Are we too egocentric? Are we bringing up self-centric children?

Mums Tips

Parenting Skills

Published on Friday, 20 March 2015 15:00

Last Updated on 20 March 2015

Monica Costa

0 Comments

In last few years, we have seen the raise of the Uber Woman and the advent of smartphones with the selfie functionality has only exaggerated that. Women are more egocentric and narcissistic than ever or at least we like to come across as self confident. Lots of mums have become bloggers, the yummy mummy generation was born with the social media that has enhanced a sense of our own fabulousness.  Us mothers in particular who have built blogs, mini business ventures, mumpreneurs believe we are cleverer, more talented and more attractive than we possibly are.

This confidence boost in modern mothers is mirrored in modern children. Some kids are so confident that almost come across as arrogant not to mention self centric. Sometimes I cannot even stand listening to children who only talk about how great they are, how fabulous their toys and parents are.

Kids these days take selfies, like to pose in front of the camera and they are all little stars in the making.

Take a look at these videos of Emily and Tom – soon to be known as ‘The Extraordinary Emily and Tiny Tomini’! – who filmed a commercial for Tesco.com (promoting their Favourites function online). I am so impressed with their confidence and camera awareness. These two children are particularly good of course as they were chosen for the filming, but honestly most kids these days are like that. In this short film they had to deliver the message that becoming world famous magicians takes practice. And that they prefer spending time with their parents having fun instead of going to the supermarkets every week to do the shopping. In the first video Emily and Tom try their magic tricks – card tricks and disappearing acts – but it’s not working so well for them. For their final trick, they make the shopping magically appear on their doorstep and are astounded… little do they know that in the meantime, mum and dad have been shopping with Tesco online. Great advert for sure and sweet – reading in every mum’s thoughts wanting to have free time with the family.

Take a look also at this behind the scene video of them preparing for the shoot. They are such pros. This second video is my favourite as it shows how confident the children are in front of and behind the camera.

Confidence is certainly not much of an issue for most children of the modern generation.

As parents we just need to learn how to tame this and channel it into the best possible way.

I recently talked to a fashion designer for children’s clothing and she said that the young models (from 5 to 14) were extremely self aware and knew what they wanted, including the clothes they wanted to wear and how they wanted to pose for the shoot.

Maybe a lesson to be learnt here, if we don’t want to raise narcissistic children, is not to praise them excessively, or spoil them rotten. It’s great and natural wanting to make them feel ‘special’ but let’s be careful we don’t go overboard.