No, she’s not a superficial idiot.
I would viciously defend Jamie’s goal because the situation is clearly degrading quite badly, however, she does have a point, sort of.
She isn’t saying that Jamie is bad, but rather that if you want to get kids’ attention and get them to listen, you have to understand how they think, know what they want, and basically trick them.
For example, these days, you don’t spank a bad kid anymore, a much more effective punishment is to discipline them by embarrassing them in front of their friends and peers. I recall a video on YouTube last year of a teen girl stripping on her webcam, then her mother walks in and sees her, but instead of screaming at her, she starts to dance and strip a bit behind her until the girl turns around and sees her mother then freaks out. One of the comments to the video indicated surprise that the mother didn’t flip out or hit her. I explained that embarrassing her like that is a more effective punishment for the modern youth.
It’s the same here. If you want kids to eat better, you don’t tell them that it will save their lives or help them avoid diabetes, even if it will. The problem is that kids are young, feel great, and have their whole lives ahead of them, so they think that they’ll live forever and that all these bad things won’t happen to them (we felt the same when we were young, as did our parents, and their parents before them).
im_nekorb’s (valid) point is that if you want to get kids listening and eating better, you don’t play on their (non-existent) fears about health or mortality, but rather things that they actually care about like their physique and popularity. That would indeed work much better for the kids (both the younger ones and especially the high-schoolers).
However, im_nekorb is missing a couple of points. [1] This show is not really targeted at kids. Yes, Jamie spends a lot of time trying to educate the kids in the schools, but that personal contact and information is more effective than it looks because we only see a bit of whatever has not been edited out. [2] While Jamie may not be a “hottie” (though he is quite cute and still looks like a kid), he’s hardly fat, especially compared to the people he’s trying to help. Besides, the problem is that eating healthy is only half of the equation, you still have to get some sort of physical activity, and unfortunately, Jamie is just so busy with so many things, that he doesn’t have the time to exercise (or even spend much time walking; there’s a lot of driving or flying). I’m sure that during the off-season, when he’s got fewer things to do (ie not spending so much time with the show), he gets more activity and is slimmer.
Yes, you have to manipulate kids the right way if you want to get them to do what you want. And yes, Jamie is role model, at least to the parents and administrators if not the kids.
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Synetech
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trenxtremer
12 years ago
Wow Synetech made so much sense to a crazy lady's gibbersh comment. I bet im_nekorb’s is a Orange County MILF.
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ebrady88
12 years ago
What are you really teaching your children by stripping in front of a webcam on the internet? That seems like an awful idea and a mom that is willing to do that on the internet A) doesn't value their professional career and B) Is just like the daughter willing to make an ass of themselves on the internet for all to see (even if her motivation was different the outcome is the same so like mother like daughter). Modern youth aren't different then any other youth sure they have facebook and smart phones but they still learn in the same ways children learned 60 years ago what has changed are the parents and their values. You can teach children how to eat properly without playing to their vanity especially if you do so before they get to high school when they are less receptive.
Parents teach their child their values whether they realize it or not you don't have to manipulate your children for them to understand that something goes against their values that they learned when they were young. If like the OP one of your values is to be vain and superficial then your children will pick up on that its not surprising that her children think like she does.
Unfortunately lots of parents don't know what a proper diet is so their children never learn to eat healthy and now we are just passing our bad habits from one generation to the next and ending up with health concerns in children we have never seen before. Making our society more vain won't solve the problem ad men have been selling us the idea of what the perfect physic is and playing to our vanity for years. That doesn't motivate people to take on better eating habits it just causes a vain society that tries to look better through other bad habits like diet pills, steroids or bulimia.
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