Spoiled, but Not a Brat
Diquan Lamar Hubbard Introduction to College Writing Professor Sophie Bradford October 19, 2012 Spoiled, but not a Brat The ideal spoiled child does not come to mind easily. I observed people around campus, but I think one of the perfect examples of a spoiled child is Angelica Pickles from the popular Nickelodeon show Rugrats. Angelica showed characteristics that made her stand out as an antagonist. She would refer to the other characters as “dumb babies. ” Angelica would show how selfish she was by convincing the other characters to do plans that would only benefit her, which set her up most of the time as the antagonist in each episode.
She would receive gifts to her heart’s desire and not be the least bit thankful. Her parents set out to please her in every way that they could, but it never seemed like it was enough. What makes a child in the real world like this? How have these bratty tendencies in childhood showed up later in life? A better way to explain this is to look deeper into what characteristics a brat actually has. Some people would look at a person as a brat because they get expensive things from their parents. Getting nice things may not have been seen as out of the ordinary to some spoiled children.
Davis shares how she saw life at a younger age: Growing up, I was oblivious to money and the division of classes like many young kids. I never knew not every kid was presented with new clothes every day, or got to go to Toys-R-Us whenever they wanted or had to take educate classes once a week. I thought that was a normal everyday thing in the life of a kid. That was what kids my age did. (Davis 1) I think that receiving things and having a well off lifestyle does not mean that a person is spoiled. I think it is there sense of entitlement afterwards.
Davis admitted that she was oblivious to other people and she thought that everyone lived the same way that she did. If a person feels like the reason that they receive these things is because they deserve them; that shows that is a characteristic of a brat. A brat thinks that they are the greatest gift to earth and nothing else matters as much as they do. Davis may have gotten things, but that doesn’t necessarily make her into a brat. Brattiness can continue on longer than in childhood if it is not stopped earlier. There are some people who continue to be brats, even into their college years.
Students in college may be seen as spoiled or brats if they don’t have to work or they go home every weekend to have things like groceries bought or laundry done for them. I think this is overgeneralizing some of the habits that these students may do. I can see how this can look like they are just being lazy from the outside, but it could be that it is a way to save money by washing clothes together. This is especially true for people who live near campus. I was an example of people that did that. Since I had to go home every weekend at my college summer classes, I did not do laundry at school.
Instead I would take it home and get it washed with everyone else’s, in an effort to save money. Any way that I could think of to save money was a plus, not just for me, but for my grandmother as well. My grandmother, who I lived with thought it was a good idea. It was cheaper for her to wash all of the clothes together, instead of having to half loads of clothing. I think that the whole idea of spoiled children being brats can sometimes lead to a lot of overgeneralization. This especially applies to people who may have more money than others. We assume that if someone has expensive things that they will be brats.
I have seen a lot of rich people that can be very humble and a lot of people who don’t have as much money be as bratty as can be. A good example is a close friend of mine, Whittney Williamson. Whittney is rich. I think rich is even an understatement. She doesn’t even know how much money she has. Her father owns oil fields in Oklahoma and Texas. He also sells machinery. Whittney seems like she would get everything in the world, but that isn’t the case. I think Whittney was humble and very misunderstood. Because, she came to school in Camaros and Corvettes, other students assumed that she was going to be brat.
I worked with her in Student Council, a club that makes decisions for the school and does community service, for three years. I have seen, just by working with her how hard she works. She is constantly being taught things from her father that will make her into a well off college student. She explained that she had to do the same things as most other normal kids and that she got this philosophy from her father who did not start out as an oil tycoon, but worked his way up. I have also seen a counter example in a people that may not be rich, but they were brats.
I was in program called Upward Bound, while I was in high school. Upward Bound was created for at-risk teens that may not have come from the wealthiest of homes and they are usually first-generation college students. While I was in Upward Bound it was common to see people with nice things, but they had worked for them. They wore expensive clothes; they had all kinds of expensive technology like MacBook’s and iPads. A lot of them worked too and they would off-set the cost of a lot of their things. There were some that didn’t; that acted like they deserved to have things given to them just for being present.
In Upward Bound they would help us by giving us checks for our mileage and gifts all of the time. There were some people who were just ungrateful for what they were given. To be ungrateful for something a person is given is a bad quality of a person in general. It is just another one of those factors that make someone into a brat instead of a spoiled child. A spoiled child can be guided toward becoming a brat depending on external influences. Family and peers can either facilitate a person’s brattiness or discourage it. Maria Yagoda, editorial assistant at saveur. om, explained how she was stopped from being a brat: Part of my avoidance of “brat” status, I believe, comes from having attended public schools, where I learned alongside a socially and economically diverse group of students. My parents also preached to me the importance of social activism and political involvement: dragging me to rallies, encouraging me to volunteer and constantly reminding me how fortunate I was to grow up where I did. (Yagoda) If a person has experiences the outside world and learns about people and situations that are out of their comfort zone, they are less likely to be a brat.
Like Yagoda mentioned, being in public school made her have to learn about different people. In most public schools there are a variety of people. Yagoda also said that her parents encouraged her to get involved. A parent has a lot of influence on how their child acts. If they allow different behaviors to occur, they are more likely to increase. Davis admits that her father grew up in a “struggling household” and that is what made him look outside of her privileged world. As people begin to become more independent they tend to act less like a brat.
Something that helps is when parents teach their teenagers, especially right before college, more domestic skills. Yagoda mentioned that she had the pink laundry load. When teens a taught things like how to do laundry and how to do things like sweeping, or taking care of their own money while at home, they benefit later in life. They have things that they don’t have to. They won’t have to call mom or dad to help because a load of laundry turned pink or they didn’t realize that they used up all of their money in their checking account. Being spoiled is not a bad thing.
A spoiled child, or even young adult, may get what they want, but that doesn’t make them into a brat. The behaviors that they show afterwards are what make them into a brat. A person can be spoiled all of their life, but if they learn to receive things and be thankful; they will be seen in a completely different light. If a person learns to not rely solely on receiving things but, striving out to get things done themselves and setting their own goals, they can be seen as not brats, or even spoiled children. They will be seen as good person in general.
There are plenty of external factors that can make someone into a brat, but the ultimate thing that stops a spoiled child from turning into a brat is themselves. There is only so much that parents and peers can do that can affect a person’s personality. The deciding factor is how a person chooses to behave and how a person chooses to be in life. Works Cited Davis, Lacee. “Yes, I’m Spoiled” 15 Oct, 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012 Yagoda, Maria. “”I’m Spoiled, But I’m Not a Brat”” Motherlode Blog. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.
