"... when she's in school, and 'normal kid' clothes when she's out and about."
This is the 6-year-old "fashionista" with $3.2 million worth of designer clothes and custom-made shoes.
Previously, the child was home-schooled within a Scientology milieu.
July 25, 2012
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I heard she took her first ride on a commercial airplane,too. The horrors! Now I just want to see her walking and not be carried - that would be real progress.
So the mother and the father are fighting over which religious cult to force on the kid, Scientology or Catholicism? Why can't they let her decide her religious beliefs for herself when she's old enough?
Every person as an adult decides for themselves, but as parents we teach our beliefs or lack of.
They even have atheist camps for kids now.
She better be allowed to wear her Manolo Blahniks with that uniform, or there'll be hell to pay. I mean what's the world coming to when a super privileged savvy six year old can't express her inner whore?
"I heard she took her first ride on a commercial airplane,too. The horrors! Now I just want to see her walking and not be carried - that would be real progress."
Why are young children going on airplanes at all? Keep them at home and doing things near home. What is all this traveling about for? Maybe if there are grandparents far away who are incapable of traveling. Otherwise, stop dragging the child into adult things.
People talk about home-schooling for children, but not enough about home (period) for children. It makes more sense to send them to a local school than to take them anywhere on an airplane.
It'll be nice for her not to have to jump through all the "what should I wear" hoops every day when getting ready for school.
Tom is an amazing actor. He can play normal in his acting gigs.Must be very hard for him to do that.
Ann, children traveling with parents are exposed to culture and other societies, I'm not sure that is a bad thing. Of course parents must use good judgment . I'm not sure why you think travel on an airplane is dragging a child into adult things. What better way to learn about geography, language, culture, than to live it?
Why are young children going on airplanes at all? Keep them at home and doing things near home. What is all this traveling about for?
I could not disagree more. How is traveling "an adult thing?" To the extent that it's possible for a particular family, why not expose a child to new places and things? Is this just an airplane thing, or does it apply to mass transportation in general, or all travel?
As a kid who never had the chance to travel, I think you are wrong.
How awful, to grow up with adults making fun of everything they know about you. This kid didn't choose her parents.
@Allie and Patrick You're giving the adult perspective. To a child, everything is new and exciting. The child shouldn't be overwhelmed with the kinds of excitements adults, in their jaded condition, concoct.
As for these jaded adults, ever searching for "new cultures," I'd recommend that you take a lesson from the sensitivity of children and rediscover the feelings of excitement from the smallest, normal things at home. That's where real life is.
Ann Althouse said...
It's wrong to take one's kids on a vacation or to Disney?
Ann, I agree that the are wonderful things to be learned at home and in the home country, but I don't understand what is jaded about travel on an airplane to learn about different cultures.
Exposing a child to any experience not age appropriate is a bad idea, but what we may see as age appropriate appears to be vastly different.
This kid needs Catholic school. Too bad it's not the old kind.
With nuns.
With habits.
And rulers.
Probably the best thing for her.
LoafingOaf said...
So the mother and the father are fighting over which religious cult to force on the kid, Scientology or Catholicism? Why can't they let her decide her religious beliefs for herself when she's old enough?
Because the religion of Catholicism will impart some values which will help her judge what she believes when she's an adult.
Without it, she'll belong to Oaf's cult, the most pernicious religion of them all - Leftism - which has no values.
AllieOop said...
Ann, children traveling with parents are exposed to culture and other societies, I'm not sure that is a bad thing. Of course parents must use good judgment . I'm not sure why you think travel on an airplane is dragging a child into adult things. What better way to learn about geography, language, culture, than to live it?
Because going to Aunt Martha's for a week isn't usually a cultural experience. Unless Oop thinks being groped by the perverts at TSA is a cultural experience.
Also, plane travel, like train travel, is a long, boring ordeal for most kids.
I think Ann has a very valid point. Many of our generation growing up in the 50's only traveled within a 50 mile area of home. We broadened the "search" when we went off to college and could appreciate it more.
Back to the Catholic education: Lately most Catholic schools have many other religions attending as the parents seek better a education (including morals) than available at public schools.
@ Allie I'm not sure why you think travel on an airplane is dragging a child into adult things. What better way to learn about geography, language, culture, than to live it?
Like Allie. Although not so sure the "6 year old" and assorted other little squirt type humans are learning about "geography, language, culture ..." but this is a very big country. Not Europe where 6 countried fit into a handful of our states. And many of our families are spread out to all 4 corners.
Airplanes are a form of mass transportation, and in the end are actually safer than *driving*. If one wants to go some place as a family, they have the financial resources, and want to fly -- go for it.
As with many things, the issue might be frequency and more lifestye issues. If the lifestyle is one in which it might be hard for the kid to figure out where "home" is because of the gallavanting, that is different issue.
Sure, flying can be a hassle (hence the Tom Cruises of the world have their own transportation) and has degenerated into being worse than Greyhound is in many cases, especially post 9-11, but going some place by air with your kid is not a sin.
The assumption is that flying is dragging kids into adult things.
Really? How does the Professor know that?
Back to Katie Holmes -- it is nice that there seems to be a degree of normalcy, as much as there can be for someone with the notoriety Holmes achieved through Cruise (and her career choice), which is being sought by her mom.
So the mother and the father are fighting over which religious cult to force on the kid, Scientology or Catholicism? Why can't they let her decide her religious beliefs for herself when she's old enough?
Taking the day off, OafingLoaf?
Do you think those Interstate Rest Areas will service themselves?
Edutcher, my grandkids have traveled quite often on a plane, with the family, all around this country and abroad. They have tolerated the plane trip well, of course they were old enough, taking babies on planes isn't a pleasant experience for anyone.
We've broadened our kids horizons, the world is a wonderful and awful place.
We know a local family, living in Singapore presently. The kids have been to numerous countries, with no adverse experiences or psychological trauma.
My other thoughts (when I have thought about the lives of the rich and famous) is that Katie Holmes must have the goods on Tom Cruise for him to have folded in 11 days.
Usually with Scientology it is the other way around as they have in their possession through their intense sessions information which if revealed could harm their victims. And they have no qualms about using that information against the problem members.
(Information which Catholic priests, and other professional clergy as well as professional therapists would find career ending for them if they divulged.)
The child shouldn't be overwhelmed with the kinds of excitements adults, in their jaded condition, concoct.
My children swam with Dolphins in the Bahamas on a Disney cruise.
You know, an adult thing.
They'll never forget that.
My first commercial airplane ride was at age 25, when an employer decided that I needed to visit an office in another part of the country.
My parents never took us to Disney or NYC. And they had a three-hour limit on distances traveled in a car. Anything else, especially airline travel was sneered at as "rich people's habits", something my parents were decidedly not.
My father kept me amused by bringing stuff home for me to take apart, figure out how it worked, and then reassemble. I never tired of it.
By the time I was 14, neighbors brought a steady stream of lawnmowers, garden tractors, snowmobiles, electric lamps, etc to our door for me to repair. Or they'd call and ask if I'd come over to look at the upstairs toilet because it keeps running. I had a nice little business.
By the time I was 16 I had paid for a semi-beater 1957 Chevrolet (winter car),a restored 1931 Ford (summer car) and a 1965 Yamaha motorcycle.
My high school friends would nurse their motorcycles up our driveway and pay me a few bucks to adjust the valves, clean the carbs, change the plugs, set the timing, etc, to get their machines running better.
I saved up enough to pay for the first two years of college tuition. The rest I earned as I went along.
But no, I never got to put my arm around fucking Snow White on a steamy afternoon in central Florida, surrounded by screaming, spoiled overindulged little shits and their angry, broke parents.
I'd prefer not to see a baby fly. If the baby does, it should have its body covered with a dental radiation shield. There is some official Pediatric organization that has issued this recommendation as the level of radiation is inappropriate during that period of development. The people I have known to have died of blood cancer in middle age were very well to do and, I presume, flown by their parents as infants.
But no, I never got to put my arm around fucking Snow White on a steamy afternoon in central Florida, surrounded by screaming, spoiled overindulged little shits and their angry, broke parents.
You martyr, you.
When I was nine my parents decided to take the whole family, consisting of themselves, my sister, age 12, and me on a cross country trip. We also took my cousin Arthur, age 12. What do I remember of it? Bouncing on beds in motels. The fantastic collection of bugs that got caught in the bug screen on our Buick. And Old Faithful erupting. That's about it. When adults talk about travel being broadening for kids they're imagining what the adult mentality might get out of it.
Babies don't know how to pop their ears to equalize changing air pressure on their ears. That's why so many of them scream through the entire flight. That's another reason for not taking babies on planes.
AllieOop said...
Edutcher, my grandkids have traveled quite often on a plane, with the family, all around this country and abroad. They have tolerated the plane trip well, of course they were old enough, taking babies on planes isn't a pleasant experience for anyone.
Riding on a plane or a train or in a car for hours on end is no fun for most kids much under 9 or 10. Oop, I suspect, is blowing smoke, as usual.
As for the broadening nature of travel, in the spring of '60, my 6th grade class, all 65 of us, went by train to VA to see Williamsburg, Jamestown, etc., and also got to see the Separate But Equal of the White Restaurant and the Colored Cafeteria. It took a while for any of us PA kids to realize that this was what the Civil Rights stuff we saw on the TV news was about.
Edutcher, there is something seriously wrong with you.
As I was reading Michael Haz' comment I kept thinking it's a toss up who has the greatest jack-of-all-trades repair skills on Althouse, Haz or AllenS.
I know.
I see through Oop.
Edutcher, with all due respect, you are blind to anything that puzzles you, you shut down and then crawl into your cocoon and deny reality exists outside of your small world.
That's sad and pathetic.
I agree with Allie and others. Traveling is NOT dragging a child into an adult activity.
I traveled.....a LOT....when I was a child. The things I saw and learned in other Countries and other States were probably the most valuable things I have ever learned. Traveling with your family and other trusted adults is a comforting and exciting activity. Sending a child off traveling alone, would be a frightening thing.
I'd recommend that you take a lesson from the sensitivity of children and rediscover the feelings of excitement from the smallest, normal things at home. That's where real life is.
No. That is where a small slice of real life is. Home is wonderful place to be for sure. When we traveled there were two most exciting moments. 1.)The leaving, planning and expectation of seeing new things and reconnecting with family and friends. 2.) AND the returning to a beloved home that you appreciated all the more for having been away. You know that old song. <a href="How can I miss you when you don't go away</a>. That is what traveling is all about.
Children are not as sensitive as you think.
"This kid needs Catholic school. Too bad it's not the old kind.
With nuns.
With habits.
And rulers."
And pedophiles.....
Riding on a plane or a train or in a car for hours on end is no fun for most kids much under 9 or 10.
Oh baloney. Speak for yourself. It would depend on the individual child and how the parents approached the travel.
We spent hour and HOURS traveling by car from one side of the country to the other. We drove from San Francisco to Mexico City and BACK several times. We drove to the Yucatan. We took trains the same routes and the train trip was several days long. Rarely did we fly in those days but we did travel to Hawaii and to Argentina by plane.
We entertained ourselves with songs, singing in four part harmony, singing along with the radio, did puzzle and mind games, 20 questions etc, reading road signs, license plate bingo, Burma Shave signs!!. Played card games. Read aloud to each other.
Were we sometimes bored in the car or on the train. Sure. But we knew we would be getting out soon at a NEW place or to revisit an already visited town or location. Did we kids, pick on each other and drive our parents nuts...yep. But we can do that at home too.
Of course, travel in those days was a more free experience than now.
Children are strapped into their seats like little prisoners. We were able to climb and move in the car. If we got tired or wanted to play a board game we could just climb into the back of the station wagon and pay or fall asleep on a pile of pillows and blankets. Keeping children restrained for hours on end IS cruel.
The parents also made sure to make frequent stops so we could get out and run around. Favorite stops were for what today would be considered horrible junk food and would call the food police down upon you for feeding it to the kids.. Milk shakes so thick the straw stands up on its own, greasy fries and burgers. Sodas, chips, candy. Roadside stands full of ...gasp....un-inspected fruits and home made foods at small cantinas and bodegas in Mexico...probably crawling with icky germs. We lived.
And we didn't have to deal with all of the Big Brother government regulations that afflict travel today. So perhaps my fond memories are just that a thing of the past, since you all are serfs and prisoners of the state now.
DBQ. Your early travel experiences have clearly enriched you. I sent my wife and four year old son off to Mexico for a few months a number of years ago. I popped in and out. It was a great experience for us all. My wife learned that sending our son off in the campo with ten other young ones was not the end of the world even though they returned hours later than expected with all the kids exhausted and happy. My son still remembers watching the road go by through the hole in the bus floor. No seatbelts, of course.
Thank you Michael. All children should be allowed to travel, be free to run, play and yes.....even experience some discomfort.
(I left a comment for you on the religious thread. Hope things get better.)
What a bizarre and myopic philosophy for a college professor. You're projecting and deflecting your fear, and turning it on kids.
DBQ, You're absolutely correct. For some kids sitting in a restaurant, car, or plane is hell. But most enjoy it. Our kids loved flying. Our son just looked out the window as we picked out cities, rivers, mountains, canyons, etc.. It was even better when the pilot pointed out landmarks. Our daughter loved to read and study all the passengers, eavesdropping on their conversations. It's incredible we're even having this debate!
Allie, let it go w/ edutcher; he's just sucking up.
Riding on a plane or a train or in a car for hours on end is no fun for most kids much under 9 or 10.
My father drove us from Pennsylvania to San Diego when I was 8.
It was awesome ... I got a chance to see this humongous magnificent country unfold before my eyes.
It was a more engaging learning experience than sitting in school for 6 days.
Tom is an amazing actor. He can play normal in his acting gigs.Must be very hard for him to do that.
His scientology weirdness aside, Cruise is a first-rate pro on a set. Shows up and does his job without attitude. He makes a lot of people money, besides just himself.
Sorry to return this so much later, Professor, but I don't see having kids experience things around the house and things around the country as mutually exclusive. Most of our traveling is to visit relatives (who, yes could damn well make the trip themselves once in awhile), but the opportunity to travel to mountains, or historical landmarks does not strike me as jaded, even if the kids are content seeing cool - or ordinary - stuff around here.
And I realize that kids on planes can be a pain. But tough luck. Everyone was a kid once, and everyone has been an annoying kid on more than one occasion. Parents traveling with kids should do their best to keep 'em quiet, but sometimes life is hard.
Agree with Allie and DBQ and others-- some of the best, most vivid memories of my life, some of the most poignant impressions of what the world at large and life and other human beings and variegated experience includes, involved travel as a child.
Of course, that's not a requirement for a happy childhood. Rich experiences are as likely, more likely to be found close to home. And all children are different. And there's no reason travel need be by plane, or involve far-off exotic locales, let alone the typical tourist landmarks.
But the idea that kids intrinsically dislike travel and that it's an adult imposition of an adult pleasure forced on them... in my own experience, that's not true.
Also consider that the closest thing to "home" for Suri is paparazzi-saturated NYC, where going down the block for an ice cream cone with mom means being stalked by hordes of shouting cameramen and gawkers.
There is little analogy to be made between Suri's experience with travel (or anything else) and that of most other children.
As I was reading Michael Haz' comment I kept thinking it's a toss up who has the greatest jack-of-all-trades repair skills on Althouse, Haz or AllenS.
AllenS wins hands down. He's currently restoring a bulldozer. A bulldozer, for crying out loud.
I need to find a tank.
prairie wind,
How awful, to grow up with adults making fun of everything they know about you. This kid didn't choose her parents.
So we should all shut-up about her father's cult? Sure - good luck with that. Her parents should've thought of the kid BEFORE they involved all of us in their mess:
Marriage is a PUBLIC ceremony.
Blaming me - because they're stupid - is the wrong approach,..
Thank you for the kind words, ricpic and Michael.
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