holds training sessions for toddlers. I know parents often want to realize themselves through their children, but aren't we going a bit overboard here?

By: quirked

quirked — Wed, 06 Sep 2000 06:36:47 -0800

As the Father of a 4-year-old (almost), I find this type of parental behavior to be insane. My daughter enjoys a wide variety of fun educational activities. She also likes to watch Rugrats. The fastest way to turn a kid off to learning is to force it down their throat. In 20 years, I would be happy to compare children with these people. I can guarantee my Daughter will be a lot happier with her balanced life than these other kids who will either rebel or turn into workaholics.

By: Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep — Wed, 06 Sep 2000 08:29:03 -0800

Fool! These super-toddlers will "crush" your duaghter!

By: owillis

owillis — Wed, 06 Sep 2000 11:49:37 -0800

While a lot of these parents are whacked, I think there is a real problem where children aren't taught diddly before they begin school and kindergarten is nothing but play time. Where I went to school (Jamaica) we played as much as any other kids, but we were also expected to learn more than just fingerpainting in kindergarten. As a result, when I transferred to American middle school I was two grades ahead and still bored out of my mind. America has to fix their mentality about school so we won't get left behind...

By: betobeto

betobeto — Wed, 06 Sep 2000 13:57:21 -0800

Insane indeed. I mean, what's the rush? The only reason these kind of services exist is because of parents that are willing to do anything to satisfy their egotistical egos by means of their children. I could say I'm a "victim" of such treatment. Being the firstborn on my family, I played the parents' testbed role on all things you can imagine. And at age 5 to 7 I was given "special" higher-level subjects, differentiated from all other children. Academically speaking, I was light years ahead from these other guys, but otherwise it was just the opposite. I never was able to adapt to other kids' games, and I couldn't take anyone's jokes without bursting in rage. In fact I often say my friends it is now that I'm enjoying what was void to me in my childhood. Now, more than twenty years have passed on, but I feel those happenings have marked me to this day. True, I tend to be a workaholic and find a lot of pleasure reading, learning in my leisure time (when all the others go rush to bars on weekends)... but if I happen to have children someday, I will do anything within possible to have them live normal lives. Let them play, get covered in mud, discover things by themselves. Also, being a worker on the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog, merciless medium that is web development, where everyone tries to take over everyone, I end up more and more convinced that this hypercompetitive, "you're worth that you possess" environment we are pretending to throw our children into isn't really more than an overhyped, hollow, steamy big pile of shit even we don't want to believe in. Let's let kids be kids.