Parents Who Make YouTube Videos Mocking Their Children Aren’t Funny

Screen Shot 2013-01-05 at 9.43.59 AMDid Jimmy Kimmel start this trend of exasperating/embarrassing children and then taping it for all of us to laugh at? I don’t know who started it – but it has got to stop. Seriously, people – what is wrong with you?

The latest installment of “I am going to publicly humiliate my child for laughs” comes courtesy of Paula Papen, a mother who convinces her son that he purchased a $50,000 car on eBay. She’s heard giggling in the background while her 8-year-old weeps and says things like, “I’m horrible.” It’s hilarious.

Social media has enabled even the dumbest snippets of video to go viral. Viral videos actually make money. YouTube pays $2 for every 1,000 hits a video gets. So far this video has over 485,000 hits. So presumably, this woman has made almost $1000 for tormenting her child. Great. I don’t know why I’ve chosen a career in freelance writing. This is clearly an easier way to make money.

Maybe this child is a total pain in the neck who has on several occasions come very close to making major purchases on eBay? That is my best guess as to why his mother would do this. But wouldn’t it be more effective to, I don’t know, maybe not let him have access to your passwords? Aren’t parental blocks a thing?

I guess I just don’t understand how publicly humiliating our children is teaching them how to be better. If anything, it’s teaching them how to be annoying bullies who make fun of people. Is that the kind of behavior we should be modeling for our children? It doesn’t make sense. I’d like to ask this mother what is going to happen when her child starts pulling annoying pranks on other kids. It got her loads of attention and probably even made her some money. Why wouldn’t he want to emulate that behavior?

I’m all for fun and laughs, but I think parents like these may be unwittingly creating little monsters.

(photo: YouTube/ Paula Papen)

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