Kid is king

Today's children live in the “branded” world of luxurious consumerism. Many of them have personal cellphones and even ATM cards. But the “brat pack” is not solely responsible as it is the parents who are changing with the times and giving children enough choices to lead a more comfortable and purposeful life, where they are delivering what is expected of them, writes Amar Chandel

When William Wordsworth wrote "The child is father of the man", he probably meant that Nature, which is God’s creation, should be respected by one and all, but only children are able to appreciate it because of their innocence. However, the kids of today seem to have given a literal spin to the immortal line. They have learnt to act as little adults.

Welcome to the world of GenNext, which lives in the "branded" world of luxurious consumerism. Children today have personal cellphones at the age of eight, their own ATM cards and a weekly pocket money which may be higher than what the kids of the previous generation got in a year. They know their Ferraris and Hummers inside out and have spent holidays at the plushest destinations overseas. With parents willing to fulfil their wishes like a genie, the ringing mantra is "If you have it, flaunt it".

The economic slowdown hasn’t dented this market, courtesy indulgent parents. With the increase in income, parents today are indeed in a position to spend more on their kids. But problems arise when they succumb to the demands of the children due to the peer pressure. Then the aspirations of the pre-teens become as much a cause of family tension as those of adults.

Not only that, this flashy lifestyle rankles when it comes at the cost of moral values. There is nothing wrong in being trendy and modern but that does not mean one should ignore one’s culture and traditions.

While the problem is full blown in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, it is also catching up in cities like Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Bangalore. Even laidback towns like Shimla get into the grip, thanks to the lifestyle of children studying in residential public schools.

While the eagerness of parents to succumb to their wards’ demands does not let the latter understand the true value of money, it also comes at the cost of the health of the children. For many of them, sports does not mean sweating out in an outdoor activity like cricket, hockey or football but an endless round of video games, televisions and laptops.

A study has found that Indian children, on an average, received Rs 664 crore pocket and gift money this year, a raise of 39 per cent from the previous year. As many as 47 per cent kids and parents admit to have spent the maximum money on games and gadgets. Parents are willing to spend more on their kids, eager to buy them out with laptops and gaming systems.

Birthday parties, too, have moved on from school canteens to hotels and from home lawns to discotheques. Children as young as eight-year-old are active members on social networking websites.

These are some of the findings of a recent survey done by Cartoon Network on children from seven to 14 years. Interestingly, the study also says that Indian kids are not only high spenders but are equally good at savings too with almost 62 per cent of the kids saving a part of their pocket money. So, when their father’s ATM stops delivering they can have their own accounts to empty.

The Richie Rich list is led by the brat pack from Punjab. If life should be lived king-size, then nobody does it better than Punjabis. You know them by the count of their Mercedes, kanals and kilos, and very recently by their kids’ piggy bank. From high pocket money to designer wardrobes, expensive holidays and latest gadgets, kids in Punjab enjoy a bit too much of their parents’ love and care.

"The whole idea is complex and needs supervision. My sons use cell phones and social networking sites, they wear the best of brands and eat out at the best places in the town. Whenever they need something, we provide them with it. However, this doesn’t mean that one should turn a blind eye to what they are doing with these luxuries," says Aman K. Singh, a housewife in Chandigarh with two children aged eight and nine.

"As a parent you want to give the best to your child. Since most of the parents can now afford a comfortable lifestyle, these things cannot be counted as luxuries anymore. But yeah, we should not go beyond our limits to prove something," says Jagan Bains, who is working at Hotel Mountview. His son, Rohin Bains, too, belongs to the generation under discussion and settles for nothing less than a ‘label’. "We spend maximum on his clothes as he likes to wear only branded stuff, and of course the latest gadgets," explains Jagan.

The fact that Rohin is a child actor too, his recent role being in London Dreams, makes things easy for this 14-year-old as he can earn his own luxuries.

It is no longer camaraderie which binds children in the elite boarding schools of Shimla as it is the flashy lifestyle of spoilt brats of the rich and famous which gives a complex to most others living in the hostels.

In sharp contrast to majority of the children studying in the day public schools, for those in the boarding schools — from the who’s who of the political and industrialist families of the country — it is all about flaunting their riches. It could be the world’s most expensive cars which come to fetch them or unlimited expenditure on tuck accessed through ATM cards kept illegally.

With the latest launches for kids, be it dolls, toys, clothes or eatables making a delayed arrival in the hill town, demands of children are mostly confined to these small pleasures which they get to see courtesy advertisements on television. "Television is their window to the world beyond Shimla as there are fewer eating joints or top brand showrooms here, which is a blessing in disguise," chourus most of the relieved mothers.

Parents there are quite happy with an occasional splurge or indulgence while on a holiday to bigger flashy towns which their kids love and they too do not mind.

Simple Kwatra, an interior designer from Ludhiana, says designer rooms for kids are very much in demand in the region and especially in the city. People do not mind spending anything between Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh on the interiors of their child’s room.

According to Dr Rajiv Gupta, a Ludhiana-based psychiatrist, saying no to kids means inviting aggression and indiscipline at home. He says that parents, society, one-upmanship, status symbol — everything is responsible for the negative approach among the children.`A0 Too much exposure to violence and sex on television has further aggravated the problem, he adds.

Retired Principal Reena S, who has taught for more than three decades, is of the view that children of yesteryears were more disciplined, caring and obedient as compared to today’s generation. "Students not only refuse to listen to teachers but also create indiscipline in schools. They argue with the teachers. I feel the society is responsible for making children materialistic. Parents need to change their own habits and act as rolemodels before attempting to reform children," she suggests.

There is a positive side also to this development. A Blackberry or an iPod in a school bag also epitomises information empowerment of the future citizens.

In the IT-savvy city of Hyderabad, the teens are brave, confident and. Be it choosing the consumer brands, prime-time programmestelevision channels or deciding about careers, the children today areindependent and unflinching.

"Beyond the opulent mattress and the suave Play Station in our hand,the cloistered comforts of the parent-teacher warmth and complacent errands, there is a world. A world that demands greater tenacity. A world that rewards young men and women with tough character. A world that throws up telling challenges. It is a world that we shall confront sooner rather than later. It is a world that we must make ours sooner rather than later`85," Sameer D, a Class X student whose blog already has considerable fan-following, says in one of his postings.

It is not for nothing that Bangalore’s children have bagged the second top slot in the country in terms of being familiar with the Internet. The results of the latest edition of Cartoon Network’s patented kids’ lifestyle research have revealed that 25 per cent of the kids in Bangalore have access to computers and laptops at home, second only to Delhi and way above the national average of 20 per cent. They are way ahead of the rest of the country in searching the Internet for information — 67 per cent as compared to the national average of 53 per cent.

In Delhi, thousands of children are making some serious consumerist choices each day. "This generation is really fast. We do not understand more than half of the things they talk about," said Suneeta Rani Kashyap, a mother of two. The Kashyap family spends around 80 per cent of their total monthly income on their children.

Dr Hardeep Sethi, a New Delhi-based dentist, has no complaints about the choices her two daughters make. "Our parents never gave us any choices. I think it is the parents who are changing with the times. We are giving our children enough choices and they are delivering what is expected of them," she says.

In the end, it all boils down to the pragmatic choices made by the parents. If they give in to the children’s demands irrationally, the latter are bound to make life hell for parents as well as themselves. But if they give them the luxuries as a means to lead a more rounded and comfortable life, then the gadgets can be useful tools as well.