Life Happens

Has anyone else, in the UK seen the John Lewis home insurance advert and thought "This perfectly depicts eveything that is wrong with little precocious princes and princesses in Britain today"?

It shows a young boy marauding through the house, dripping in entitlement and has clearly never heard the word no.

The advert starts in the bedroom which is completely ransacked with stuff all over the bed, chairs and floor, an upturned laundry basket, opened bottles of nail varnish on the dressing table along with items of jewellery and make-up, and then as we leave the room the boy jumps up and throws feathers into the air, presumably from a cushion he has just wrecked.

He is wearing lipstick and eyeshadow, and what I assume is one of his mother's dresses, which is fine, all children should enjoy the fun of dressing up. I know it's fiction, but I think it's a nod to yet another propaganda exercise on the acceptability of gender nutrality.

The boy looks directly into the camera with a look of contempt before continuing his rampage. He kicks over a vase, lobs a shoe at a ceiling light then looks into the camera with a look of "yeah, what you gonna do about that" on his face. He goes downstairs smearing what looks like lipstick or nail varnish on the handrail. He picks up an umbrella in the hall, goes into the lounge pretending to play it like a guitar and then throws it at a glass ornament on a book case. He then moves over to where a young girl is painting, knocks the paints onto the carpet, puts some on his hands and face and then moves into the kitchen where he puts his hand on one of the cupboards, and spins a saucepan which knocks over a glass of juice. Where are his parents? ah there she is, his mother sitting at the table surrounded by books and drinking coffee with a bewildered look on her face as he picks some sprinkles out of bowls, jumps onto the dining table, knocks over salt and pepper pots before throwing the sprinkles into the air then finally falls onto the sofa spent. 

Can you imagine the insurance claim? "Well it's like this, I just watched my son trash the house and I did nothing to stop him"

The advert is titled Life Happens, well that kind of life wouldn't happen in my home, my daughters knew how to respect what we their parents had worked for, they knew discipline and the meaning of the word no. Sometimes they were naughty but they knew the boundaries.

The problem is too may parents are frightened of their children, frightened to upset them, discipline them, or say no. Schools and society don't help either, appeasing trouble makers, not punishing wrong doers, teaching that you can do more or less anything without consequences. And the ridiculous notion that, despite nature creating male and female species, now all of a sudden we don't have to be defined as male or female. How on earth are these children going to grow up to be sane, valued members of society?

I don't know how many people will be inclined to take out JL insurance. In my opinion the advert just adds to the depressingly increasing evidence that we are all being groomed into thinking that this way of life is acceptable, that saying "kids eh" is a valid excuse for not disciplining them. 

To me, this advert just shows a spoilt brat with no boundaries.

∼ Be safe and well ∼ 

Polly x