Home   |  Issues  |  The Daily Star Home | Thursday, September 6, 2007

By Faria Sanjana

Spoilt brats are the ultimate threat to a society. Seriously, the cheek and arrogance carried by such people are the most detestable characteristics that can ever be found in a human being! Don't believe me? Just take a look at the following cases:

Case no.1: Sayeem, basically the son of a so-called politician, had to go for his O level English coaching. So what method of conveyance did he choose?

“I just bought a new Toyota Corolla G. Why don't you use that?” his father asked.
“I ain't using any old cars, like grow up old man!” Sayeem retorted back.

And whoa! The following day, he ended up getting a brand new Toyota Celica along with a full-time chauffeur (since he didn't even know how to drive). Eventually, he went to coaching, what with car and all, and was cheered by his comrades while jealous onlookers cursed him (under their breath of course, or else who knew when they might've ended up in jail for slandering the son of the rich and powerful!).

Case no.2: Sarah, daddy's little princess, had grown up getting everything she wished for, starting from expensive doll-houses to designer-made clothes. She was beautiful, affluent, smart and sharp with her words, sometimes getting too sharp to handle but nobody dared to say anything to her due to the fact that her father was an 'influental' person. Sarah could've been a superb student if she wanted, but typically studying, to her, was a waste of time. So she passed all her exams either by becoming a teacher's pet with her sweet talks or some teachers couldn't resist the bribery offered by her father. Until one day, the new math teacher awarded her, her deserved marks in his subject. When charged about his 'grave crime', the poor guy gave long explanations of honesty and integrity, little did he know that such words weren't in the dictionary of Sarah and so he got fired the very next day by the school principal (who was truly a dear friend of Sarah's father!).

If a child is spoilt, naturally the blame goes to his/her parents. A case that supports this is:
Case no. 3: Rayyan, a twelve-year old boy, once came to her mother's friend's place and pulled out all her CDs from the CD rack and messed the whole floor with them. His mother's friend exclaimed out, “Rayyan, how could you do this? You're a big boy now!” Rayyan's mother clearly got offended by her friend's remark and simply cleared the floor without saying a word to her son.

I'm sure most of you can identify with the above stories as being seen them somewhere or the other. It is widely believed that the parents splurge unnecessarily on their children and make them stubborn from a very young age which becomes really difficult to overcome once they get into the habit. More so, instead of rebuking their children, they remain silent, therefore encouraging them to go far until they become so out of control that they forget where their boundaries lie.

Mrs. Rahman, a mother, says, “When you see their innocent faces, you feel like giving them everything, but sometimes it is good to say no”.

While Rahat, a college student, says, “I'm glad that I got a few slaps from my mum whenever I asked for pointless stuffs as a teenager, otherwise I'd become a real loser in college because here it is the doted brats that get discriminated instead of discriminating others.” But sometimes, the 'spoilt brat syndrome' as I'd call it goes as far as the time when individuals finish their studies and look for jobs. Right from the beginning, they feel that they have a right to an exciting, well-paid job; basically they don't want to start from scratch rather they want to reach the peak of their career as soon as they get in.

“I wish I could be like them.”-is a dangerous thought of those kids who hang around spoilt brats. They feel isolated from the mainstream community and sense that they are missing out on a number of good things. For these reasons, they sometimes create peer pressure over their parents for things which they can never afford. Naturally, they don't seem to understand when their parents say no, so they tread the wrong path and take up stealing, drugs and other sorts of wrong-doings.

However popular they are, research proves that maximum public do not seem to like children who are mollycoddled. In a teen survey taken at www.yahoo.com, some teens had these to say:

“They get annoying and the rich popular spoiled brats tend to rub in on lower income people's faces that they have a lot of money and material possessions.”

“Everyone else just actually works hard in school to get an education while they blow off their homework to get new shoes.”

So think again before you start whining to your parents for something trivial, or otherwise you could be tagged as the next 'Spoilt Brat'!

 


   

 
 

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