Your thought for the day

[spatch]

That whole "indigo children" stuff is just proof positive we're gearing up to raise ourselves a nation of Mary Sues.

And, in other news, it's Sunday.

Comments

[saint-buddha.livejournal.com]

Keith and I have decide we are Indigo Children (we had to google it).
In addition, the criteria would make a great meme. (scroll down: http://www.indigochild.com/)

Seriously, I just don't get it. Are they talking about child prodigies or just assholes? It seems that they don't have to be smart, they just have to feel entitled.

[archangelsk.livejournal.com]

Adolescent introspection and self-absorption, I thought.

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

...whut.

[dskasak.livejournal.com]

So what is the difference between being an indigo child and the scion of a rich family? Sounds about the same to me.

[annilita.livejournal.com]

Crazy Conspiracy Dude had the author of the books on his show many months ago and she was talking about it. Apparently, they are wiser souls who are "differently abled" and will take over the world and exist in a higher sphere of whosits.

When I was teaching, I had a lot of these kids in my "special needs" class. We called them Emotionally Disabled and ADHD and "raised by permissive parents who spoiled them".

[redtheblue.livejournal.com]

This Indigo Children lady has indirectly explained why parents are being warded away from restaurants and coffee shops. In fact, there's already a business catering to families with Indigo Children.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would phrase that "What's the difference between being and indigo child and being an overindulged little shit?"

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

we're gearing up to raise ourselves a nation of Mary Sues.

And there's anything the least bit wrong with that?

Signed,
-Mary Sue




;-)

[stopword.livejournal.com]

See, I kept seeing this phrase, Indigo children, and thought I knew what they meant:

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/fugate.html

"It all started over 6 generations ago after a French orphan named Martin Fugate claimed a land grant in 1820 and settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek, with his red-headed American bride, the former Elizabeth Smith, whose skin was as pale as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. The Fugates had seven children, four were reported to be blue. The clan kept multiplying. Fugates married other Fugates. Sometimes they married first cousins. And they married the people who lived closest to them, the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys. All lived in isolation from the world, bunched in log cabins up and down the hollows, and so it was only natural that a boy married the girl next door, even if she had the same last name."

Turns out it's less Fortean, more NewAge. Feh.

[heliopsis.livejournal.com]

Do the "progressive schools" that cater to these budding sociopaths practice mass drowning? Or perhaps take them on long wilderness hikes in hopes that a few of the little nonconformists will eat something poisonous, or get eaten by a bear.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Every time I see the "indigo" thing I keep thinking of Tarquin from the Mr. and Mrs. Bridge novels (a little Darling Special Progressively-Reared Boy who ended up shooting both his parents to death in their sleep).

[spatch]

And you're the prettiest girl in all of Hogwarts! :)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Parental self-absorption and denial, I thought.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

yeah, I initially thought people were talking about them, too. I remember reading about them in some science magazine ages ago.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Oh, it was actually that particular article, I guess.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

*snerrrrrrrrrrrrrk*

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love it when you blink your violet eyes like that.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

I always think of the kids in Saki short stories.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I can actually see a kernel of something good in here, but the combination of new agey condescension and spoiled entitlement contained in the web page about this "movement" certainly make it seem like something that will end up being more harmful than good.

Nonetheless, there seems to be a certain bit of Holt inspired "un-schooling" in what they're doing and I fully endorse that kind of educational system. I think we end up with better citizens and more productive people when we're more focused on teaching our kids to think than we are on teaching them to conform.

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Exactly. See, I think the whole Indigo thing (which I actually plan to blog about soon) gives a bad name to people who want to raise children to be freethinkers but who can also accept limits and can compromise and so forth. As others have pointed out, the Indigo thing is characterized by entitlement and thinking your kid shouldn't have to take any direction.

I'm a therapist, working mostly with kids, and I see entirely too many of these entitled families. It's like, there has to be a balance. Sure, part of the reason your kid is struggling is, in fact, because the school doesn't understand him. But you're only making things WORSE to teach the kid that he's too good for the school and not have any expectations in terms of taking direction or accepting limits.

These parents seem to have not gotten over their own issues of not having their needs met by school and parents and so forth. It totally fucks up kids to have their parents telling them they're wonderful and perfect and the rest of the world just doesn't understand. I mean, it's validating for a kid to hear that they're having a hard time this year because the teacher doesn't recognize that the kid needs to get up and move around frequently or is a visual learner or needs to be able to ask questions. But then you don't follow that by telling the kid that the teacher is an idiot and the kid doesn't have to try. It's like, unless the teacher is abusive, you still want to instill the basic idea that the teacher is competent and the kid and parent and teacher all need to work together. It makes kids feel really unsafe and confused when the parent is telling them that the teacher, who is the one in charge of keeping them safe and secure most of the day, is an idiot who doesn't understand them. I think there's like almost some Munchausen stuff going on, that these parents enjoy fucking up their kid so they can have a special child who the world doesn't understand.

[nathanjw]

Every day I get a little bit closer to buying a megaphone, standing on a streetcorner, and blasting out "YOU ARE NOT A BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE".

[juubou.livejournal.com]

Spatch... it's just generational dynamics at work. See Strauss and Howe, "The Fourth Turning". The gen-X nomads have moved on, the millenials that came after them are starting to do theiri thing, and now we're finally getting into the next post-millenial generation as the nomads go off to die in wars, as they always do. The nomads are ignored, the next generation is lavished and loved as a hero (see the Silents).

d00d I've got satellite internet now!

[spatch]

DUDE.

[violacat.livejournal.com]

Don't you mean emerald eyes? I mean, storm-colored eyes? I mean, sapphire...dammit!