This is a Nintendo DS Lite, and my little sister wants it. She is not a brat, she is not spoiled (in fact, she's deprived, in my opinion) and she did not throw herself onto the floor of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory screaming that she had to have it. She mentioned it to me when I saw her last, a few weeks ago.
I e-mailed our father to ask if he had already gotten it for her, in which case I would have gotten her some games for it. There are age-appropriate games for this thing, with such titles as "Build a Bear Workshop", "Hamsterz Life" and "Charlotte's Web."
Our dear father responded saying that she doesn't need this game, that she already has the "keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome, and that even if she had this game (meaning if I buy it for her) they will probably not let her play with it, because she doesn't need to "zombie out" in this way. My dad fancies himself a non-consumerist hippie, but only when it's convenient for him. Please, they live in an affluent neighborhood where white people and a handful of Asians who don't want to live around people of color and poor people go to live, and her mother drives a Mercedes. Hypocrites! The last time I saw my sister, her hair was a rat's next, uncombed, her pants were five inches too short and her shoes didn't match anything else she was wearing (none of it matched, actually). Why not get her some cute clothes? Soon enough she will have to deal with breasts, bras, body issues, and ugly office-appropriate clothing.
I'm hardly saying they're neglectful parents... they're just so out of it, so cheap (they can WELL afford the stupid Nintendo DS), and they dress her so goddamned ugly.
It's really a shame. And at my age (no longer in my twenties, shall we say) and my dad's (61) I can't exactly go off on him the way I'd like to. I'm old, he's old... I can't really just tell him where to shove his granola. My poor sister. Shall I give her a ball of homespun wool (I can pick the little fuzzies off my rug and save them for this) and two sticks to knit with as her educational, non materialistic Christmas gift?
I have half a mind to go out right now and buy an overpriced, hot pink velour sweatsuit that says "SPOILED JUICY BRAT" or "HOTT JUICY KID" (or some such nonsense) on the back and send it off to her... WITH the Nintendo DS Lite. In pink.
2 comments:
What are we going to do?!
What a great blog. My Dad was like this......when I moaned that I wanted new clothes, he'd say, 'Einstein held his pants up with a piece of rope.' But HE still had money for a Blaupunkt in the Mercedes and a slew of stereo equipment that I'm STILL pissed off about - 25 year later. Now I struggle w/student loans while all my cousins to go private colleges that their parents pay for and my Dad keeps telling me about his latest croc-skin Western boots from Ebay.
This is really symptomatic of everything I despise about the Boomers - like you said, hippie/non materialistic when it's convenient for THEM, but living all large when/if they feel like it, and feeling perfectly entitled to do so. No cognitive dissonance THERE. Oh girl, I feel a blog coming on........
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