What Have You Done For Your Kids Lately?
I guess I’m lucky that my daughters are almost grown. They are too old to be interested in Hanna Montana.
If you have no clue who Hanna Montana is, then you too are lucky enough to have no preteen girls in your household. Hanna is by far the hottest star in the world right now for the girls. Her concerts are sold out within minutes of the tickets going on sale. Resale of tickets cause the prices to skyrocket, with some parents paying thousands for their little snowflakes to be able to attend.
In every city where Hanna performs, radio and television stations, department stores, and anything else that caters to young girls, hold contests to give away tickets. Parents camp out to be first in line for tickets. And, as I mentioned, parents cough up great wads of cash.
So how far should parents go to make sure their child gets tickets? What wisdom should parents impart about the importance of winning when attempting to get tickets?
One parent in Garland, Texas put it this way in an interview with television station KDFW, “We did whatever we could do to win.”.
Priscilla Ceballos has a 6 year old daughter. Like every other child in the U.S. she wanted to win tickets to see Hanna. Club Libby Lu, a Chicago based retailer that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls, was holding an essay contest with the top prize of Hanna tickets.
Ms. Ceballos’ daughter was the lucky winner. Her essay told of how her father was killed in Iraq.
The only problem was, it wasn’t true. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, “Ceballos had told Club Libby Lu officials that the girl’s father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. She identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar.”
“But the Defense Department has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. ‘We did whatever we could do to win,’ Ceballos told KDFW/Channel 4. ‘But when [Caulfield] asked me if this essay is true, I said, ‘No, this essay is not true.’”
Mary Drolet, chief executive of Club Libby Lu was quoted as saying “We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl’s holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated. We are reviewing the facts in the matter so that we may determine an appropriate resolution to the situation.”
So what is an “appropriate resolution”? I mean, appropriate to me would be to sit the little girl down and explain to her in my kindly, fatherly way “Little girl, your mother is an asshole!”. But this child is obviously going to have real problems growing up in this woman’s care, so do you further her problems by pointing out what a waste of space her mother is?
You can’t reward lying by letting the child keep the tickets, but doesn’t someone need to explain to the child what was wrong with the way she won the tickets? If the retailer simply takes the tickets back, I’m sure the mother will cover herself with some story about how the big, bad meanies are to blame for them not getting to see Hanna. Isn’t this a case where someone needs to step in and get this child some professional help?
And what about the mother? Since New Jersey banned capital punishment, it won’t do any good to send her there, but what would be a good punishment? Should parenting classes be ordered? Should she be fined or maybe even charged with a crime for trying to obtain the tickets fraudulently?
It always amazes me that, as a society, we will wring our hands and moan about the lack of moral judgement in children, then we let women like Ms. Ceballos breed unchecked!