The Cult of the Chav Child

Loving parents.

There has been a change in the attitudes to children in this country in recent years I think, much of it the attitude of parents to children. One of the negatives of foreign travel is that parents see kids in cafes  in France and elsewhere and want the same here so they can take little Tristran and Natasha everywhere with them. Problem is that British pubs are not the same as French cafes. That's one change.

Too many of our kids are obese partly because mummy and daddy now drive them everywhere, including the 200yds to the school gate.

If you or me are stupid enough to park on a yellow line or God forbid a zig zag zone outside a school, we are likely to be lynched by a mob of yellow bimbettes with 'Croydon facelifts' screaming about you endangering the lives of their little darlings. But if the little darlings need dropping within 5yds of school said bimbettes have no qualms about pulling up on those same zigzags, with no indication, swinging their doors wide open then ducking into their 4x4s to unstrap their little prince or princess.

In the meantime, while they lean in, seemingly unstrapping them from a seat every bit as secure as a seat on a space shuttle, their ample backsides stick into the road causing a jam. Dare toot or suggest they let you pass and you're likely to get a flurry of hand gestures, backed up with the kind of foul mouthed abuse that would make Frank Gallagher blush. 

Today I went to a local supermarket. Unfortunately there is an entrance to the local school in the far corner of the car park. Parents seem to use it as a challenge to motorists, rushing out from between parked cars holding their offspring and glaring at you, an evil driver, as if daring you to come anywhere near their little brats.

This morning, as I was crawling towards a parking space, a woman jumped out from between parked cars pushing her two kids in front of her, seemingly as human shields. I was only doing 5mph, half the limit, but still had to slam the brakes on and just missed them. She glared at me, gave me a middle finger and mouthed an obscenity, quite possibly screamed it but I had a John Cale CD on very loud. I just sat there, feeling sorry for the children she had spawned and wondering what bastards they were likely to be when they grew up with her as a role model. God knows what the dad is like, if the kids even know him.

It was then that the realisation of the change in attitudes to kids really struck me. It's not that so many of the current and recent generations of parents love children any more than previous generations did, oh no, it's that they seem to hate anybody else, child or adult, in their unhealthy obsession with their own offspring. It also helps explain last year's riots, too many parents today seem to have the kind of shallow love for their kids that they have for their latest electronic gadget.