Somebody wrote about how Black Folks like to use their children to change the channel on the TV when the remote is missing, but people have taken this type of helpful advantage to the max! Too many times, I witness kids as young as 8 years old walking alone to a corner store to buy items for their parents. Don’t get me wrong, there are countries where a large family is a great asset for this very reason, say, if you have a large farm, or a small rural business. As a child in the early 80’s, I walked to school with a small group of children with no adults. However, I tend to wonder about the safety of youth in today’s post-Jeffrey Dahmer American inner cities who are sometimes sent to walk blocks all alone, no matter how dangerous the neighborhood.
I give props to single and disabled parents who have children who step to the plate, but I must admit some cases are just plain old laziness…
Some jobs that Children Personal Assistants do for their parents are:
-Buying groceries (one bag at a time)
-Babysitting themselves
-Babysitting their siblings
-Supervising themselves on a play date at the neighborhood playground
-Supervising themselves on a Saturday trip to the corner restaurant with their friends for a bite to eat
-Paying a utility bill
-Answering the door- all the time
-Answering the phone- all the time
-Calling multiple relatives and family friends to set up play dates
-Lie for their parents when convenient
-Walking back and forth between rooms to deliver dialog between two people
-Waking their parents and start making the coffee when mom/dad return home from a late from a night out
-Starting their own charity, and going door to door to ask for cash
8 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymiss // Apr 7, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I always thought it was Africans that treated their kids that way. I know this to be the case with childhood as I’ve done one-third of that list during my childhood.
I agree about the post-serial killer era that we’re living in. Parents can’t afford to use their kids the way they were used when they were kids.
2 letinstar // Apr 8, 2008 at 12:24 pm
my mother had us kids convinced that we could go to the bathroom for her…we happily obliged…
3 amaka // Apr 8, 2008 at 8:41 pm
That is funny! Oh my goodness…the pic is perfect. Made me think of all the times I got my mom water when she was just watching TV and didn’t want to miss her “show”. LORD
4 Stuff White Parents Like // Apr 9, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I LOVE your blog. Good work!
http://bestparentever.com
5 DWS // Apr 10, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I learned to stop volunteering to help out at a young age as my offer to help often turned into a full time job!
To this day if anyone says “I know what you can do for me” before they can finish I say “I did not ask to do anything for you!”
6 Ward4Resident // Apr 18, 2008 at 11:33 am
I guess this is why black people won’t stop having so many kids. Maybe they can start actually raising their kids, instead of using them like little slaves. Poor kids.
7 ph2072 // Apr 21, 2008 at 7:53 pm
My late grandma used to have us run to the store for her “numbers” and give us a little something to get for ourselves. We were also latchkey kids and watched each other. Besides that, the other stuff on the list was never done by me or my siblings.
8 Amanda // May 29, 2008 at 8:00 am
So funny and SO TRUE!
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