The un-scientific observation of parents and piranhas

Working in a retail environment (hopefully not for much longer) it's generally hard to avoid people watching and/or overhearing snippets of random conversation as you mill about the shopfloor. It can be interesting, and occasionally worrying, what people broadcast about their daily lives.

I was just thinking today, idling overhearing...

Why is it parents are such soft touches these days? So willing to spoil their kids stupid and allow children to wallow in a gluttony of choice and disposable goods?

You could argue that my un-scientific observations are skewed by the fact they're in a retail environment. However, once you notice the parent/child banter a few times, you notice it almost everywhere you go. Increasingly aggressive ankle-biters; parents so quick to wave the white flag and get them whatever they want in order to pacify them.

Have they given birth to little consumer piranhas?

It's all:

Do you want this?

Do you like that?

Are you ready to go?

Please can mummy/daddy...

etc etc...

The soft, massaging language and attention is all utterly child-focused. Children know they are the centre of attention. All of the time. And boy do they know how to milk it.

So, how are children supposed to learn the value of things? To budget? To plan? To save? Not to waste?

I'm sure I winged as a child, but I'm glad I had firm but fair parents. I used to look through toy catalogues close to Christmas and birthdays thinking up some sort of outrageous wish list, but I knew in my heart that my parents' limited means would never stretch to that. I'd get something modest in the end and was generally happy and appreciative. I'd be pining in stores, but they'd either calmly explain why I couldn't have whatever, or stand firm me until my fleeting attention-span flicked elsewhere.

But in a world where advertising is gunning for children, designed in a boardroom by the very same parents who refuse to deny their children anything, what sort of generation are we creating?

By god I like to think I'd wouldn't be such a parental pushover when I eventually come to settling down. That is of course if I ever find a lass crazy enough to volunteer to spend the rest of their life with me.

And I don't have all night to write about that.