- Homeless Person
Over Christmas, I was thinking about the kinds of gifts that we can’t put a price tag on, and also, how difficult it is to know what to buy for someone, at times. This was really brought home to me when I watched a video posted by Jimmy Kimbal, featuring a bunch of kids that got presents that the parents knew their kids would hate. Now, those who know me, know that I love a good laugh, and once you get me going it’s hard to get me to stop. I’m a laugh-a-holic. But where I expected to get a chuckle from this video, I was repulsed at how ignorant, rude, and spoiled these kids were. The first few kids were great. Just being kids. But when you get to about 2:37 into this clip, it goes rapidly downhill, where these kids start behaving like little anti-Christs. One of them flying into a total tantrum, “I hate you, I hate youuuu!” and then further along, “Well, tell him to suck my balls!”
Here’s the link to the video. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hRnhd8VLuqI
Maybe I’m old-fashioned but there were a few things that really bothered me about this video:
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From about mid-point, it became blatantly clear to me that these were obviously spoiled, North American brats used to getting what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.
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Since when was it alright for kids to speak to their parents this way?
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Where is “gratitude” in any of this?
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Most importantly, are we promoting this attitude of selfishness and greed and rudeness by getting this stuff on tape and calling it funny?
It’s not funny. I am going to go very seriously politically Incorrect here for a few minutes, and if that is going to bother you, you should stop reading right here.
First we’ve got a child here who is overweight by about fifty pounds before he’s twelve, if that. Obviously, food has been his comfort, and neglect his mode of discipline, from way back, for him to become so dangerously obese and so obnoxiously rude at such a young age. Take away the Super-sized MacDonald’s and give this kind the kind of attention he needs instead of MORE video games so he can sit in front of the television set and eat himself to death while the parents do whatever the hell they’re doing to allow these things to happen to him. What’s he going to be by the time he’s forty? A fat, miserable, hateful, demanding son of a bitch, who is in very poor health, that nobody can stand being around. And by then he won’t have a clue why people don’t like him – not even his own parents. And by then they will be saying, “We gave that man everything he ever wanted, and this is how he treats us?” Wait, no – they’ll be saying that by the time he’s sixteen. That’s the problem, dudes. You’re giving him everything he wants but none of what he needs. REAL ATTENTION. Discipline. Love. The kind of love that cares about what happens to kids and what they will evolve into! Wake the frig up and smell the coffee. But the people who watch Jimmy Kimbal got a laugh out of it and this kid got his 15 minutes of fame so I guess that makes all of it alright. So let’s move on, then.
To this other kid yelling, “Well, tell him he can suck my balls!” What!? I mean, are you serious? I don’t even know how to respond to that, other than to get myself into deeper trouble by saying right here for the world to read that if he said that to me, I’d staple his puny little nuts to a tree stump and shove the little bastard backward to show him what happens to kids who speak that way to their parents.
You know what? I don’t think my folks raised me wrong when I was shown that no matter what is in that present when you tear off the wrap, no matter how horrible it is, no matter how ugly, you friggin’ smile and say, “Thank you, it’s just what I needed.” FAKE IT!!! Learn some diplomacy, learn some manners and learn how to be grateful that anyone even thought of you at all. Things could be one hell of alot worse.
Prisonplanet.com released an article on December 24, 2011 that said, “For millions of American families, there will be no Christmas this year. The sad truth is that an increasing number of families simply do not have money for Christmas presents or any other luxuries right now. The number of Americans that fell into poverty set a new all-time record last year and extreme poverty is at the highest level ever measured in the United States. This Christmas, a lot of American families will be deciding whether to spend the little money that they do have on food, heat or medicine. All over America, the poor are getting poorer and each year the economic pain seems to get even worse…” Here’s the link to that article if you want to read more:
So we’ve got families out there – millions of them! — who must decide whether to eat OR pay the rent, and here in this video, which is a sad testimony to what some of us are becoming in real life – we have these spoiled brats throwing tantrums because they didn’t like what was in the wrap. As I said, the first few were fine. Reactions totally expected and acceptable. But the last few…ugh. Their parents should be sued. At first you might think, Well, Zee…it’s just a video. It isn’t just a video. Look around you and I bet you personally know at least one child who behaves like a brat when (s)he doesn’t get exactly what (s)he wants.
Call me crazy but I think the best gift we could give these spoiled brats would be to:
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Sign them up for an entire year (every single holiday) to volunteer at soup kitchens in the poorest parts of our North American cities to get them up close and personal with how life is like for some who are not as fortunate.
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Take half of what we would have spent on their Christmas presents, and let them go out and use their own money to buy presents that they will donate to kids around the country who won’t have a Christmas at all. Introduce them to poverty, want and despair.
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Bring them to the cancer ward at the nearest children’s hospital and show them that the gift of life itself is more valuable than anything you could put a bow on.
Our priorities are screwed and we’re handing this legacy down to our kids.
Merry Friggin’ Christmas to all of us. I hope we learned something this year.
Over and out.
Zee.
Zee, I watched the same video several weeks back. I have the same outlook too. However, The parents are twice as wrong in their behavior. “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.(King James 2000 Bible (©2003)” Colossians 3:21
“And you, fathers, do not irritate your children, but bring them up tenderly with true Christian training and advice.(Weymouth New Testament)” Ephesians 6:4
Some viewers may be offended by the use of Scripture here. I do not mean to offend. However there is much wisdom in these verses. This was most cruel.
I don’t take offense to words of wisdom that survive the passage of time, regardless of their origins. You’re quite right! Ideally, parents should be role models, and they ARE role models. So what does that tell us about these kids in the video? A great deal of the time children repeat what they learn in school and outside the house, but we can only blame outside sources so much. The first people that children learn to copy from a very young age are their parents or guardians. These children are very young, so you can read between the lines here, April. I mean, where did this kid get, “Well, you can tell him to suck my balls!” from? Daddy? Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions but why was this allowed to be filmed and then aired? Doing so was condoning and laughing over something that I personally found terribly offensive. Would people go to ANY measure for their few seconds of fame, even up to and including using their own kids??? Ugh. Yes, these parents should take a long hard look at themselves and what they’re teaching their children — and if they aren’t the ones teaching this stuff, then what are they doing to stop it??? Y = SELF. Anytime you ask yourself why something happens, also ask yourself what you did to stop it from happening.