The biggest hang-up I suffer from is - wait
for it! - hatred of the Designer Label. The saddest (sickest?)
thing I've heard
recently was of a group of youngsters, not yet in their teens,
laughing and jeering at one of their peers because his runners
had been purchased in Dunnes Stores! Worse again was a woman,
interviewed on radio, solemnly informing the nation that her
eight-year-old would "only wear clothes with the right tag".
It was the tone of resignation and acceptance that got me. For
God's sake!!
Incidents of this disease of the spirit
abound. A woman going to town with a folded plastic bag bearing
the name of an up-
market store, in which she will carry home her shopping purchased
in a down-market outlet! A man buying jeans or shoes for his
son (which the child will outgrow in months), and paying four
times the price of another pair just as good but not carrying
the "in" label!
No longer are necessity or usefulness
the main bases for buying, but rather the childish allegation "everyone else has one ",
and extravagance serves the passing whim of an over indulged
generation.
The children are not to blame. They are victims of a climate
established by an adult world. Children, in their insecurity,
are naturally prone to peer pressure, and not to fit in with
the rest is the worst of all fates.
What in the adult world has caused the rot? A number of things.
Insecurity in the grown-up too, that stops us stepping out of
line. Poverty of spirit that sees exaggerated value in what is
external and superficial to the detriment of the inner qualities
that really define a good person.
And it all misfires. It doesn't work. By bringing up our children
to overvalue the material, we actually undermine their self-esteem.
What an awful indictment of a society that teaches its young
to set more store on clothing than on compassion, on labels than
on love!
Most parents I talk to know it's all
out of control and out of proportion. They feel powerless,
stymied; another case of "Catch
22"! Go with the flow and you lose, as your child falls
victim to the disorder. Stand out against it and you lose also,
as your child suffers the pain of being different and is subjected
to the cruel jibes of its peers.
Yes, the climate needs changing. And that's not easy. Still
it's got to be done. And to acknowledge the problem is, at least,
a start.
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