soapboxdiner

Damned public school's turning into a consumerism billboard

I told the kid we'd go to the Fair this weekend. I did so not because I enjoy the fair and feel an absolute need to deplete my hard-earned funds on elephant ears and plastic game prizes, but because if I do not take him, he will somehow skew my refusal into a percieved annihilation of one of his rightful youthful joys. And I suppose in a way that is what the annual trip to the fair is, a youthful joy to be spent all harry-carey in abandon.

But truth be told, the crushing throngs, peddlers, and aimlessly milling slow-walking multitudes turn me into a woman who could seriously consider murderous rampage as a viable life choice.

That it is EXPECTED by society that I enjoy the fair, that it is pushed on me to the point of the public schools sending out advertisements in the backpacks of the children they are turning into un-monied and demanding consumers, is what angers me. Because they are coloring my child's perception of our family's traditions or lack thereof by way forcing external societal conformity down my son's throat, and thereby - mine.

If we don't go, he'll feel as if I've taken Christmas from him. And the school system will have handed him his expectation to unalienable rightful inherited "joy".

Or perhaps I should just chill out? Yeah, that's probably it.

6:24 am - 09.12.02
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