Its Tough Being A Kid

What has changed the child's world most is the arrival of addiction and propaganda. Millions of children have been turned into television junkies

Life with parents tries the nerves of many a child, but hitherto their voice has been silenced. Now Pulse, McCann Erickson's consumer insight programme, has broken through the conspiracy of silence and brought out the harsh conditions under which today's children labour.

The regimentation is particularly evident in not-so-rich classes; parents of this category control whom the children can go out with and what friends they might have. For children, friends are friends while siblings are "" to put it bluntly "" enemies.

In this bitter everyday war, parents systematically tilt against friends. Every child's trauma was encapsulated in that Surf Ultra commercial showing a child hiding in a laundry basket after spoiling his sister's dress and being locked up. The victimisation does not stop with parental control of strategic relationships; it extends to the core of children's existence "" their food.

They are brought up on Indian food, which is a trial. If they suck up to the parents, they may be rewarded with Kellogg's choco flakes. If they manage their parental relations particularly successfully, they may even be allowed a packet of potato chips or chewing gum. Children who master the tricky art of pleasing parents may be taken out and stuffed with their favourite hamburgers, pizzas and chowmien. But the unfortunate child on the street, who cannot master the required guile, has to scrounge around for freebies such as stickers and tizzies.

Perhaps what has changed the child's world most is the arrival of addiction and propaganda. Millions of children have been turned into television junkies; sitting in front of the idiot box with a soda and a bag of wafers, they learn that if they brush their teeth with a tooth paste, they will become strong; that by drinking a chocolate drink they will become test cricketers; that if they eat a certain slimming food appropriate for bulging grown-ups, they will beat everyone in examinations.

Years later they discover how they were misled; but by that time it is too late to become a wrestler, a century-hitter or a genius. All that is left to them is to become parents. No wonder the sins of their parents are visited on their children. So goes on the cycle of torture. The stress of children's lives has been accentuated by heightened ambitions. No more does a child aspire to becoming an engine driver or a lion-tamer.

Nowadays they dream of emulating Aishwarya Rai if they are girls, and of stepping into the shoes of Sabeer Bhatia if they are boys. Tarzan and Enid Blyton are now passe; reading has gone out of fashion. For early in their lives, children must begin learning all about eye-shadows and C++.

For career life cycles have speeded up. There was a time when a child could comfortably look forward to failing examinations till the age of 30, serving an apprenticeship to a politician till it was 50, and finally being allowed to lick the boot of the Great Politician at 70. Today, they had better aim to become a millionaire at 25, to sell their start-up for a billion at 30 and to retire at 40. But no matter; then they can spend the rest of their lives playing the computer games they invented.