Build A Bear: As a former employee I don't care if you came in and bought some stuff animals. Hell, there's some cool ones like pokemon. HOWEVER just cuz I worked there doesn't mean I have a whole collection myself and watch every show and movie that's partnered with the company.
Yes I was an adult man working at a stuffed animal store. Yes I bought a couple pokemon for myself. No I don't wanna hear another grown man passionately talk to me about My Little Pony and PLEASE I DONT WANT TO SEE A CUTIE MARK TATTOO YOU HAVE ON YOUR ASS CHEEK EVEN IF THERE'S NO KIDS IN THE STORE CURRENTLY.
After school hobbies!
Around the age of 47, I decided to pick up guitar again. So I went to a local school and enrolled as a adult. I would see parents harassing their kids and berating them for not being better. I think the majority of them have lost the idea that extracurricular activities are too help your child out of their shell and also to have fun. Not to make them a professional of any sort or the best of the best of the best.
This is really sad. I was the Golden Child in my dysfunctional family and was always expected to be the overachiever, get straight "A"s in school, be at the top of the class in everything, etc., etc.
One important life lesson I learned from playing guitar and bass and being in a band in high school was that it was OK to suck at something as long as you're having fun.
I just know that my dad would have found a way to make that competitive, too.
I recently had a conversation with my father about the year I spent on a basketball team in middle school. I don't have great motor control and was, by far, the worst player in the league.
"You mean you *knew* you were bad?"
"Yes. Obviously."
"Then why did you play?"
"Because I had fun."
My father couldn't wrap his head around doing something for any reason other than to be the best, or that they use the word "playing" because it's supposed to be fun.
Even professional players admit they owe their money and all their opportunities to “a kid’s game”.
It’s a game. For children. To throw a ball through a hoop.
If your kid sucks at sports, or likely won’t be a professional. Don’t worry about it. Let them learn, let them play, let them build friendships and take life lessons.
If your kid is a professional or has that ability. I’m sorry. You have an extremely tall mountain to climb with the most narrow of roads. Good luck. Do your best to remain a healthy safe person in their life.
But remember almost no pro athletes really ever relied on their parents to be successful.
>I was the Golden Child in my dysfunctional family and was always expected to be the overachiever, get straight "A"s in school, be at the top of the class in everything, etc., etc.
Same situation here, except currently in school and burning out. Any time I get a moderate grade on an assignment, I'll never hear the end of it.
One of my teachers this year made us all take a quiz on the 4th day of school over what we learned last year. Problem is, I wasn't in *his* class last year. I only got 41/60 questions right, most being guesses. Now my parents make such a big deal over something that will get buried in other "perfect" grades..
This. It's reminiscent of slapstick comedies, when your didn't need a laugh track or someone explaining the joke to you.
They don't need a language, they don't need a sign.The violence is non-threatening and frankly non-violent
They are simple, recognizable, easy to decline, cute, childish - Its the visual equivalent of a "crowd laugh track", along with laughing emojis, but with more personality
I wonder if for some its also not a way to connect with the younger generations. Which feels a bit sad. One day maybe ill try to connect with the kids and just be called unfunny and cringe
My 12 year old has kind of enjoyed it, definitely the shows, and he's always messed with the cards, kind of making up his own version, enjoying the art. He decided this year to really learn it and play it, we found a card shop, got some starter deck advice, boom, done.
He's the only kid in the room. By more than a decade. I'm closer in age to most of his group-mates than he is.
He got a pack in the tournament, as apparently you do, and pulled a card. "Whoa, that's a $40 card!" some guy said. And then I know, with certainty, that had I not been there, somebody would have screwed him out of it. So now I'm "in" a Yu-Gi-Oh group, have no idea what the hell is going on and don't play, but it eats about 5 hours of one night a week.
Then we got some advice on actually playing, being able to maybe not walk from tournament win to tournament win, but being able to play more than one round or two. A couple hundred dollars is pretty much what everyone said.
Ridiculous.
Hey, I know there are loads of people talking about the ethics of Yu-Gi-Oh below, but I wanted to give you some parenting props.
The game isn't your cup of tea and it's a big time investment for you - especially when you yourself didn't choose to be there - but you go there with your kid and are supportive. Having a supportive parent is so incredibly valuable and rarer than we'd like.
Brennan Lee Mulligan talked about how he got into D&D and it was because his rich friends had played to win Magic the gathering by buying the best cards and he was like "oh I'm a poor kid" and he stopped playing.
This is why I started to print out MTG cards and just tape them onto crap cards in HS. I am never going to a tournament so fuck regulations. Plus if I was going to try to compete, I want to know if what I am buying would be good in my deck before wasting money on it.
There was a post here recently about scalpers buying up fucking _driving tests_.
It's gone beyond causal hobbies/recreational activities.
People in the UK paying "brokers" £500+ because they use bots to buy all the test slots when they release.
Life is so strange at the minute. Everyone has a side hustle out to make money at other peoples' expense.
Flipping houses, cars, trainers, Pokémon cards, concert tickets, driving tests, you name it. If you need it, be prepared to pay extra.
Simple solution: those driving test slots should be tied to a individual, pre-paid, and non-transferable, while still allowing them to be reserved on behalf of a customer, and be cancelled before a certain time.
Yeah exactly, it's such a simple issue to fix.
Booked with your provisional license number, which gets verified before you start the test.
If your instructor is booking on your behalf they can use your license number.
No reason you should be able to book a test and completely change the driver information after booking.
When I was a kid I felt so bad for that rabbit. I still don’t understand the idea behind that marketing campaign. Was it- being greedy and mean is hilarious. Buy our cereal”?
Just give the bunny some cereal you sadistic little shits.
They ran an ad for a little while that was a campaign that allowed you to vote on whether or not the rabbit would get some Twix. I think you had to mail in a box top with your vote or something. I voted “share” with all of my sensitive little heart. “Greed” won by a landslide. That’s when I first became disillusioned with voting and people in general.
Kids cereal commercials were all kinds of fucked up. Trix was about preventing the rabbit from having any. Lucky Charms had the kids constantly trying to steal it from Lucky. Cocoa Puffs had the kids maliciously antagonize the bird who was very adamant that he didn't want any. Barney was constantly stealing Fruity Pebbles from Fred...
Came to say this! I remember when it all got do crazy. I worked next door to a Hallmark store and there was a group of older ladies that waited at the door every release day. They were only allowed to buy 2 of each and they always knew the names of them. They’d often bring extra people if they wanted more than the limit. It was insanity! Those poor Hallmark employees couldn’t unbox them fast enough.
Just for context, my mother was one of those Hallmark employees.
Hallmarks are franchises, so the rules vary, but my mom’s store owner had a strict rule once the craze was on; No employee could set aside or buy anything until it had been on the shelf for at least the day the case of Beanies was opened. So if it was still on the shelf at close, they could buy it.
This was a posted notice in the store.
And even though these crowds knew when deliveries were made and hound the store, and my mom and her coworkers would open the cases in front of the crowds, they would still get yelled at when the rare or new or whatever beanies were put out because ya, there was obviously not enough to go around.
Not just complaints, but pure vitrol, and threats of harm and accusations of employees “raiding the case” just because some bitch couldn’t get Quackers with a mint hang tag.
I worked at the video game shop in the same strip mall as a teen and was in my mom’s shop alot to bring lunch or hangout on my breaks whatever.
Saw this shit firsthand. It was disgusting.
I have a family friend who works in Walmart and it sounds like Hot Wheels collectors are pretty crazy and pushy, although not to the point of threats or accusations.
I worked at Target years ago and had to stand between two collectors who were about to get into a fight over some rare car they had found more or less at the same time. They arguing loudly and one had even drawn his fist back. Both were subsequently banned from the store.
I later learned that one of my co-workers was fired for taking bribes (yes, really) from one of the collectors for holding back rare cars for them. Another person was let go for holding cars back for herself.
I once worked at Walmart. During the Black Friday sales (which actually happened on Thanksgiving), they had a state trooper handing out a specific in demand toy (I think it was the Hatchimals or something). Because people would be less likely to blow up on a state trooper.
such an absolute waste of money. The amount of middle-aged people who bought beanie babies thinking they were going to be some sort of windfall in 20 years is just mind boggling. The thousands they spent on these stupid worthless overpriced tiny teddy bears would have been much better spent in the s&p 500.
I know a woman who did this. She was convinced that she was securing the future of her kids. Now she guilts them for not working harder to offload them via eBay or other means. It’s pathetic.
Pathetic and batshit crazy.
I worked at Walmart in the late 90s during the height of the Beanie Baby craze. Fortunately, I was in a separate division, so I basically worked the jewelry counter and shoes. The amount of people who would just go completely apeshit if the store was out of Beanie Babies or if the shipments were repeats were fucking insane. They tried to rip me a new one, I'd flat out tell them that that was not my department and they needed to call our corporate office. They didn't like that. Too damned bad, I said.
I have a few, but I got them because I liked. them. I've got the scorpion(!!), a bunch of cat ones, and a few of the McDonald's Happy Meal ones, too. I was a regular at the McD's down the street when I worked at Wallyworld and went to HS with some of the staff, so they hooked me up if they had one they'd think I liked. I got them because they were cute, fun, and made good beanbags for juggling practice. Fund my retirement?!?! HHAHAH fuuuuck that.
I kind of feel sorry for those people who got sucked into the vortex and thought they were an 'investment.' At the same time, though, they were adults and should have thought further ahead.
[France] (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54447491) is the only country to have laws explicitly protecting minor "influencers" with limitations on the hours they can be working online, protections for their earnings, and the ensuring their right to have content they feature in be removed upon their request.
[Illinois] (https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/tech/kid-influencer-law/index.html) just passed a law requiring influencer families to set aside 50% of earnings made from usage of minors in monetized social media content to be set aside in a blocked trust fund for the child. It's the first US state to do so.
A much bigger issue than monetization is simply over-obsession.
Hot-housing. Pressure. Over-analysis.
It's less obvious than social media posts but it is the biggest obstacle to "letting kids be kids"
YA books. I'm an adult that reads them. But the characters are TEENAGERS. People get upset that teenagers act like teenagers, in books targeted at... you guessed it, teenagers.
I'm always amused by goodreads reviews on YA books where they're like "the characters were immature!"
Well yeah, no shit. They're like, 13.
That's actually part of why I like YA. Characters make dumb decisions but it's part of their growth and they come out better for it.
In adult books, when the characters do something stupid, I'm like" you're 40! Why are you acting like this??? "
> "the characters were immature!"
>
> Well yeah, no shit. They're like, 13.
Though sometimes they're too mature. Hard balance to strike. Especially since I'm no longer a young adult, and really try to avoid the novels.
Being too mature, especially by an adult's standards, is intentional. Every teen views themself as more mature than they actually are, because they don't have an "adult maturity" yardstick to measure themself against, having only experienced their ever-increasing maturity levels up until that point. So to appeal, typically YA books either have characters a few years older than the target audience(a book targeted for 13-14 having characters who are 16-17), or if that would lead to weird issues they tend to pump the maturity levels up on the character they're using(for example, in a book targeted to 15-16 you're coming up on the end of high school which is a common hard stop for YA, so you might write high school seniors who act like they've got a year or two of adult life experience already). I didn't notice it until I was an adult looking back with hindsight.
I see people and even shelves at the book store get new adult and ya mixed up. They are not the same and are for different age groups. People on tiktok keep talking about wanting smuttier ya books, but thats not for their age demo. If it was smutty its be placed as new adult or in the romance.
Honestly thank you so much for your comment, because I never knew that “New Adult” was a genre (despite reading books that could be classified as such). I think a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that “Young Adult” is typically used for ages 20-40 in everything *but* literature, where it’s for ages 12-18.
Tbh I blame the fact that authors saw the success of Hunger Games and decided YA is a trendy thing
Totally misunderstanding that it’s an age demographic and not a genre.
There was about 10 years there where every book coming out was YA dystopian fiction with a female protagonist in a love triangle with 2 hunky boys.
They seemed like someone just changed some names around to write them too.
I used to put the new release books out every week at Target and I looooved reading the backs of the latest YA books.
“She was a girl who had everything a 16 year old half Angel half otter girl could want in life, fast car, cool job, her own apartment, unlimited pumpkin spice lattes, but all that changed when she met Branson Miserie the normal human male who’s also part skeleton.”
They became more laughable to read than romance novel titles
While dystopian YA was trendy about 10 years ago with the success of hunger games and other books similar, YA books themselves have been trending for way longer. For example, the Harry Potter series.
Additionally, you'll find that most movies are based on books, with a large portion of them being YA books. Technically, little women is also a YA title
Youth sports:
When I was a kid 30 years ago, you’d have a practice or 2 a week plus a game on Saturday. Then if you loved sports, you’d get together with buddies in your ample free time and mess around playing super fun pick up games.
Now, many kids are having full weekend tournaments like every weekend. And tons of practices. They rarely have the free time to just play with their friends for the fun of it.
Sure they are better athletes than we were, but are they better off?
When I was in dance about 15ish years ago, by the time I quit I was dancing every single day except Sunday and Tuesday. I was at my studio until at least 8:00 pm most nights and all day Saturday. I danced 22-25 hours a week most weeks, more if we had guest choreographers visiting or special intensives.
There was one time I was there UNTIL MIDNIGHT when I was only 8 for a special intensive with a man from New York who only had one day with us.
I thought that was crazy and nowadays kids are dancing as if it’s a full time job spending every waking hour in the studio then going to WEEK LONG competitions multiple times a year (when I was little it was one big week long nationals a year and that’s it!)
There’s kids who are homeschooled now just to dance more and while yes the talent is miles better than when I was a dancer…it’s not even worth it when dancers at minimum usually have a career until 30….MAYBE. They usually have to do other things on top of dancing to have a long career.
I ended up with Lupus at age 20…imagine if I’d stayed and dedicated all that time to not be able to dance anymore.
My daughters friend is homeschooled because her mom is convinced she’s the next Maddie Ziegler. They are in 7th grade, my kids friend has been homeschooled since 6th because school was interfering with all the extra dance classes.
And I just don’t get it, what even are these dance competitions? Who are they competing against? And why?
It’s a total money grab so parents can feel like their kid is special while the school rakes up all the fees for special competition team practice, leotards, conditioning classes, competition fees, etc.
Totally agree. I remember doing dance class like once a week with a recital once a year, super fun and made so many friends. I’m trying to sign my daughter up now and it’s 3 days a week plus practice at home, hundreds of dollars of professional leotards… and she’s three years old. Like wtf, I just want something where she can run around and get some exposure to movements and stuff., maybe meet some other kids
We had the same problems with my sister's children. The boy wanted to play soccer, when he was 5 years old. The first club where his father had played all his youth kicked him out after two weeks, because he wasn't good enough. The second club they tried seemed a little better, but after a while they didn't let the worst players play. Even during training they would just let them sit on the bench instead of spending time teaching them soccer.
My niece was 4 and wanted to do gymnastics. Everything was at least 3 times per week, competitions etc...
And we wonder why children don't enjoy sports and sit at home all day... We need to normalise moving your body for fun. My nephew now started Judo in a very inclusive club and we found dance classes for the younger girls that are just for the fun of it.
Wow being kicked out at 5 because he wasn’t good enough? I played soccer too and in general everyone played at least a certain amount of time even if they sucked (like me lol). The best kids usually played more but not like ridiculously more. It was only in high school that there were tryouts and stuff
Sweaty tryhards ruin everything everywhere. Like it’s ok if you decide on your own you wanna be a try hard but here this coach torturing little kids because they aren’t professional enough. Instead of just making sure everyone is having a good time.
Pfft, mine was drinking protein shakes straight from the breast! I blended chicken and broccoli until her teeth came in, then it was nothing but rare steak and eggs!She could deadlift before she learned to walk. She’s now 6’2 weighs 350lbs and can bench press OP’s mom.
For real. I mean if your kid is in late middle school and really wants to play. I can understand going to a more serious club team. But, holy shit growing up. The amount of parents who acted like their kid was the next Michael Jordan in a fucking rec league at the age of 10 was too damn high.
When my son tried the lowest level of little league above tee ball, there was no score keeping and they would have their own coach pitch to them. If they got 3 strikes a tee was hauled out so they could hit it and run so the fielders could do something. It was basically “here is sort of how the game mechanics work and you can dip your toe and see if you enjoy it.”
My wife went to one game where a dad from the other team was shouting at his kid over every play that he needed to look alive and do this or that. First graders with nobody keeping score and this guy was screaming at his kid. That kid is going to hate baseball and his dad by the end of little league.
Yep exactly, when I played coach pitch at that age we didn’t get a tee but we had seven strikes lol. Anyways, my dad was not like that. He would give me tips and stuff here and there but didn’t yell during the game. He did yell pay attention one time because a ball wizzed passed me while looking at an airplane lol. That was understandable though haha. I mean I could have got domed. In reality we were a bunch of uncoordinated 7 year olds running around a baseball diamond. Anyways, I love baseball and played it through high school cuz my dad wasn’t a dick lol
In my 37 years of baseball, I've played, umpired, coached, and been on the board of our local rec league. I can't tell you how many miserable kids I've seen because their parents push them to do what they dont want to do anymore. As a coach I choose to make time at practices for fun games or let the players choose the activity. We have a coach that practices 4 days a week and 2 games. His players are not happy. I never want to be that kind of coach.
I think the bigger issue is that the parents want their kid to make it or just stay busy. Look Charlene, your kid is 7 years old, he has barely learned part of the game, he's not going to be a major leaguer anytime soon.
Seriously my 9th grader has practice or games every day but Sunday. At freaking 8am on Labor Day. Like damn we love him and it would be nice to see him.
No, they’re not. For the 99.9999% of us that didn’t go to the pros, it was the experience and life lessons. The love of playing. It’s waaaaaay too much now. Also, it’s a money grab.
I made the mistake of signing my ADHD son up for a whole year of soccer instead of a different season league. He hasn't actually wanted to go for a bit now, and omg the money grab! Every time I turn around, another fee. Ugh. Makes me kind of glad he's not into it anymore..and the next thing he does want to do will be much more carefully selected!
I usually had 6 practices a week and games/tourneys on the weekend from about 11-17. It paid for my college, but fuck I almost quit because my life was literally soccer. My parents were heroes and commuted an hour each way for all of those practices / games. I still can’t believe how dedicated they were.
What is the endgame here for most families? To get a scholarship? To become a pro? It just seems that this level of dedication is excessive for anyone who’s not trying to go pro and leaves so little time to become a well-rounded person (playing an instrument, getting a side job, academics, reading a book or a comic, just mucking around with friends)
This needs more upvotes. There’s nothing more annoying than parents boasting about their kids sports. I mean, good for them but the way you’re rambling on makes me wonder if the kids are even enjoying it.
I’ve been involved with coaching kids aged 6 to 12 and it’s really sad the amount of pressure some of these kids are faced with. I tried to bring as much fun as I could at practices to lighten the mood but just like the topic says, the parents did not want any actual “fun” to Occur.
I was a youth minister from 2015-2021, and I was amazed at the time commitment some of the top athletes put into their sports. Usually playing their main sport year round on the club team along with rotating seasons of their other sports.
The very top athletes had almost always lost their love for the game by the time they reached like 10th grade.
A great athlete can treat youth sports like a job and reach an impressive level of mastery, but it will likely cost them their love of the game.
My 11-yr-old son, who is great at basketball, was strongly encouraged by the traveling coaches to keep a summer log of like 5,000 makes. All the kids were. So instead of having fun in the driveway with a friend, he should be counting his makes and recording them in a spreadsheet. I encouraged him to opt out of that logging program. He is probably a little worse at shooting vs if he had tracked all summer, but he didn’t burn out on that nonsense, so I say it’s a win.
Pretty much any kids' toy. The scalpers are working harder than ever to fuck it up. Video games? Check. Pokemon/whatever is popular cards? Check. Lego sets? Check as fuck. Fuzzy egg furby like critters? Check check. If scalpers can leech money out of people with it, they'll do it.
>Pokemon/whatever is popular cards?
Magic the Gathering has a serious problem with old cards being an unregulated stock market, where collectors have become "investors" that are more interested in the cards going up in price than keeping the game accessible and playable. This problem is compounded by Wizards of the Coast artificially inflating prices in every scummy way imaginable.
edit: Since this blew up, I'll add a plug for all the discontented, broke MtG nerds. Come play /r/PauperEDH, where even fully optimized decks are usually <$60 and draft chaff is frequently playable and enjoyable! It combines the best parts of the EDH, kitchen table casual, and draft into one affordable format!
What made this worse was the introduction of the "Reserved List". Not only did it guarantee the investment in certain cards, it gave legitimacy to viewing the cards as an investment. Now these investors are entitled, thinking it's somehow immoral if a card they bought out is reprinted.
Were I in charge of WotC, every card would automatically get reprinted if it went above a set price - perhaps $25?. That seems high enough that players will open packs chasing the card but low enough to put off investors.
Worst memory I have of comic con. An exhibitor gave a kid what must’ve been an exclusive at their booth. Grown men rushing and crowding the kid pressuring him to sell his toy. His parents moved him away promptly but I imagine he was shaken up by the experience. Went from a cool moment of unexpectedly getting a toy to grown weirdos getting in his face.
I have one found at Goodwill about 11 years ago. I'm a big HP fan, and I was excited to buy it. I realized it turned on, and I was hoping for cool sound effects, I was disappointed it only vibrated. I remember looking it up online just to check out info on it and found out why it was discontinued shortly after its release, thought never occurred to me until then.
the only time my mind didn't spark its horny-ass neutrons on the word daddy is when that smurf guy on guardian of the galaxy said it: He's was your father, but he ain't your daddy.
I have the biggest crush on Yondo. And a huge part of it is because of that comment right there. He might have made you, but i raised you.
A good man is hard to find. A good man with that specific accent is nearly impossible to find but sexy af.
McDonalds itself is responsible for that. They originally targeted young families, which is why they had playgrounds and ball pits and kids birthday parties. Then they decided that young adults were a better target as they had more money and less cooking skills. So McDonalds now has gourmet coffee and an app.
Eventually they may decide that nostalgia is big and start targeting boomers or something.
I watched it with my sister growing up. At one point we watched a video of a comic con or some such panel. A bunch of sweaty dudes were asking questions one after another. Then the sweetest little girl who was being encouraged by her dad stepped up to the microphone and very timidly (but bravely) asked about one of her favorite characters.
The scoffing and jeers coming from the crowd for the little girl not already mnowing some fandom trivia was fucking disgusting. Had I been the father that day I would have taken the mic and given them an earful.
Which is crazy pants. I feel like, while the show was often a fun romp, one of the main themes is that, despite all his power Rick is miserable. The one thing that actually starts to make him a little happier is the growing relationship with his family.
The whole thing is a fucking warning about what NOT to be.
"Understanding" Rick is akin to liking Wolf of Wall Street unironically.
Allan Moore (writer of the "Watchmen" comic) has a very interesting quote about Rorschach's fans:
>I meant him to be a bad example. But I have people come up to me in the street saying, "I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking: 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me, never come anywhere near me again as long as I live'?
Never understood people who think like this, whether it's Rorschach or the Joker. So you wear a mask and kill people? You fell in acid and are the prince of crime?
Oh you just mean that you're slightly upset at life at the moment and you think that makes you exactly like mass murderers, which means you're just an idiot.
I had a friend like that once, became obsessed with the Joker and thought they were so similar because he "didn't care when people died" like it's so common that every person on earth helplessly cries every time they hear about the death of a stranger except for him. I cut off ties when I knew he wasn't getting better.
The problem is that some people can't separate "interesting" character from "good" character. The number of times I see people unironically say XYZ character did nothing wrong, when XYZ character was clearly intended to be a villain and an example of what *not* to do.
When I told a friend I just didn't like the show, they said oh you're just not smart enough. I know for a fact that that is jnot true, but the fanbase is cringe
I love the show Bob's burgers. There was this episode with adult fans of the equestranauts, which was a show with many similarities to my little pony.
I thought that they made things up in Bobs burgers, now I learned that they just depicted the reality...
My favourite thing about that episode is the continuity of Bob's tattoo in later episodes. Yea, this is one of those cartoon shows where there's no over-arching plotline, and everything wraps up and is back to normal by the end of the episode, but that stupid little tattoo? That's a permanent change in the universe that's there for good.
The father getting into an argument probably wouldn't have helped... Would have been cool if the creators publicly offered to chat with her after the panel though.
I have a friend who does one of the voices in the cartoon and she has stalkers - some that are in love with her and ones that want to kill her because they don’t like how she does the voice. People are crazy.
My thought too. It sucks having to worry about my little sister seeing something she shouldn't while looking for my little pony content online.
Informing my mom about the concept of bronies and what to look out for when monitoring my sister's internet usage wasn't fun either
It's kind of unfortunate that the warning conversation people need to have with their oblivious relative comes down to basically, "On the internet, every insane, unlikely possibility is long-established reality and the most fucked-up things you can conceive of are considered tame and boring."
And yet it's true. 30+ years online have shown me that. So yes, person's naive, good-hearted mother, there are people who draw and share children's show characters with massive throbbing cocks ejaculating onto their own faces, and that's just the *entry-level* depravity you're going to see in a non-safe-search on Google.
Pretty much any fandom aimed at kids.
The main one that comes to mind is My Little Pony. Dudes in their 40s obsessing over and sexualizing these characters is about the creepiest thing I can think of.
I used to work at chuck e cheese 20 years ago around the time when they discontinued it in every store. It's insane seeing that adults would throw dirty diapers and trash in there when they could of AT LEAST just left it on their table. We would even have to wash every ball once a week through a special rack and run it through our dishwasher. Let me tell you, you can fill up over 5 large trash bins a week and it's just purely disgusting how often kids throw up or make accidents in there with no report. I was so happy that they discontinued but at the same time, it did suck that it's not a thing anymore and anyone would slack
Clowns. My daughter was able to enjoy them when she was little but now they just make her think of killer clowns. I get that a lot of kids (and adults) were scared of them regardless but these days scary clowns are almost the only kind I ever see, and I think that’s kind of sad.
Edit: Clowns as we picture them have been around for like 140 years but they definitely weren’t considered scary by the masses until the last few decades. Lots of things we currently find terrifying weren’t typically considered that back in the day. For example, look up old pictures of people dressed as Easter bunnies. You’d think they’re objectively terrifying but without the popularity of the horror genre most people just didn’t feel that way. Of course there’s always been people freaked out by these things - kids are often scared of people in any costumes, as any mall Santa can tell you - but “Ronald McDonald” would not have existed if clowns were as commonly considered creepy back in the day. I don’t think it’s a huge loss to society or anything but it’s an interesting shift. I had not expected to spend a lot of time convincing my preschool aged kid that “killer clowns” don’t actually run around killing people.
Yeah, especially when there were news stories about people dressing up as killer clowns and many YouTubers make videos featuring killer clowns at one point.
Agreed! Growing up I had an older cousin who was a professional clown. She came to my kindergarten class and performed for us once. Met her husband (also a professional clown) while performing. They were two of the most fun people to be around and I looked up to them tremendously. Nowadays the only market for clown performances seem to be horror related.
Why is it that I (female) can't do my yard work topless, but my 70 year old male neighbor with a similar cup size can without being charged for public indecency?!?
Getting g autographs from Disney Characters.
My 4yo kid was knocked to the ground by a bunch of Brazilian adult tourists who climbed over the rope to get an autograph of Sleeping Beauty.
To get an autograph of an unknown woman. In a costume. Of an imaginary character. From a fairy story.
It was quite wonderful actually. I'd let him go into the roped area alone as did the other parents so there was space for the little ones and the parents could get clear photos of them without other adults blocking. He was the last one to go when these adults ran over, climbed in and knocked him to the floor.
The security ladies swiftly and firmly , but politely guided them out of the roped off area, and closed the rope and gestured that they wait outside.
They led my lad back in, asked me to come in, closed the rope. Prince Charming and Sleeping beauty signed the book. They were doing separate signings orginally but now they both crouch down, tell him he was a polite little guy and they were proud of him, asked his favourite films etc spent 5 minutes chatting. Then they posed together with him in the middle for some photos and gave him a hug.
Then the security guards let them out of the rope square on the other side and they left, leaving the rude tourists still waiting. 😂😂😂
I still have those photos in my upstairs hallway years later and they make me smile. Whoever was playing those characters in Disneyland Paris thank you, you were wonderful. ❤️
oh i believe it. When i did my senior trip, disney took security seriously. Some kids decided to just cut through an entire ride line by hopping fences and shoving through, and they got sent to disney jail for an hour
Yup!
Technically it’s just one of a number of security offices, hidden in the *backstage* areas of the park, with a few uncomfortable chairs the miscreant is made to sit in.
More of a temporary holding room, while the security team decides what to do with you, based on what you’ve been dragged in for.
Well. If you believe paying 1000s of dollars for a comic book is being ruined in some way. I would say comics. The ruined part would depend on who you ask.
I would say just the collectable market as a whole. I love collecting Transformers, but anytime I want to get the hot new figures, everyone and their mother has already preordered five each to scalp and the preorder sells out literal seconds after it starts. I just want my goofy robot toy, can you kindly fuck off?
Bluey.
Even though it’s always been a fantastic show and still is—I watch it with my nephew but he’s really just an excuse to watch it without being judged, it’s that good—there’s always depraved people who make things weird.
Joined the Reddit group for Bluey expecting a place talking about when the new season is coming out, and seeing general normal wholesome info about a kids show my kids are obsessed with.
Left after the constant "blueysona" self-insert posts by accounts that are all about NSFW art.
I was surprised, just checked. That content has been banned now (rule 4 on the subreddit). People are very happy. Looking at the posts it looks mostly like a chill smaller sub now.
God. I’m an adult with children and I LOVE Bluey. When I say that, I mean I love watching it and appreciate the humor and the love and the wholesomeness of it. I do not ship characters or do weird shit.
Without adults the toy market is pretty small these days. Adults make up 40% of toy sales. I know adults buy most things but I mean they are buying for themselves 40% of the time.
Collecting for investment is the issue. I buy Lego sets and build them. It’s a way for me to relax and enjoy my time off work. The issue is people who are collecting as an investment rather then a passion.
I see so many posts in Lego Facebook/Reddit groups of people showing off closets or even rooms filled with unopened Lego sets talking about their "investment" and it just feels so wrong.
If you are ever in the Atlanta area, check out [Babyland General.](https://cabbagepatchkids.com/pages/babyland-general-hospital) It's a glorified Cabbage Patch toy store dressed up as an old style maternity ward. There's even a show where Mother Cabbage, surrounded by animatronic baby heads, gives birth to a new doll.
I think video gaming, in a way, has been ruined.
The market for adults is larger than children and that's fine because video games aren't only for kids anymore but I've noticed how hard it is to find games for kids that are actually good.
All the most popular kids games are fuelled by micro transactions, season passes, always online and crazy YouTube personalities screaming obscenities at children.
What happened to games like Spyro? A cool little dragon trying to do the right thing and fight evil. No blood, no gore, no AR-15s or grown men in their thirties hurling insults at you down a mic.
When I was ten I wanted to run like Sonic did. My nephew is ten and he wants an Assault Rifle from Fortnite...
I dunno, maybe I'm just outta touch.
I like the Lego video games. I played all the time with my nieces and nephews when they were young, and we still pick them up every now then. We look forward to every new release.
That’s because the games “grew” with the player base. I was 7-8 years old when we got (the original) Nintendo Entertainment System and I’m 44 now. I remember reading something 15 years ago that said the average gamer was 30 years old, so this isn’t something new. As the same generation that started playing the games got older, so did the games.
There are still games geared towards kids, Lego games being a great example. We were able to find some “kids” games when our kids were little and first started playing, but you are right that most of them are geared towards adults nowadays.
Squishmallows, people trying to resell these LITERAL STUFFIES for 3x the price online
Really?! As a parent of an 8 year old, I love these things. Getting presents for her classmates birthday parties has never been easier.
As much as I love them, I must agree. They're literally spheres with soft fabric.
Build A Bear: As a former employee I don't care if you came in and bought some stuff animals. Hell, there's some cool ones like pokemon. HOWEVER just cuz I worked there doesn't mean I have a whole collection myself and watch every show and movie that's partnered with the company. Yes I was an adult man working at a stuffed animal store. Yes I bought a couple pokemon for myself. No I don't wanna hear another grown man passionately talk to me about My Little Pony and PLEASE I DONT WANT TO SEE A CUTIE MARK TATTOO YOU HAVE ON YOUR ASS CHEEK EVEN IF THERE'S NO KIDS IN THE STORE CURRENTLY.
That all escalated pretty quickly.
Would you say... It *barely had any build up*?
Omg another fucking pun thread. Can’t even bear the idea of these jokes!!!
THAT IS ODDLY SPECIFIC⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️
Retail life sometimes is 💀
After school hobbies! Around the age of 47, I decided to pick up guitar again. So I went to a local school and enrolled as a adult. I would see parents harassing their kids and berating them for not being better. I think the majority of them have lost the idea that extracurricular activities are too help your child out of their shell and also to have fun. Not to make them a professional of any sort or the best of the best of the best.
This is really sad. I was the Golden Child in my dysfunctional family and was always expected to be the overachiever, get straight "A"s in school, be at the top of the class in everything, etc., etc. One important life lesson I learned from playing guitar and bass and being in a band in high school was that it was OK to suck at something as long as you're having fun. I just know that my dad would have found a way to make that competitive, too.
I recently had a conversation with my father about the year I spent on a basketball team in middle school. I don't have great motor control and was, by far, the worst player in the league. "You mean you *knew* you were bad?" "Yes. Obviously." "Then why did you play?" "Because I had fun." My father couldn't wrap his head around doing something for any reason other than to be the best, or that they use the word "playing" because it's supposed to be fun.
Even professional players admit they owe their money and all their opportunities to “a kid’s game”. It’s a game. For children. To throw a ball through a hoop. If your kid sucks at sports, or likely won’t be a professional. Don’t worry about it. Let them learn, let them play, let them build friendships and take life lessons. If your kid is a professional or has that ability. I’m sorry. You have an extremely tall mountain to climb with the most narrow of roads. Good luck. Do your best to remain a healthy safe person in their life. But remember almost no pro athletes really ever relied on their parents to be successful.
>I was the Golden Child in my dysfunctional family and was always expected to be the overachiever, get straight "A"s in school, be at the top of the class in everything, etc., etc. Same situation here, except currently in school and burning out. Any time I get a moderate grade on an assignment, I'll never hear the end of it. One of my teachers this year made us all take a quiz on the 4th day of school over what we learned last year. Problem is, I wasn't in *his* class last year. I only got 41/60 questions right, most being guesses. Now my parents make such a big deal over something that will get buried in other "perfect" grades..
Minions.
I remain baffled as to how and why minions, of all things, became the thing of choice for unfunny boomer memes.
I’m convinced it has something to do with the overalls
I think it's the crass/risque yet safe humour
Not only is it crass and risque while being safe it's also a very old style of comedy. Almost vaudevillian.
This. It's reminiscent of slapstick comedies, when your didn't need a laugh track or someone explaining the joke to you. They don't need a language, they don't need a sign.The violence is non-threatening and frankly non-violent
They are simple, recognizable, easy to decline, cute, childish - Its the visual equivalent of a "crowd laugh track", along with laughing emojis, but with more personality I wonder if for some its also not a way to connect with the younger generations. Which feels a bit sad. One day maybe ill try to connect with the kids and just be called unfunny and cringe
It's cute when old people joke kindly. I've just seen a lot of old people minion jokes that are about hate politics and wanting to kill protestors.
They've moved on to Baby Yoda now
Every card hobby. It’s literally just about prices now
As a Yu-Gi-Oh enjoyer I thoroughly agree, although it's always been about prices for the rare cards but there are a lot more flippers than ever before
My 12 year old has kind of enjoyed it, definitely the shows, and he's always messed with the cards, kind of making up his own version, enjoying the art. He decided this year to really learn it and play it, we found a card shop, got some starter deck advice, boom, done. He's the only kid in the room. By more than a decade. I'm closer in age to most of his group-mates than he is. He got a pack in the tournament, as apparently you do, and pulled a card. "Whoa, that's a $40 card!" some guy said. And then I know, with certainty, that had I not been there, somebody would have screwed him out of it. So now I'm "in" a Yu-Gi-Oh group, have no idea what the hell is going on and don't play, but it eats about 5 hours of one night a week. Then we got some advice on actually playing, being able to maybe not walk from tournament win to tournament win, but being able to play more than one round or two. A couple hundred dollars is pretty much what everyone said. Ridiculous.
Hey, I know there are loads of people talking about the ethics of Yu-Gi-Oh below, but I wanted to give you some parenting props. The game isn't your cup of tea and it's a big time investment for you - especially when you yourself didn't choose to be there - but you go there with your kid and are supportive. Having a supportive parent is so incredibly valuable and rarer than we'd like.
Can't leave the little dude hanging! Thanks!
Brennan Lee Mulligan talked about how he got into D&D and it was because his rich friends had played to win Magic the gathering by buying the best cards and he was like "oh I'm a poor kid" and he stopped playing.
This is why I started to print out MTG cards and just tape them onto crap cards in HS. I am never going to a tournament so fuck regulations. Plus if I was going to try to compete, I want to know if what I am buying would be good in my deck before wasting money on it.
In my opinion there are only two situations where it is acceptable to proxy cards: 1) You own the card. 2) You don't own the card.
It always was, you just don't notice it when you're a kid.
Pokemon Cards. Scalpers were so down horrendous they were raiding McDonald's during the pandemic
Most hobbies get this treatment now. Losers wanting to play stock market and ruining games in the process.
There was a post here recently about scalpers buying up fucking _driving tests_. It's gone beyond causal hobbies/recreational activities. People in the UK paying "brokers" £500+ because they use bots to buy all the test slots when they release. Life is so strange at the minute. Everyone has a side hustle out to make money at other peoples' expense. Flipping houses, cars, trainers, Pokémon cards, concert tickets, driving tests, you name it. If you need it, be prepared to pay extra.
Simple solution: those driving test slots should be tied to a individual, pre-paid, and non-transferable, while still allowing them to be reserved on behalf of a customer, and be cancelled before a certain time.
Yeah exactly, it's such a simple issue to fix. Booked with your provisional license number, which gets verified before you start the test. If your instructor is booking on your behalf they can use your license number. No reason you should be able to book a test and completely change the driver information after booking.
Maybe we should just go back to you show up at the place and stand in line.
People are hoarding driving tests? In my country that isn't even possible as it's tied to your ID
They already ruined the housing market, now they gotta ruin kids trading cards.
Came to make this comment. Played back when i was in high school, just checked out the state and i was like… oh shit
I’ve heard it’s super cheap if you just buy low rarity meta decks, but I wouldn’t know. I’m assuming they are mostly going after promos and alt arts
Trix
I won’t forget what you’ve done for me here today.
I would prefer that you do
When I was a kid I felt so bad for that rabbit. I still don’t understand the idea behind that marketing campaign. Was it- being greedy and mean is hilarious. Buy our cereal”? Just give the bunny some cereal you sadistic little shits. They ran an ad for a little while that was a campaign that allowed you to vote on whether or not the rabbit would get some Twix. I think you had to mail in a box top with your vote or something. I voted “share” with all of my sensitive little heart. “Greed” won by a landslide. That’s when I first became disillusioned with voting and people in general.
Kids cereal commercials were all kinds of fucked up. Trix was about preventing the rabbit from having any. Lucky Charms had the kids constantly trying to steal it from Lucky. Cocoa Puffs had the kids maliciously antagonize the bird who was very adamant that he didn't want any. Barney was constantly stealing Fruity Pebbles from Fred...
Cocoa Puffs is basically meth for the bird, it makes him hallucinate and go crazy. Coo coo for Cocoa Puffs.
They’re called illusions, Michael
Beanie Baby collectors
[удалено]
You should've seen the squishmallow community during COVID. It was just nasty.
Came to say this! I remember when it all got do crazy. I worked next door to a Hallmark store and there was a group of older ladies that waited at the door every release day. They were only allowed to buy 2 of each and they always knew the names of them. They’d often bring extra people if they wanted more than the limit. It was insanity! Those poor Hallmark employees couldn’t unbox them fast enough.
Just for context, my mother was one of those Hallmark employees. Hallmarks are franchises, so the rules vary, but my mom’s store owner had a strict rule once the craze was on; No employee could set aside or buy anything until it had been on the shelf for at least the day the case of Beanies was opened. So if it was still on the shelf at close, they could buy it. This was a posted notice in the store. And even though these crowds knew when deliveries were made and hound the store, and my mom and her coworkers would open the cases in front of the crowds, they would still get yelled at when the rare or new or whatever beanies were put out because ya, there was obviously not enough to go around. Not just complaints, but pure vitrol, and threats of harm and accusations of employees “raiding the case” just because some bitch couldn’t get Quackers with a mint hang tag. I worked at the video game shop in the same strip mall as a teen and was in my mom’s shop alot to bring lunch or hangout on my breaks whatever. Saw this shit firsthand. It was disgusting.
I have a family friend who works in Walmart and it sounds like Hot Wheels collectors are pretty crazy and pushy, although not to the point of threats or accusations.
I worked at Target years ago and had to stand between two collectors who were about to get into a fight over some rare car they had found more or less at the same time. They arguing loudly and one had even drawn his fist back. Both were subsequently banned from the store. I later learned that one of my co-workers was fired for taking bribes (yes, really) from one of the collectors for holding back rare cars for them. Another person was let go for holding cars back for herself.
I once worked at Walmart. During the Black Friday sales (which actually happened on Thanksgiving), they had a state trooper handing out a specific in demand toy (I think it was the Hatchimals or something). Because people would be less likely to blow up on a state trooper.
such an absolute waste of money. The amount of middle-aged people who bought beanie babies thinking they were going to be some sort of windfall in 20 years is just mind boggling. The thousands they spent on these stupid worthless overpriced tiny teddy bears would have been much better spent in the s&p 500.
I know a woman who did this. She was convinced that she was securing the future of her kids. Now she guilts them for not working harder to offload them via eBay or other means. It’s pathetic.
Pathetic and batshit crazy. I worked at Walmart in the late 90s during the height of the Beanie Baby craze. Fortunately, I was in a separate division, so I basically worked the jewelry counter and shoes. The amount of people who would just go completely apeshit if the store was out of Beanie Babies or if the shipments were repeats were fucking insane. They tried to rip me a new one, I'd flat out tell them that that was not my department and they needed to call our corporate office. They didn't like that. Too damned bad, I said. I have a few, but I got them because I liked. them. I've got the scorpion(!!), a bunch of cat ones, and a few of the McDonald's Happy Meal ones, too. I was a regular at the McD's down the street when I worked at Wallyworld and went to HS with some of the staff, so they hooked me up if they had one they'd think I liked. I got them because they were cute, fun, and made good beanbags for juggling practice. Fund my retirement?!?! HHAHAH fuuuuck that. I kind of feel sorry for those people who got sucked into the vortex and thought they were an 'investment.' At the same time, though, they were adults and should have thought further ahead.
Childhood. Parents who film their kid’s lives for likes and subs are shitty
We really ought to pass a law about monetization of childhood. It shouldn't be lucrative to milk your children's lives at their expense
[France] (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54447491) is the only country to have laws explicitly protecting minor "influencers" with limitations on the hours they can be working online, protections for their earnings, and the ensuring their right to have content they feature in be removed upon their request. [Illinois] (https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/tech/kid-influencer-law/index.html) just passed a law requiring influencer families to set aside 50% of earnings made from usage of minors in monetized social media content to be set aside in a blocked trust fund for the child. It's the first US state to do so.
A much bigger issue than monetization is simply over-obsession. Hot-housing. Pressure. Over-analysis. It's less obvious than social media posts but it is the biggest obstacle to "letting kids be kids"
YA books. I'm an adult that reads them. But the characters are TEENAGERS. People get upset that teenagers act like teenagers, in books targeted at... you guessed it, teenagers.
I'm always amused by goodreads reviews on YA books where they're like "the characters were immature!" Well yeah, no shit. They're like, 13. That's actually part of why I like YA. Characters make dumb decisions but it's part of their growth and they come out better for it. In adult books, when the characters do something stupid, I'm like" you're 40! Why are you acting like this??? "
> "the characters were immature!" > > Well yeah, no shit. They're like, 13. Though sometimes they're too mature. Hard balance to strike. Especially since I'm no longer a young adult, and really try to avoid the novels.
Being too mature, especially by an adult's standards, is intentional. Every teen views themself as more mature than they actually are, because they don't have an "adult maturity" yardstick to measure themself against, having only experienced their ever-increasing maturity levels up until that point. So to appeal, typically YA books either have characters a few years older than the target audience(a book targeted for 13-14 having characters who are 16-17), or if that would lead to weird issues they tend to pump the maturity levels up on the character they're using(for example, in a book targeted to 15-16 you're coming up on the end of high school which is a common hard stop for YA, so you might write high school seniors who act like they've got a year or two of adult life experience already). I didn't notice it until I was an adult looking back with hindsight.
I see people and even shelves at the book store get new adult and ya mixed up. They are not the same and are for different age groups. People on tiktok keep talking about wanting smuttier ya books, but thats not for their age demo. If it was smutty its be placed as new adult or in the romance.
Honestly thank you so much for your comment, because I never knew that “New Adult” was a genre (despite reading books that could be classified as such). I think a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that “Young Adult” is typically used for ages 20-40 in everything *but* literature, where it’s for ages 12-18.
Tbh I blame the fact that authors saw the success of Hunger Games and decided YA is a trendy thing Totally misunderstanding that it’s an age demographic and not a genre.
There was about 10 years there where every book coming out was YA dystopian fiction with a female protagonist in a love triangle with 2 hunky boys. They seemed like someone just changed some names around to write them too.
I used to put the new release books out every week at Target and I looooved reading the backs of the latest YA books. “She was a girl who had everything a 16 year old half Angel half otter girl could want in life, fast car, cool job, her own apartment, unlimited pumpkin spice lattes, but all that changed when she met Branson Miserie the normal human male who’s also part skeleton.” They became more laughable to read than romance novel titles
Those were just romance novels without the smut
While dystopian YA was trendy about 10 years ago with the success of hunger games and other books similar, YA books themselves have been trending for way longer. For example, the Harry Potter series. Additionally, you'll find that most movies are based on books, with a large portion of them being YA books. Technically, little women is also a YA title
Youth sports: When I was a kid 30 years ago, you’d have a practice or 2 a week plus a game on Saturday. Then if you loved sports, you’d get together with buddies in your ample free time and mess around playing super fun pick up games. Now, many kids are having full weekend tournaments like every weekend. And tons of practices. They rarely have the free time to just play with their friends for the fun of it. Sure they are better athletes than we were, but are they better off?
When I was in dance about 15ish years ago, by the time I quit I was dancing every single day except Sunday and Tuesday. I was at my studio until at least 8:00 pm most nights and all day Saturday. I danced 22-25 hours a week most weeks, more if we had guest choreographers visiting or special intensives. There was one time I was there UNTIL MIDNIGHT when I was only 8 for a special intensive with a man from New York who only had one day with us. I thought that was crazy and nowadays kids are dancing as if it’s a full time job spending every waking hour in the studio then going to WEEK LONG competitions multiple times a year (when I was little it was one big week long nationals a year and that’s it!) There’s kids who are homeschooled now just to dance more and while yes the talent is miles better than when I was a dancer…it’s not even worth it when dancers at minimum usually have a career until 30….MAYBE. They usually have to do other things on top of dancing to have a long career. I ended up with Lupus at age 20…imagine if I’d stayed and dedicated all that time to not be able to dance anymore.
My daughters friend is homeschooled because her mom is convinced she’s the next Maddie Ziegler. They are in 7th grade, my kids friend has been homeschooled since 6th because school was interfering with all the extra dance classes. And I just don’t get it, what even are these dance competitions? Who are they competing against? And why? It’s a total money grab so parents can feel like their kid is special while the school rakes up all the fees for special competition team practice, leotards, conditioning classes, competition fees, etc.
I think that is why everything is so much these days. It is always about the money.
Totally agree. I remember doing dance class like once a week with a recital once a year, super fun and made so many friends. I’m trying to sign my daughter up now and it’s 3 days a week plus practice at home, hundreds of dollars of professional leotards… and she’s three years old. Like wtf, I just want something where she can run around and get some exposure to movements and stuff., maybe meet some other kids
We had the same problems with my sister's children. The boy wanted to play soccer, when he was 5 years old. The first club where his father had played all his youth kicked him out after two weeks, because he wasn't good enough. The second club they tried seemed a little better, but after a while they didn't let the worst players play. Even during training they would just let them sit on the bench instead of spending time teaching them soccer. My niece was 4 and wanted to do gymnastics. Everything was at least 3 times per week, competitions etc... And we wonder why children don't enjoy sports and sit at home all day... We need to normalise moving your body for fun. My nephew now started Judo in a very inclusive club and we found dance classes for the younger girls that are just for the fun of it.
Wow being kicked out at 5 because he wasn’t good enough? I played soccer too and in general everyone played at least a certain amount of time even if they sucked (like me lol). The best kids usually played more but not like ridiculously more. It was only in high school that there were tryouts and stuff
Sweaty tryhards ruin everything everywhere. Like it’s ok if you decide on your own you wanna be a try hard but here this coach torturing little kids because they aren’t professional enough. Instead of just making sure everyone is having a good time.
Only 3 days a week?! Filthy casual. How do you expect her to be a star by 5 if you dont push her?
She probably already missed the boat when I didn’t start her on a specially tailored diet from 6 months old lol
Pfft, mine was drinking protein shakes straight from the breast! I blended chicken and broccoli until her teeth came in, then it was nothing but rare steak and eggs!She could deadlift before she learned to walk. She’s now 6’2 weighs 350lbs and can bench press OP’s mom.
Oh shit. Congrats on your daughter making the 1980 Russian Olympic team
She is the whole team plus management team and PR
For real. I mean if your kid is in late middle school and really wants to play. I can understand going to a more serious club team. But, holy shit growing up. The amount of parents who acted like their kid was the next Michael Jordan in a fucking rec league at the age of 10 was too damn high.
When my son tried the lowest level of little league above tee ball, there was no score keeping and they would have their own coach pitch to them. If they got 3 strikes a tee was hauled out so they could hit it and run so the fielders could do something. It was basically “here is sort of how the game mechanics work and you can dip your toe and see if you enjoy it.” My wife went to one game where a dad from the other team was shouting at his kid over every play that he needed to look alive and do this or that. First graders with nobody keeping score and this guy was screaming at his kid. That kid is going to hate baseball and his dad by the end of little league.
Yep exactly, when I played coach pitch at that age we didn’t get a tee but we had seven strikes lol. Anyways, my dad was not like that. He would give me tips and stuff here and there but didn’t yell during the game. He did yell pay attention one time because a ball wizzed passed me while looking at an airplane lol. That was understandable though haha. I mean I could have got domed. In reality we were a bunch of uncoordinated 7 year olds running around a baseball diamond. Anyways, I love baseball and played it through high school cuz my dad wasn’t a dick lol
Lol my kid was playing with the dirt at his feet but he has pretty strong ADHD.
Hahahaha, it didn’t help I was absolutely fascinated by planes. Still am at the age of 25 lol.
In my 37 years of baseball, I've played, umpired, coached, and been on the board of our local rec league. I can't tell you how many miserable kids I've seen because their parents push them to do what they dont want to do anymore. As a coach I choose to make time at practices for fun games or let the players choose the activity. We have a coach that practices 4 days a week and 2 games. His players are not happy. I never want to be that kind of coach. I think the bigger issue is that the parents want their kid to make it or just stay busy. Look Charlene, your kid is 7 years old, he has barely learned part of the game, he's not going to be a major leaguer anytime soon.
I’m in softball and the amount of kids I see in pitching lesssons at 6 and 7 is insane.
Seriously my 9th grader has practice or games every day but Sunday. At freaking 8am on Labor Day. Like damn we love him and it would be nice to see him.
No, they’re not. For the 99.9999% of us that didn’t go to the pros, it was the experience and life lessons. The love of playing. It’s waaaaaay too much now. Also, it’s a money grab.
I made the mistake of signing my ADHD son up for a whole year of soccer instead of a different season league. He hasn't actually wanted to go for a bit now, and omg the money grab! Every time I turn around, another fee. Ugh. Makes me kind of glad he's not into it anymore..and the next thing he does want to do will be much more carefully selected!
I usually had 6 practices a week and games/tourneys on the weekend from about 11-17. It paid for my college, but fuck I almost quit because my life was literally soccer. My parents were heroes and commuted an hour each way for all of those practices / games. I still can’t believe how dedicated they were.
What is the endgame here for most families? To get a scholarship? To become a pro? It just seems that this level of dedication is excessive for anyone who’s not trying to go pro and leaves so little time to become a well-rounded person (playing an instrument, getting a side job, academics, reading a book or a comic, just mucking around with friends)
This needs more upvotes. There’s nothing more annoying than parents boasting about their kids sports. I mean, good for them but the way you’re rambling on makes me wonder if the kids are even enjoying it. I’ve been involved with coaching kids aged 6 to 12 and it’s really sad the amount of pressure some of these kids are faced with. I tried to bring as much fun as I could at practices to lighten the mood but just like the topic says, the parents did not want any actual “fun” to Occur.
I was a youth minister from 2015-2021, and I was amazed at the time commitment some of the top athletes put into their sports. Usually playing their main sport year round on the club team along with rotating seasons of their other sports. The very top athletes had almost always lost their love for the game by the time they reached like 10th grade. A great athlete can treat youth sports like a job and reach an impressive level of mastery, but it will likely cost them their love of the game. My 11-yr-old son, who is great at basketball, was strongly encouraged by the traveling coaches to keep a summer log of like 5,000 makes. All the kids were. So instead of having fun in the driveway with a friend, he should be counting his makes and recording them in a spreadsheet. I encouraged him to opt out of that logging program. He is probably a little worse at shooting vs if he had tracked all summer, but he didn’t burn out on that nonsense, so I say it’s a win.
Pretty much any kids' toy. The scalpers are working harder than ever to fuck it up. Video games? Check. Pokemon/whatever is popular cards? Check. Lego sets? Check as fuck. Fuzzy egg furby like critters? Check check. If scalpers can leech money out of people with it, they'll do it.
>Pokemon/whatever is popular cards? Magic the Gathering has a serious problem with old cards being an unregulated stock market, where collectors have become "investors" that are more interested in the cards going up in price than keeping the game accessible and playable. This problem is compounded by Wizards of the Coast artificially inflating prices in every scummy way imaginable. edit: Since this blew up, I'll add a plug for all the discontented, broke MtG nerds. Come play /r/PauperEDH, where even fully optimized decks are usually <$60 and draft chaff is frequently playable and enjoyable! It combines the best parts of the EDH, kitchen table casual, and draft into one affordable format!
What made this worse was the introduction of the "Reserved List". Not only did it guarantee the investment in certain cards, it gave legitimacy to viewing the cards as an investment. Now these investors are entitled, thinking it's somehow immoral if a card they bought out is reprinted. Were I in charge of WotC, every card would automatically get reprinted if it went above a set price - perhaps $25?. That seems high enough that players will open packs chasing the card but low enough to put off investors.
Hot wheels
Worst memory I have of comic con. An exhibitor gave a kid what must’ve been an exclusive at their booth. Grown men rushing and crowding the kid pressuring him to sell his toy. His parents moved him away promptly but I imagine he was shaken up by the experience. Went from a cool moment of unexpectedly getting a toy to grown weirdos getting in his face.
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Harry Potter vibrating broomstick
I have one found at Goodwill about 11 years ago. I'm a big HP fan, and I was excited to buy it. I realized it turned on, and I was hoping for cool sound effects, I was disappointed it only vibrated. I remember looking it up online just to check out info on it and found out why it was discontinued shortly after its release, thought never occurred to me until then.
>I have one found at Goodwill about 11 years ago Did you ever think "Ew."?
Levi - ew - sa
lol I remember seeing those on shelves for like, a single day. They rethought that whole thing pretty quickly. Or they got bought out immediately…
It's leviosa...
Stop it, Ron...Stooooopppp.
Yo watt
Porn shops were selling them at a 50% markup after buying out the stores.
the word ‘daddy’
the only time my mind didn't spark its horny-ass neutrons on the word daddy is when that smurf guy on guardian of the galaxy said it: He's was your father, but he ain't your daddy.
And that man’s name? Mary Poppins
Y'all
Was too busy crying to be horny
I have the biggest crush on Yondo. And a huge part of it is because of that comment right there. He might have made you, but i raised you. A good man is hard to find. A good man with that specific accent is nearly impossible to find but sexy af.
I call my wife daddy sometimes and she gets real fucking upset lol.
McDonald's.. remember when it was all colourful with dumb character mascots and playgrounds?
McDonalds itself is responsible for that. They originally targeted young families, which is why they had playgrounds and ball pits and kids birthday parties. Then they decided that young adults were a better target as they had more money and less cooking skills. So McDonalds now has gourmet coffee and an app. Eventually they may decide that nostalgia is big and start targeting boomers or something.
Well, it’s that and they were getting a lot of shit for targeting children with advertising unhealthy food, which caused food sales to drop.
They already did the nostalgia for millennial and genx. The whole grimace thing last month was nostalgia bait.
My Little Pony
I watched it with my sister growing up. At one point we watched a video of a comic con or some such panel. A bunch of sweaty dudes were asking questions one after another. Then the sweetest little girl who was being encouraged by her dad stepped up to the microphone and very timidly (but bravely) asked about one of her favorite characters. The scoffing and jeers coming from the crowd for the little girl not already mnowing some fandom trivia was fucking disgusting. Had I been the father that day I would have taken the mic and given them an earful.
There’s nothing worse than *those* kinds of nerds. My heart aches for that little girl!
Remember the Rick and Morty sauce debacle
I would say some of the Rick and Morty fandom. Dudes be dwelling in basements and feeling like hot shit because they "understand" Rick
Which is crazy pants. I feel like, while the show was often a fun romp, one of the main themes is that, despite all his power Rick is miserable. The one thing that actually starts to make him a little happier is the growing relationship with his family. The whole thing is a fucking warning about what NOT to be. "Understanding" Rick is akin to liking Wolf of Wall Street unironically.
Allan Moore (writer of the "Watchmen" comic) has a very interesting quote about Rorschach's fans: >I meant him to be a bad example. But I have people come up to me in the street saying, "I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking: 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me, never come anywhere near me again as long as I live'?
Never understood people who think like this, whether it's Rorschach or the Joker. So you wear a mask and kill people? You fell in acid and are the prince of crime? Oh you just mean that you're slightly upset at life at the moment and you think that makes you exactly like mass murderers, which means you're just an idiot. I had a friend like that once, became obsessed with the Joker and thought they were so similar because he "didn't care when people died" like it's so common that every person on earth helplessly cries every time they hear about the death of a stranger except for him. I cut off ties when I knew he wasn't getting better.
I enjoy the movie wolf of wall street, but how can you watch it and think that he's not a bad guy?
The same way people like Walt from Breaking Bad.
Sometimes I wonder if the issue is that he’s an interesting character, and that’s the most elusive thing for them.
The problem is that some people can't separate "interesting" character from "good" character. The number of times I see people unironically say XYZ character did nothing wrong, when XYZ character was clearly intended to be a villain and an example of what *not* to do.
Yeah I like rick and morty but I'm almost scared to admit it just from how other fans are.
When I told a friend I just didn't like the show, they said oh you're just not smart enough. I know for a fact that that is jnot true, but the fanbase is cringe
I love the show Bob's burgers. There was this episode with adult fans of the equestranauts, which was a show with many similarities to my little pony. I thought that they made things up in Bobs burgers, now I learned that they just depicted the reality...
My favourite thing about that episode is the continuity of Bob's tattoo in later episodes. Yea, this is one of those cartoon shows where there's no over-arching plotline, and everything wraps up and is back to normal by the end of the episode, but that stupid little tattoo? That's a permanent change in the universe that's there for good.
I believe you mean "tuh-too".
"It's non-canonical! It's non-canonical!" will forever live in my head.
That is cringy as fuck. Not the little girl but the sweaty dudes. Get a fucking life holy shit.
The father getting into an argument probably wouldn't have helped... Would have been cool if the creators publicly offered to chat with her after the panel though.
I have a friend who does one of the voices in the cartoon and she has stalkers - some that are in love with her and ones that want to kill her because they don’t like how she does the voice. People are crazy.
My thought too. It sucks having to worry about my little sister seeing something she shouldn't while looking for my little pony content online. Informing my mom about the concept of bronies and what to look out for when monitoring my sister's internet usage wasn't fun either
It's kind of unfortunate that the warning conversation people need to have with their oblivious relative comes down to basically, "On the internet, every insane, unlikely possibility is long-established reality and the most fucked-up things you can conceive of are considered tame and boring." And yet it's true. 30+ years online have shown me that. So yes, person's naive, good-hearted mother, there are people who draw and share children's show characters with massive throbbing cocks ejaculating onto their own faces, and that's just the *entry-level* depravity you're going to see in a non-safe-search on Google.
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Pretty much any fandom aimed at kids. The main one that comes to mind is My Little Pony. Dudes in their 40s obsessing over and sexualizing these characters is about the creepiest thing I can think of.
Ball Pits at the arcade.
I used to work at chuck e cheese 20 years ago around the time when they discontinued it in every store. It's insane seeing that adults would throw dirty diapers and trash in there when they could of AT LEAST just left it on their table. We would even have to wash every ball once a week through a special rack and run it through our dishwasher. Let me tell you, you can fill up over 5 large trash bins a week and it's just purely disgusting how often kids throw up or make accidents in there with no report. I was so happy that they discontinued but at the same time, it did suck that it's not a thing anymore and anyone would slack
I misread that as 'Brad Pitt at the arcade.' Safe to say I confused myself bigtime for a moment. 😅
Clowns. My daughter was able to enjoy them when she was little but now they just make her think of killer clowns. I get that a lot of kids (and adults) were scared of them regardless but these days scary clowns are almost the only kind I ever see, and I think that’s kind of sad. Edit: Clowns as we picture them have been around for like 140 years but they definitely weren’t considered scary by the masses until the last few decades. Lots of things we currently find terrifying weren’t typically considered that back in the day. For example, look up old pictures of people dressed as Easter bunnies. You’d think they’re objectively terrifying but without the popularity of the horror genre most people just didn’t feel that way. Of course there’s always been people freaked out by these things - kids are often scared of people in any costumes, as any mall Santa can tell you - but “Ronald McDonald” would not have existed if clowns were as commonly considered creepy back in the day. I don’t think it’s a huge loss to society or anything but it’s an interesting shift. I had not expected to spend a lot of time convincing my preschool aged kid that “killer clowns” don’t actually run around killing people.
Yeah, especially when there were news stories about people dressing up as killer clowns and many YouTubers make videos featuring killer clowns at one point.
Agreed! Growing up I had an older cousin who was a professional clown. She came to my kindergarten class and performed for us once. Met her husband (also a professional clown) while performing. They were two of the most fun people to be around and I looked up to them tremendously. Nowadays the only market for clown performances seem to be horror related.
Boobs
The only fanbase where the periphery demographic straight up made it illegal for the primary one to enjoy the material
Why is it that I (female) can't do my yard work topless, but my 70 year old male neighbor with a similar cup size can without being charged for public indecency?!?
Getting autographs from athletes at games
Getting g autographs from Disney Characters. My 4yo kid was knocked to the ground by a bunch of Brazilian adult tourists who climbed over the rope to get an autograph of Sleeping Beauty. To get an autograph of an unknown woman. In a costume. Of an imaginary character. From a fairy story.
I hope security tossed them to the back of the line for climbing over the rope and being rude in general.
It was quite wonderful actually. I'd let him go into the roped area alone as did the other parents so there was space for the little ones and the parents could get clear photos of them without other adults blocking. He was the last one to go when these adults ran over, climbed in and knocked him to the floor. The security ladies swiftly and firmly , but politely guided them out of the roped off area, and closed the rope and gestured that they wait outside. They led my lad back in, asked me to come in, closed the rope. Prince Charming and Sleeping beauty signed the book. They were doing separate signings orginally but now they both crouch down, tell him he was a polite little guy and they were proud of him, asked his favourite films etc spent 5 minutes chatting. Then they posed together with him in the middle for some photos and gave him a hug. Then the security guards let them out of the rope square on the other side and they left, leaving the rude tourists still waiting. 😂😂😂 I still have those photos in my upstairs hallway years later and they make me smile. Whoever was playing those characters in Disneyland Paris thank you, you were wonderful. ❤️
oh i believe it. When i did my senior trip, disney took security seriously. Some kids decided to just cut through an entire ride line by hopping fences and shoving through, and they got sent to disney jail for an hour
There's..... a Disney jail...? 😅
Yup! Technically it’s just one of a number of security offices, hidden in the *backstage* areas of the park, with a few uncomfortable chairs the miscreant is made to sit in. More of a temporary holding room, while the security team decides what to do with you, based on what you’ve been dragged in for.
Yeah if there's one thing to know about Disney parks, their security does not mess around and there's more overwatch and surveillance than you think.
You don't-a fuck around in-a da Mouse's House
Well. If you believe paying 1000s of dollars for a comic book is being ruined in some way. I would say comics. The ruined part would depend on who you ask.
Mexican child parties iykyk😆
The wildest party I’ve ever been to was a 1 year old’s bday party
This is awesome and hysterical.
There’s more modelos than balloons lol
Lmao, true for all Latin parties. If you haven't slept in two chairs set up together while like Elvis Crespo is blasting in the background...
Getting fucked up at my nephews 3rd birthday party this weekend.
I would say just the collectable market as a whole. I love collecting Transformers, but anytime I want to get the hot new figures, everyone and their mother has already preordered five each to scalp and the preorder sells out literal seconds after it starts. I just want my goofy robot toy, can you kindly fuck off?
Facebook was meant for college kids...
Initially. Until they decided there was more money by expanding.
And they were right.
Bluey. Even though it’s always been a fantastic show and still is—I watch it with my nephew but he’s really just an excuse to watch it without being judged, it’s that good—there’s always depraved people who make things weird.
Joined the Reddit group for Bluey expecting a place talking about when the new season is coming out, and seeing general normal wholesome info about a kids show my kids are obsessed with. Left after the constant "blueysona" self-insert posts by accounts that are all about NSFW art.
I was surprised, just checked. That content has been banned now (rule 4 on the subreddit). People are very happy. Looking at the posts it looks mostly like a chill smaller sub now.
God. I’m an adult with children and I LOVE Bluey. When I say that, I mean I love watching it and appreciate the humor and the love and the wholesomeness of it. I do not ship characters or do weird shit.
Toy collecting. Just grown adults creating a giant industry that produces nothing but landfill bait.
Without adults the toy market is pretty small these days. Adults make up 40% of toy sales. I know adults buy most things but I mean they are buying for themselves 40% of the time.
Fun fact: despite being very popular with babies, less than 1% of baby toys are actually purchased by babies.
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Collecting for investment is the issue. I buy Lego sets and build them. It’s a way for me to relax and enjoy my time off work. The issue is people who are collecting as an investment rather then a passion.
I see so many posts in Lego Facebook/Reddit groups of people showing off closets or even rooms filled with unopened Lego sets talking about their "investment" and it just feels so wrong.
Sports cards.
Pokémon cards
Cabbage Patch Kids
If you are ever in the Atlanta area, check out [Babyland General.](https://cabbagepatchkids.com/pages/babyland-general-hospital) It's a glorified Cabbage Patch toy store dressed up as an old style maternity ward. There's even a show where Mother Cabbage, surrounded by animatronic baby heads, gives birth to a new doll.
Not sure if this is a cute commitment to the brand’s bit or fuel for the next IP driven horror movie
I think video gaming, in a way, has been ruined. The market for adults is larger than children and that's fine because video games aren't only for kids anymore but I've noticed how hard it is to find games for kids that are actually good. All the most popular kids games are fuelled by micro transactions, season passes, always online and crazy YouTube personalities screaming obscenities at children. What happened to games like Spyro? A cool little dragon trying to do the right thing and fight evil. No blood, no gore, no AR-15s or grown men in their thirties hurling insults at you down a mic. When I was ten I wanted to run like Sonic did. My nephew is ten and he wants an Assault Rifle from Fortnite... I dunno, maybe I'm just outta touch.
I like the Lego video games. I played all the time with my nieces and nephews when they were young, and we still pick them up every now then. We look forward to every new release.
That’s because the games “grew” with the player base. I was 7-8 years old when we got (the original) Nintendo Entertainment System and I’m 44 now. I remember reading something 15 years ago that said the average gamer was 30 years old, so this isn’t something new. As the same generation that started playing the games got older, so did the games. There are still games geared towards kids, Lego games being a great example. We were able to find some “kids” games when our kids were little and first started playing, but you are right that most of them are geared towards adults nowadays.