...
So the summary of this story:
Is this:
Birthday party snub sparks debate
The case has sparked a debate in Sweden about civil liberties
An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.
The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament....
Now, I can't be the only one who's thinking..."wtf...?!"
Isn't it a basic human right to be able to pick and choose who comes to your own birthday party without local or European governmental influence or rulings...?!
In fact, isn't it a basic rite of passage in childhood...?
To have that momentary God-like position...
... that power of veto...
... to actually get to choose something that matters and that has an impact...
... to be able to prove a point by NOT inviting certain people, or make yourself seem popular by having over-indulgent parents who allow you to invite loads and loads of people (therefore surrounding yourself in people and presents...)
So is it against human rights when, in reality TV shows, some people are chosen over others...?
(yeah, I know - those shows are so awful it's pretty much an offense to human rights that they exist at all...)
And what about the whole 'picking teams' thing...?
You know, where there would be some sort of game being organised in the playground and there would be 2 captains and they would each take a turn to choose someone from the attending throng to be on their side and you would wait and wait and wait and others would get picked before you because they were better than you and you knew that but you just wished that for once you wouldn't be picked last just because you had no talent and only wanted to be part of the game and the gang...
So does it turn out that that was all against my human rights, then...? The whole 'waiting to be picked and watching others get picked before me' thing...?
Cool!
Where do I sign up to sue for the emotional scarring that it clearly caused which has obviously and terribly affected me every day of my life since then...?
Or are we maybe just taking this whole thing just a leeeetle too far...?
Am I saying that we shouldn't protect children from being hurt or excluded or discriminated against?
No.
Alls I'm saying is - stop over-protecting them. Life ain't always fair: that's how you learn.
If you always get everything when you're a kid, then how and when do you learn to deal with not getting everything when you're grown-up?
If you're coddled up in emotional bubble-wrap all of your childhood, then you're not going to be equipped for being an adult when it comes off and you're suddenly expected to cope all on your ownsome in the big bad horrid world.
Kid 1 in the story didn't invite kid 2 to his party because kid 2 didn't invite kid 1 to his - t1t for tat, revenge, whatever.
It happens.
Lesson learned - be considerate of others, put yourself in their shoes, what goes around comes around, whatever.
But discrimination?
On what grounds, exactly...?
A childish falling-out over attending parties? How is that discrimination?
I can't think of any more extremes on this whole area - we've already got Health and Safety regulations meaning that the over-cautious are protecting themselves against the over-litigious in terms of school trips and playground games and pretty much curbing them completely, we've got age-old fairy tales and 50-year-old cartoons being edited and re-written to be more politically correct, we've got generations who are afraid to interact for fear of accusations of 'improper behaviour'...
Where do we go from here in terms of reclaiming childhoods...?
...
