Are Parents This Competitive?
Dailmail is covering a T.V. show to be will be broadcast in Britain, that follows parents and the crazy things they will do to one-up each other.
This must be something that people in upper circles practise because I don't know any parents in my circle that would try to one up a friend.
The new TV series, The Madness Of Modern Families, uncovers the tactics that middle-class parents are using to give their children a better start in life, or show off, or perhaps a bit of both.
The parents will stop at nothing to make sure their child receives the best education. One parent will 'camp' outside a perspective school to secure one of a dozen prized places at the best nursery in the area.
In every programme of the series, parents shamefully admit to such guerrilla child-rearing tactics as doing their children's homework (right down to faking childish writing) and using surveyors' instruments to measure out the distance between their home and a favoured school to try to convince the council they live in its catchment area.
If all else fails, renting a flat that is well within the catchment area for six months and pretending to live there is perfectly fine, it seems, in the cutthroat world of modern middle-class parenting.
Normally sane people are doing these mad things because everyone else is doing them and they're afraid of being left behind,' she says. 'Plus, it's infectious and you get so close you totally lose perspective.
If all of this didn't qualify for crazy, it is revealed that middle class parents will move into a nice area, get pregnant and then register the embryo for a future spot at a prestigious school.
Then come the improve-yourbaby classes. One father talks about a 'master' baby class that was launched in his part of London.
As soon as their child can speak, competitive parents get them to record embarrassing answering machine messages with the clear intention of showing off their articulacy.
A 'master' baby class? How about a £10-a-session vegetable eating class for children available in north London, so anxious are middle-class parents to fill their children up with healthy food.
I have to say this is a neighbourhood I couldn't afford to live in or stomach. These parents have lost the meaning of being a good parent. Doing your child's homework and pushing them to the competitive limit is not classified as being a good parent. Quality time and practical expectations create an environment that will allow any child to flourish.
There is a lot more craziness in the article please go to the dailymail.com to read.
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