Easter Egg Hunt Cancelled Due To Intervening Parents

[Implode]

https://www.npr.org/2012/03/26/149379355/easter-egg-hunt-canceled-due-to-aggressive-parents?sc=tumblr&cc=npr

So basically it was a large event for kids that was cancelled seconds after it started because so many parents jumped over the ropes to grab eggs for their kids. The story also goes on to talk about how parents nowadays can't stay out of their kids' lives.

What do you guys think about this? Are parents now too overbearing? Or are they just eager to help?

[Jaffa]

They're eager to help.  In a way that is very overbearing. 

[jasc15]

My usual reaction to stories like this:   "Is this anything new?"

I don't have kids, therefore I dont come into contact with many parents in my life.  However, I remember growing up some of my friends' parents were very much involved in many aspects of their lives.  So I say again: is this sort of thing happening much more often now than in previous generations?

[KevShmev]

Parents are too overbearing.

I went to my nephew's basketball game last week (he will be 7 next week), which was first graders playing each other.  Fun as heck to watch, but some parents wouldn't shut up in regards to telling their kids what to do, and one bozo of a mom kept yelling at the referee.  I was like, "It is a game between a bunch of first graders.  Shut the hell up!" Of course, I thought it and didn't say it, because I was not about to get into something with an overeager parent, but it was symbolic of how moronic parents act when it comes to their kids and competition and sport.

[Cool Chris]

I am a new parent, so figure I will struggle with this for the next 18+ years. my 11 month old can't do much on her own at this point, so pretty much everything I do is helping her in some manner, but I hope I will be able to let my kid learn on their own along the way. It's a tough balance: you want to help them because you care, and don't want to see them fail, but they need to fail at times to learn to deal with adversity and that things will not always go their way. I was coddled a lot by my parents, and when I moved out, I hit quite a few obstacles that I didn't know how to overcome.

As jasc15 said, this isn't anything new.

[snapple]

If you're that parent, you're embarrassing your kids. Enjoy fighting with them in their teen years.

(that's the general you, not the above poster)

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

[black_biff_stadler]

I blame the internet, seriously. The internet's been widely available for around 15-17 years so we've now reached the point in time where the majority of first-time parents are people who've spent the majority of their lives having internet access and have gotten sucked into social networking. They've spent shitloads of time having their brains (or whatever's in their noggins) rotted by looking at schmucks always bragging about themselves/their kids and everything has now become a competition to the extent that now average=inferior.

[snapple]

I blame the internet

Hey, you left this over last night

[black_biff_stadler]

And this:

[Nekov]

 

[Implode]

what

[YtseBitsySpider]

Hyundai, CBC and Hockey Canada got together to do these free hockey seminars for kids in Canada. 1 hour of on ice with a former hockey "celebrity" (ex player or coach) 1 hour of dry land strength training...etc etc.

So.
First hour we get there with a bunch of strangers, put my kids' equipment on, get him ready. And this guy comes in and says,

"ok your kids can go on the ice...parents stay here please"

In comes former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn (ex NHL'er too)
He proceeds to LECTURE...like....LECTURE LECTURE us deep booming voice..and he's a big man...on smartening the fuck up, with respect to our kids, and burning them out and all that. It was a humbling experience.

[Orbert]

So basically it was a large event for kids that was cancelled seconds after it started because so many parents jumped over the ropes to grab eggs for their kids. The story also goes on to talk about how parents nowadays can't stay out of their kids' lives.

What do you guys think about this? Are parents now too overbearing? Or are they just eager to help?

Pathetic.  The answers are Yes and Yes.  Parents are so eager to help that they are overbearing.  I liked reading the article because I never knew the term for it, but am very familiar with the phenomenon.  "Millennial parents" drive me fucking crazy.

As many here know, I live in the "slums" of an otherwise very wealthy suburb of Chicago.  There's a little pocket of us normal people whose kids rub elbows with the kids of CEOs and professional athletes and others with way too much money.  Kids who get a new Lexus for their 16th birthday, even if they haven't gotten their driver's license yet.  These kids have it all and will never have to work hard their entire lives, because mommy and daddy are rich as fuck and will buy them everything now, then they will get a job "working" in a company owned and/or run by mommy and daddy.  They will never know what normal people have to deal with just to put food on the table.

My kids will never be like that.  They work for what they get, and get no more than they deserve.  Usually a bit less, not that we have much choice.  My son got a job at McDonald's last year, and he hates it.  No surprise there; what teenager actually likes to work?  But he does it because I stopped giving him allowance once he was old enough to get a job.  Not once he actually got one, but once I told him he was old enough, which was when he turned 16.  He finally got off his lazy ass and got a job last year, at 18.  He finally got it through his head that whining about having no money and how all his friends have cars and Xboxes and shit was not actually convincing me to buy him anything (again, not that I have that kind of cash anyway).  I'd been telling him that if he wanted money, he was gonna have to get a job.  So now he's learning how that all works.  A few months ago, he learned about Income Tax.  Yeah, that was fun.

Wow, this is really fucking depressing and mostly ranting.  I'm sorry about that.  But parenting has just gone too far.  Wanting the best for your kids is normal and nothing new.  Helping them as much as you can is also fine.  Actually doing it for them does them no favors, and actually does damage.  Lessons do not get learned, skills do not get developed.  And when mommy and daddy are gone or the kid finally moves out and has to do things on his own, he'll have no clue how.

On topic: Seriously?  Parents invading and ruining an Easter Egg hunt for five-year-olds?

[Jaq]

They were practicing how they were going to browbeat coaches on local sports teams to start their kids despite glaring inadequacies.

No amount of parental hovering can stop the simple fact that sometimes your child WILL fail at something competitive, or not be good at something. This is just the saddest example of it I've ever seen.

[Orbert]

No amount of parental hovering can stop the simple fact that sometimes your child WILL fail at something competitive, or not be good at something.

Exactly.  And by not allowing them to actually experience failure, they are not properly preparing their kids to deal with something that they will experience later in life.  This is, by definition, parental failure.  Our number one priority is to prepare kids for life in the real world.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

No amount of parental hovering can stop the simple fact that sometimes your child WILL fail at something competitive, or not be good at something.

Exactly.  And by not allowing them to actually experience failure, they are not properly preparing their kids to deal with something that they will experience later in life.  This is, by definition, parental failure.  Our number one priority is to prepare kids for life in the real world.

And by continuing to coddle them to the nth degree, the only thing these parents are preparing their kids for is monumental failure when they get into the real world and realize that nobody gives a shit about your feelings or your inadequacies or your entitlement issues.

[Chino]

This is still no where near as bad as the mothers on Toddlers in Tierras

[lonestar]

This is still no where near as bad as the mothers on Toddlers in Tierras

This show makes me want to puke, and I have only heard of it.

[Orbert]

Living vicariously through your kids is as old as parenting itself.  But forcing your kids to do things just because you can't or never got to do them when you were a kid is messed up.  I accidently saw about ten seconds of Toddlers in Tiaras (my wife was watching it when I walked in) and it's exactly the shitfest I figured it was, probably worse, because a bunch of whiny brats were involved.  And there little daughters, too.

[Sigz]

I blame the internet, seriously. The internet's been widely available for around 15-17 years so we've now reached the point in time where the majority of first-time parents are people who've spent the majority of their lives having internet access and have gotten sucked into social networking. They've spent shitloads of time having their brains (or whatever's in their noggins) rotted by looking at schmucks always bragging about themselves/their kids and everything has now become a competition to the extent that now average=inferior.

No way. Facebook's only been really mainstream for the last five years or so, and parents being douches at their children's events started way past that.

[robwebster]

I blame the internet, seriously. The internet's been widely available for around 15-17 years so we've now reached the point in time where the majority of first-time parents are people who've spent the majority of their lives having internet access and have gotten sucked into social networking. They've spent shitloads of time having their brains (or whatever's in their noggins) rotted by looking at schmucks always bragging about themselves/their kids and everything has now become a competition to the extent that now average=inferior.

No way. Facebook's only been really mainstream for the last five years or so, and parents being douches at their children's events started way past that.

As, I think, has parental dick-waving.

"Oh, your Terry's just lost his first tooth? How exciting, my Barnaby lost his months ago, he's getting his wisdom teeth through now."

[black_biff_stadler]

I blame the internet, seriously. The internet's been widely available for around 15-17 years so we've now reached the point in time where the majority of first-time parents are people who've spent the majority of their lives having internet access and have gotten sucked into social networking. They've spent shitloads of time having their brains (or whatever's in their noggins) rotted by looking at schmucks always bragging about themselves/their kids and everything has now become a competition to the extent that now average=inferior.

No way. Facebook's only been really mainstream for the last five years or so, and parents being douches at their children's events started way past that.

No way. People have been bragging extensively and obnoxiously on other social networking outlets well before Facebook; people just forget about myspace pretty easily these days.

[ReaperKK]

Being 25 and without children I can't relate however from my experience kids who get coddled often have a much harder time adjusting to life when they move out. A few of my friends and ex college roommates come from very wealthy families and when they moved away had a hard time adjusting, even more so when it was time to get a job in the real world.

[Chino]

I blame the internet, seriously. The internet's been widely available for around 15-17 years so we've now reached the point in time where the majority of first-time parents are people who've spent the majority of their lives having internet access and have gotten sucked into social networking. They've spent shitloads of time having their brains (or whatever's in their noggins) rotted by looking at schmucks always bragging about themselves/their kids and everything has now become a competition to the extent that now average=inferior.

No way. Facebook's only been really mainstream for the last five years or so, and parents being douches at their children's events started way past that.

No way. People have been bragging extensively and obnoxiously on other social networking outlets well before Facebook; people just forget about myspace pretty easily these days.

And don't forget the 100 word limit AIM profiles and buddy icons!

[lonestar]

I got a cool story.  My kid was three and we were attending her first ballet recital.  For those of you who have seen a three year olds ballet recital, it's a bunch of little girls spinning around basically, and very cool silly fun.  Anyways, we lived in an upperclass neighborhood of Atlanta, but were at the lowest end of the economic status of the area, in other words, we were the poor folks of the neighborhood.  There was one mom who was incredibly stuck up, and always looked her nose down on us,  Cut to the recital.  When it starts, her daughter gets shy, as is common, and runs to her mom crying, also common.  The odd part was her mom was embarassed for herself and her daughter, and almost angry at her daughter for not preforming well.  It was really sad to watch, my ex and I felt so bad for the little girl.  My kid, on the other hand, is a total ham, and pushed her way up to the front, and spun faster than all the other kids, huge smile on her face.  It was a sign that she was destined for the stage(where she has had two lead roles, and two female leads :proudpapa:).

[Orbert]

Great story!  We're the poor folks in our town too, and it's sweet when my daughter skates in competitions and beats all the girls who have been skating and having private lessons since they were three years old.  Money does not buy talent and is no substitute for practice and hard work.

[lonestar]

Not to mention passion, my kid absolutly loves musicals, choir, and her piano recitals, so much so that she is considering pursuing it professionally.  A kid without the passion may succeed, but will not have the same joy.