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Home > Blogs > Adventures in Motherhood > Archives > 2008 > May > 23 > Entry
6-year-olds in makeup?
As usual, I came home from work too keyed up to sleep. Here’s my regular routine, which begins around 2:45 a.m.:
1) Drop purse and assorted Tupperware.
2) Pick up five discarded dirty socks sprinkled throughout the main living area (only God knows why there’s an odd number).
3) Quick toy cleanup/school backpack check.
4) Fix snack plate and nightcap (neither of which is medically necessary).
5) Give squealing guinea pig a handful of cilantro.
6) Start daily paperwork management, updating “to do” list for next day. (MUST plant those lilies of the valley withering in pots out front!)
7) Turn on TV for background noise.
At 3:08 a.m. I realize “Oh, no! I’ve missed the Quickfire Challenge!” and switch over to Bravo’s “Top Chef,” my one and only no-reality-show compromise.
And right there, sandwiched between the car insurance ad featuring that celebrity who can make the cool noises and an ad for Wii’s new yoga software (which is weird in its own right) is a plug for Kid Cuisine frozen dinners. During Top Chef, no less.
(For the record, I have no aversion to convenience foods. Trader Joe’s helps kick-start our family meals a couple nights a week. And in the vein of full disclosure, I have, at the insistence of my older kids, purchased Kid Cuisines exactly twice and was extremely disappointed both in the scant portions and the quality of the product. The kids even thought the meals were a waste and have never asked for them again. So I guess I’m admitting an existing bias.)
Back to my current bolt of outrage: Although I had tuned the ad out, it slowly seeped into my conscience that the little girl in the commercial was wearing heavy makeup! Noticeably not-natural blush, lip treatment and eye shadow. She looked to be about 6 years old, for goodness sake. Haven’t they perfected kid TV makeup to the point where it’s there but not there? The poor little moppet looked like she was about to leap onto stage and into a warm-weather rendition of The Nutcracker.
What in the world would possess an ad agency/food corporation/parent to display a child like that in this “enlightened” day and age? At the “family” dinner table, all tarted up like JonBenet Ramsey, beaming above her plate of processed food.
Am I being too harsh? Does anyone out there like Kid Cuisine? Or think makeup is OK for a 6-year-old?
(And no, I don’t equate this with the Hannah Montana/Annie Leibovitz faux pas, which was a mistake but not an unforgivable one.)
OK, rant over. Now I can sleep!
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Comments
By Larralu
May 27, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this
I completely agree with you about the kids makeup. However, if it weren’t for kid cuisines my kids would probably starve to death! They won’t eat anything else. I blame the pretty colors on the boxes. :-)