23Feb2009: Day 273: The World's.....

There is a documentary show over here that I’ve been watching called, “The World’s….” and every week it’s something different. One week it was “The World’s largest chest” – that was very weird. This guy from Britain searched out women who claimed to have the world’s biggest chest. He found that the women were trying to be known for it whether it was for money through websites or through Guinness records. Then one week it was “The World’s Smallest Man.” This week it’s “The World’s Strongest Child.” It’s just freaky to see a young kid with “ripped” muscles. It seems that in most of these shows that it’s the parents or spouses that push the person to be what it is they are which is mostly exploited.

This one guy from Russia in this show is pushing his kids to be strong so that they can have their traveling show act. His one daughter is about to start college so he’s now training is three old daughter four hours a day seven days a week to lift weights. Even more than what she weighs. It’s just sad to see how some of these kids, even from the “smallest” show is exploited for money for the family. A lot of times they come from poor communities so this is their way to make money.

This guy seems to not just find the kids but tries to get the back story so we can better understand why the person chooses what they do or what pushes them to do what it is he’s showing. Again, 90% of the time its family that starts it and the journalist of the show then goes on to show what makes the parent’s push the child or family member.

I guess why I write about this, besides the fact that our day was very uninteresting, was it makes me appreciate the normalcy that we have—that we’re not in a position to exploit our child for money. As much as you want your child to be successful I’d rather they be successful in a normal career. Even the thought of Makenna being an actress would scare me. There’s too much pressure to conform.

I guess we’ll just have to see what the future holds for our budding little one.