Deadly Sins for Kids

I felt as if I was reading a diary of my own personal jihad against mainstream child-based consumerism and media when reading this article from our local Independent Weekly entitled, The Seven Deadly Sins of Kid Culture.

His 7 are:

1. Insipidness (i.e. Teletubbies and most children's tv- the reason we call it the boobtube. this prepares kids to become American Idol and Age of Love watching adults)
2. Brattiness (i.e. letting kids watch Simpsons and many "kid movies" that elevate smarting off to adults)
3. Princess-ness (no explanation needed- this is evil and taints a girls view of femininity, gender roles, fairy tale weddings, etc. This is a constant battle in my house)
4. Stereo-typing (not as bad as it used to be, but you still have to be careful- think Jar Jar Binks and old Disney movies, like the cats in Lady in the Tramp)
5. Violence (my kids have a violent steak although they own no toy guns, etc. It is innate, so we must be vigilant. Even some kid movies are Revenge fantasies with that Myth of Redemptive Violence all over them. Needless to say, we have not yet introduced the wonders of the Looney Tunes- maybe soon)
6. Vulgarity (Potty humor is all the rage these days, especially in Hollywood films. Shrek is infamous to bodily functions masked as thoughtful humor. It is tired and shoots for the lowest common denominator, making kids think such outbursts are okay in public- which our son takes advantage of)
7. Sluttiness (yes, the Bratz, which our daughters classmates regularly bring to school and have as themes of parties- our daughter wants this stuff and it is difficult to explain that we don't want our 5 year old dressing like Lindsay Lohan's little sister)

His pet names for these adversaries for each parent (liberal and conservative alike) are Blandy, Bratty, Dippy, Bleedy, Gassy, Trampy and Jar Jar. Interestingly, parenting and child culture is one of those things that can bring people together across the political and religious divides. I find strong agreement on these issues with my ultra liberal hippy friends and my fundamentalist friends. Both groups see the dangers in excessive consumerism and childhood (sadly, the rest of the middle ground seems to miss this).