There is a reason that in the old days girl children were sent off to finishing schools when they were about 12 and only returned home long enough to try on the trousseau before the wedding took place and she was whisked away to spend the rest of her life nagging some poor unsuspecting guy to death.
If not for this quaint little custom I firmly believe that the human species would have died off long, long ago.
There are 2 reasons for this...
1) if the girls had remained at home throughout the teen years... and please remember that beating children was still very much legal... well, I doubt many girls would have made it to the age of marrying off. Which is sad as they only had to make it to 14!
2) by sending girls to live in all-girl boarding schools where they had no contact with guys of any age, but most especially anyone they would actually be interested in hanging out with, made them so starved for attention from any guy that they were much more amenable to an arranged marriage.
Of course, now that teen aged girls are totally horrendous beings, and beating them into submission is not an option, Swiss finishing schools are no longer in fashion. And let's face it, even if they were who on earth could afford to send their whiny, bratty, spoiled little angel to one anyway? Other than the obscenely rich and famous that is?
And then there is the Grand Tour. This is something that those of good breeding and culture did every year or so beginning around the turn of the century and on into the late 1920's...The Great Depression and all that.
Bribery is what the Grand Tour was. Honest to goodness basic bribery. I mean what girl doesn't want to go to Paris and Milan to buy their clothes? Who wouldn't be thrilled with the thought of meeting a rich and handsome guy with an accent who would sweep them off their feet?
Yep, sure wish that kind of thing was still done, or at least affordable enough to come back in style.
But no, instead we get to ground our children. We deprive them of their possessions until they earn them back with good behavior. Like a PlayStation or Xbox 360 or iPod can even come close to the bargaining power of a trip across Europe.
And the sad part is that this generation of bratty, spoiled teens has no idea what they are missing...
guess it's cuz they aint got no breeding or culture.
1 comment:
They may not have breeding or culture but they have cell phones and text messaging and facebook. What more does any teenage girl need?
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