Can you cure a spoiled teen?

[eliza61]

Ok a mom notices her daughter 14 is spending 1100 bucks a month shopping and decides to send her to India to work with the poor because NOW she realized kid is spoiled. and in 20 years people will wonder how this kid got feelings of entitlement.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting...-mumbai-slum-lesson-poverty/story?id=10284375

So can this kid be "budgetized"?

Fed up with her daughter's incessant, spoiled behavior, a New York screenwriter sent her teenager to the slums of India for a close-up lesson on how the poor lived.

Tracey Jackson took her shopaholic daughter to India to change her perspective.And she filmed it for the world to see.

Tracey Jacksonsaid her daughter's upbringing in Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side neighborhood had left her without a sense of what it meant to need for life's basic necessities.

The catalyst for the trip was Jackson's finding more than $12,000 worth of clothing and other items thrown down carelessly on the floor of her daughter Taylor Templeton's room.

"One moment you wake up and you go, 'I can't take this anymore,'" Jackson told "Good Morning America" today. "When I started to make this, I decided the only way it was going to matter was if I show it the way it was."

Mom has a lot of issues too.

 

[Gigi22]

There are no homeless, no soup kitchens, no disenfranchised people in NYC? Can't help but think that going to India to find poor people is overkill, to state it mildly.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

How about she has to take all the clothes and donate them to the poor in THIS country and work weekly at a soup kitchen. HEy they both ought to try it.

 

[MusiqChic99]

$1100 a month shopping...with the money her parents GIVE her.

I think the solution was much very simple and it didn't require sending her to India. I wonder how much the plane tickets were???

 

[Justsyd2]

I guess it would be too much to ask for her mom to accept responsibility for her actions which taught her daughter that this behavior is acceptable. Why can't mom admit that she messed up, and try to fix it -- instead of blaming it on her daughter?

 

[beansmom]

yeah, at her age, i didn't have 1100 a YEAR to spend on clothes.

The parents need to go work with her...but it's a great publicity stunt, huh?

 

[Zoesmama03]

There are no homeless, no soup kitchens, no disenfranchised people in NYC? Can't help but think that going to India to find poor people is overkill, to state it mildly.

You can see by the mother's choice just how screwed up her own thoughts on money are. And spending either, as I'm sure that won't send the right message to her daughter, hey lets pay heaps for a trip to learn a lesson. You can see right there where the daughter learned her habit from.

I don't really make much more than in a month total.

I think its great to do humanitarian work like that but I agree I know there is poor and homeless right there in NY.

 

[beansmom]

You can see by the mother's choice just how screwed up her own thoughts on money are. And spending as I'm sure that won't send the right message to her daughter lets pay heaps for a trip to learn a lesson.

I don't really make much more than in a month total.

I think its great to do humanitarian work like that but I agree I know there is poor and homeless right there in NY.

Oh, pleez...that mother sees a sale-able book, magazine article, interviews, and/or screenplay. It's shameless self-promotion disguised as 'good parenting'.

 

[robinb]

I think its great to do humanitarian work like that but I agree I know there is poor and homeless right there in NY.

In the mom's defense, she said that she wanted a total immersion for her daughter with no cell phones and no way home.

 

[mrsklamc]

Yeah but mom is still an idiot for ever letting it get to that point.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

There are no homeless, no soup kitchens, no disenfranchised people in NYC? Can't help but think that going to India to find poor people is overkill, to state it mildly.

agreed!

 

[A Mickeyfan]

They live on the upper east side.. all she had to do was send her DD down to the lower east side to see the homeless and those in dire need of everyday things...
Mom just wants to be in the papers and she succeeded in it...

 

[MomToOne]

Wanna bet they didn't fly coach???

 

[buckler]

There are no homeless, no soup kitchens, no disenfranchised people in NYC? Can't help but think that going to India to find poor people is overkill, to state it mildly.

Yes, it's overkill, but the shopping there is so much cheaper!

 

[Hannathy]

I guess it would be too much to ask for her mom to accept responsibility for her actions which taught her daughter that this behavior is acceptable. Why can't mom admit that she messed up, and try to fix it -- instead of blaming it on her daughter?

BECAUSE if she did that or sent her to a slum in USA here it is the real reason she did it.......

SHE wouldn't get on the NEWS!!!! She doesn't care whether her DD learns a darn thing, she wants her 15 minutes of fame. And our lovely media trying to fill 24 hours between the commercials is a willing accomplice. The put her on.
Wonderful.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Yes, it's overkill, but the shopping there is so much cheaper!

good one

 

[MrsPete]

First, I'd be interested to see if mom tried any less desperate measures (budgeting, perhaps?) before shipping her daughter over to India.

Then, I can't understand why mom chose to send her to India . . . a place that will not seem "real" to her because it's so far from her own life. If you want her to understand the value of a dollar, have her get a job at McDonald's and have her work with underprivledged kids who live two blocks from her. Those things are "real" to her. Living in a mud hut is too far out of her own reality. The idea of immersion, getting away from the cell phones, etc. doesn't matter . . . not when SHE KNOWS it's one week, and then she's coming home.

Evidence that I'm right: When she returned, she continued to yell at her mom . . . India was a different world, not her own world. She may KNOW that she's luck, but she isn't changed inside.

I also disagree with her that kids -- especially girls -- will become this way around age 13. My not-quite 16 year old and my not-quite 13-year old don't talk to me the way that Taylor talks to her mom.

And what did the girl say she learned from the experience? Every child has issues, and these (over spending and lack of appreciation?) happen to be mine.

Oh, yeah . . . and this idea is far from original. You know about MTV's show "My Super Sweet Sixteen", in which wealthy parents shower their 16-year old daughter-zillas with outrageously expensive parties including incredible venues, famous rap stars as entertainment, etc.? Well, they did a spin-off show: The most spoiled kids from "Sweet Sixteen" were shipped off to other countries to live with kids their own age. My daughter was hooked on it momentarily, and every show had a predictable plot: Child is angry, child resists attempts to work with the host family, child reaches rock bottom, child sees the light, child returns home a different person.

 

[mommycrawford]

I am a poor NY mom (native too!)on the UWS...she could have just taken the crosstown bus

Seriously though, it is really hard being born and living here with so many people with no sense of community or social responsability!...My daughter is stressed about her friends who complain about their "crappy iphones" and such....It makes me cry for her, because she has great values, has always volunteered, but is aware of not having (but she is appreciatve and aware thatshe has a lot.)

All this "social" networking is so detached...text mesaging is a poor replacement for communication with inflections and pauses and...dialogue! (PLEASE EXCUSE THE RANT!)

It seems the mom wanted to make a mock-, I mean documentary: "reality tv"
and all!...Great way to self promote...talk about your selfish teen!...nice parenting!

 

[CinRell]

There was a series on MTV that did this. With spoiled rich kids.. all were sent to other countries to live with a family and live with them for a week or two.

The mom obviously watched the show and wants her 15 minutes.

 

[MrsPete]

All this "social" networking is so detached...text mesaging is a poor replacement for communication with inflections and pauses and...dialogue! (PLEASE EXCUSE THE RANT!)

You're right. Over the years I've watched my high schoolers' social skills diminish. They're more connected to people through technology, but they don't know how to talk to one another, and don't know how to handle small confrontations.