“I took my daughter to see the Little Mermaid, and now she doesn’t like Disney Princesses anymore. She won’t even wear the little mermaid dress we got for her at home. While she was watching the movie, she kept saying that wasn’t the Little Mermaid. I told her it was, but she told me, “I don’t like the Little Mermaid. She’s so ugly. I don’t like her.” And when we got back, she wouldn’t put on her little mermaid dress. She won’t even wear Rapunzel’s dress anymore. I told her Rapunzel’s still pretty, but she kept saying Rapunzel’s dress was the little mermaid’s dress too. When I put it on her, she burst into tears. I feel like she’s gotten PTSD from this movie.”
OP edits to add, “Guy, stop yelling at me in the comment section, let me explain. I was talking to my best friend about how the Little Mermaid was in theatres and whether she’d watched it, and my daughter overheard. She insisted she wanted to go see it, and I told her that it wasn’t a good movie. But I didn’t say the Little Mermaid would be ugly. But my daughter insisted on going. I even offered going to a playground instead, but she cried and insisted she wanted to watch the movie. So I took her. I forgot I could’ve just let her watch the trailer, or see a poster. So, I basically ended up taking a wailing kid to the theatre and a wailing kid back.”
Comments say, “Your daughter is right. She has a normal sense of beauty. She knows what’s pretty and what’s ugly.
Then later, there is a comment by OP to add, “I didn’t think this post would get so popular. I’ve read everyone’s comments, and I just hope that no one attacks my kid. She’s never seen a black person in real life. We never teach her to comment on other people’s appearance like that. Even when I was persuading her not to go, I just told her that nobody liked the movie. I didn’t tell her beforehand if the Little Mermaid was ugly or pretty. She cried because she was too disappointed. She’s seen the original cartoon. While we were watching the movie, she was telling me that this isn’t the Littler Mermaid, where’s Ariel? I told her this was Ariel, I didn’t think she’d end up reacting like this. I think the fact that the movie theatre was super dark, and the movie itself had pretty dark lighting, made it look scary to her. As for whether her sense of beauty is normal or not, I guess all I can say is that she personally didn’t like it. I can’t force her to like it. And that’s that. A lot of people are teaching me how to go about educating her. It’s not that I don’t want to. But she’s 2.5-years-old, and exactly that age where she likes order and routines. She wants her external world to match her internal world, or else she feels lost and will break down. No matter what I say right now, she’s not going to listen. Every parent with kids knows what I’m talking about. I can only say that we’ll definitely teach her about stuff like this when she’s older, that being black doesn’t equal being ugly. (But the woman they chose to star in this movie…um…well, it’s really easy to mislead little kids who are seeing black people for the first time.)
Comments say, “Our teachers taught us to not judge people by their appearance from a young age. The Little Mermaid teaches us about bravery, kindness, and honesty. If your daughter don’t like a character simply for their appearance, then she really does need a talking to.”
“I took my five-year-old niece to watch it, and half an hour in, she said she had a stomachache and that the movie was too scary, and she wouldn’t watch any more hahahahaha.”
“There’s a lot of educational value in this movie for little kids though, like how we need to protect the environment. This is what happens to mermaids when we pollute the ocean.”
“I’ve seen a lot of posts lately about kids committing suicide because of too much pressure. And these bloggers always conclude that parents never give their kids any breathing room. From the moment of birth, they’re pushing their kids to accomplish this and accomplish that, and any failure is met with, “Well, you’re done for, then.” How can kids bear that?
But I feel like this isn’t totally the fault of the parents either. The environment that we live in simply doesn’t allow for much mistakes. Normal people are walking on thin ice. A single step wrong, and they’re really one step closer to total doom. If you can’t get into a good high school, you can’t get into a good university. If you can’t get a good job, you can’t buy a good house. If you don’t pay your social security, what happens when you’re old? This isn’t about the parents putting their kids under pressure—the parents are on the verge of collapse too.
Moving away from kids, just look at grown adults. I’ve met people who work in Beijing, buying a house for 30K per square metre, paying a million for a down payment, with another two million in mortgage under their name, to buy a 100 square metre house in the remote suburbs. And now that house has halved in value. Are their lives ruined or not? You need to pay 12K a month on 2 million RMB’s worth of mortgage. If you can keep up with that at all, you’re a remarkable human being who works super hard.
You can’t say that they have no hope at all. But the million in down payment was everything their family had. If they had bought a house for a million outright, losing half its value would just be losing 500K. But they decided to go for a big mortgage. Now, they’re out of their downpayment entirely, and they still lost an additional 500K. And they still gotta pay back that 2 million mortgage, which keeps accruing interest.
One and a half million RMB is a huge hole. Maybe we can’t say something as absolute as, “they’re done for”. But how is a normal person supposed to fill it? Can a normal person save up 1.5 million RMB in 10 years? Spend ten years of their life filling that hole?
Parents are just the middle ball in a Newton’s Cradle. The force they’re transferring to their kids came from outside factors. Sure, parents should try to protect their kids from this force. But most parents don’t have that ability. The reason parents are so worried about their kids is exactly because they’re not capable themselves. If they were, they wouldn’t be so stressed out. Most people aren’t capable.
Life is hard for everybody. That’s all I gotta say.”
Comments say, “I mean, we can’t blame the parents for being under too much stress. But if your life is already such a disaster, and you still insist on bringing children into it, then it’s definitely your fault.”
“It’s not like kids don’t get pressure from society too. While they’re dealing with competitive pressures from society, they’re also having to deal with their parents’ bullshit. From what I can see, kids today are doing a lot better than their parents in tolerating stress.”
“No matter how hard it gets, children are the weak party here. They’re supposed to be protected. If parents can’t protect their children, and instead become oppressors of their children, where can the kids go? Adults at least have the option of retiring somewhere rural and just laying flat and giving up. Where can children go? What can children choose?”
“Working for a foreign company is so chill. This is my fourth year working at a foreign company. Let me briefly describe what it’s life. It’s in a major city, funded by Swiss people, and it really the ideal environment for girls to work. It’s super chill. The company is all about work life balance. People into alcohol might recognise them, they’re a pretty famous brewery.
Work environment: First, we’ve got a great work environment. It’s super comfy, free, and not at all depressing like the manufacturing industry. It’s to the point that I’m kind of in love with this environment. When I get off of work, I’ll stay in my office for a while and just read and learn. And my friends who are studying for exams sometimes come over to my office to join me.
My boss: He’s a Swiss national, and since I started working with him, I’ve gotten prettier and more confident. I’ve been deeply influenced by European culture. The reason I got prettier is because it’s not as stressful as Chinese-owned businesses, and I’ve been getting better sleep. I’ve gotten more confident because westerners like to work with you by encouraging you. They wouldn’t ever publicly accuse you or criticise you, or play PUA tricks on you and oppress you.
The chillness: There’s not a lot of people in the whole team, but everyone is super happy. Other people have been working at this company for over a decade. I’m the newest person here. We don’t make nearly as much money as the big tech companies, but we’re so much happier.
This post randomly uses English words for a lot of common place words, and the comment section is all making fun of it. Other comments are saying, “If you feel chill, that means you haven’t got an important job, and you have nothing to do with what actually makes money.”
“I work at a Japanese-funded company. It’s so exhausting.”
“You feel chill because other people are carrying your burden for you. Don’t show off your ignorance around here.”
“Oh my god, I love my new cold coworker. She’s a girl born after ’95, pretty good worker, super cold person. When she got hired, she didn’t buy fruit or boba tea or snacks for anyone. She didn’t put on a creepy fake smile to chat up the old employees. She didn’t put any effort into fitting into the team. She just finishes the work she’s given without saying a word. She never chats to her coworkers, she just works. During lunch break, she goes over to the break room to quietly play on the phone until lunch break is over. When work ends, she quietly goes home.
I fucking love her. I love her to death. I want all of my coworkers to be like this. Oh my god, coworkers like this are a blessing to all INFPs!!! I love her!!!”
Comments say, “I am like this, and all my coworkers hate me. They say I’m too aloof.”
“Really? You have to buy everyone fruit and snacks now when you get hired?”
“This is me, and my boss told me to find my supervisor to chat with them for at least 20 minutes a day. I am about to go crazy.”
A clickbait blogger stole a girl’s wedding dress photos to make up a rumour that she wore a wedding dress to go to a concert. The girl in question contacted the clickbait blogger and made him delete his posts and apologise.
Comments ask, “Is anything going to come of this other than just deleting a post and apologising?”
“This wasn’t done on a whim. He even photoshopped texts between her and her supposed fiancee. This is pure malice.”
“He apologised because someone threatened to sue. If nobody threatens to sue, he’ll keep making up lies.”
“If apologies are enough, what do we need the police for?”
“Do mothers really need to get up at 6:30am every day to make breakfast for their kids? My husband and I are both born after ’90, we’ve been married for 2 years, and we keep delaying having kids. A couple of days ago, my husband suddenly asked if I could get up every day at 6:30am to make breakfast for kids, implying that I couldn’t do it. I like to sleep in on the weekends, and basically only get up juuuust in time for work on week days. I guess he’s saying I don’t qualify to be a mother.
I guess our parents’ generation was more about self-sacrifice, but I’m honestly kind of upset about the question. Of course I want my kid to grow up healthy and strong, but I think that’s an entirely unreasonable demand that he’s trying to pass off as ordinary and standard. It’s really making me uncomfortable.”
Comments say, “If you can, then I can.”
“You can buy breakfast for 5 bucks. What need is there to get up at 5am to cook it? Kids wouldn’t appreciate it anyways. The first rule to being a parent is not to martyr yourself over pointless bullshit.”
“6:30? I’d rather die.”
“You find yourself in a strange fantasy world. A demon shaped like a sea serpent finds you and offers you two choices.
The first choice, he’ll change you into a gorgeous but frail beauty, with a face that can seduce everything under the world. Even God himself would be moved at the sight of you. Beasts will never harm you. You’ll never age. Everyone in the world, man or woman, all want you. Priestesses, Princes, Gods, the Devil, they will all fall for you, and fight over you to the death. You’ll receive the love and adoration of everyone under the heavens. You will be decked in silk and jewels. People will answer your every demand. But you can never get stronger. You can only accept what is offered to you, including possible violence and assault.
The second choice is that you will become a hideous monster. You will lose your reproductive abilities, but gain extraordinary strength, speed, defense, skills, and intelligence. But your personality will also become war-like, cruel, greedy, and cold-blooded. You’ll have countless similarly hideous and ruthless underlings who will conquer the world for you. Everyone in the world fears you and are in awe of you. Everywhere you walk, people cower and hide. Your name is like the most terrible of fairytale stories. You can use your power, money, and force for anything—neither law nor morality binds you.
Which one would you choose?”
Comments ask, “Wait, I don’t get it. Everyone obeys my every request, but I’ll get abused and assaulted?”
“Option 1 is just a nightingale, but option 2 has a lot more potential. You can use brute force to change the world’s standard of beauty.”
“Which one will let me institute communism better?”
“It’s fine if people don’t want kids. It’s true, it’s just too hard to raise kids these days. Back in the day, when we were little kids, one pot of rice and some braised pork belly can feed three kids.
I was born in the seventies. And sure, our houses were shitty then. But they were free. And the distance between people was very minimal. (The wealth gap existed, but it was tolerable).
Back then, sending a kid to school was so simple. Take your hukou and fill out a form, and that’s it.
Back then, teachers weren’t very good, but they’d never harass you. They’d never call you and threaten you over some low grades.
Back then, hospitals were shitty, but they were cheap. Just a couple of bucks for a doctor’s visit, and a couple hundred for a surgery. Now, if you don’t wake up at night for the rest of your life crying over your medical bills, then they’ve lost.
Back then, raising a kid didn’t take any money at all. The paperwork was super simple, tuition was cheap, there was hardly any homework, community college came with a guarantee of employment afterwards, if you marry you get a free house, and the only thing you actually need to pay for is food and clothes. If you’re wealthy, you eat turtle soup. If you’re poor, you eat crucian soup. Your older siblings clothes will fit you just as well.
Playing didn’t cost any money. Little kids can play card slap on the ground, or marbles, or hopscotch, or jumpsies, and have all the fun in the world. Now, fuck me, everything takes money, and young people never have any of it.
I’ve seen several kids in my kiddo’s class have severe insecurity over not having money to go on vacation overseas, and it hurts my heart.”
Another tiktok video of a kiddo insisting that she doesn’t want to go to sleep, but instead wants to go out to play. So the mother in question takes her outside and forces her to play all night, despite pleas to go home and sleep.
Comments say, “How could someone who’s only been a brat for a few years stay up longer than someone who’s been a brat for thirty something years. [Doge]”
“This is how 90’s kids are raising kids—no spoiling at all hahahaha.”
“She doesn’t look too sleepy even at 5am.”
A blogger reposts someone else’s post, “It’s been too hot lately, so I bought some cold drinks and ice cream for my employees. I told everyone about it at noon, and everyone went to pick something out.
First, it was a 2000’s kids, who went over and took away the most expensive ice cream and began eating. Then, a 90’s coworker went and picked out something nice, but not the most expensive. And me, an 80’s guy, went and got a random one and started wondering to myself, “If this was when I just started working—and keep in mind, we were called a spoiled generation too—but if I had encountered a situation like this, I would never dare to get the most expensive one right off the bat. After all, my boss is still waiting for his turn, and we need to learn from Kong Rong (a Chinese fable about a kid giving away the best pears to his siblings). I don’t know if kids these days have lower EQ or if the rules has changed.”
The blogger asks, “Is it really weird to take the most expensive ice cream at work?”
Comments reply, “Do we really need to separate ice cream into classes too? Then why not just have a mini-freezer for the bosses, and a mini-freezer for employees only?”
“Does this entrepreneur have some sort of PTSD about having to fake politeness too much as a kid, and is seeking payback now?”
“If you’re buying for everyone, then either let people make their own choices, or just buy all the same ice cream. If you want something special for just the bosses, then buy it separately.”
Someone noticed a work number attached to the label on their umbrella, letting you know exactly which prisoner made it while incarcerated. The brand in question is named “Heaven Umbrellas”.
“Prisoner 021 makes really high quality umbrellas. I guess he must have a ton of experience. I’ve been using it for four years, and I really like it.”
“99 does good work too. It’s been two years and still works great.”
“I hear that the smaller the number, the longer their sentence. Is 99 a murderer or something?”
“How is this any different from working in a sweat shop?”
“They pay slightly more at the sweatshop, and you can leave and have fun on your days off.”
“I’ve got a 14 here.”
“He must’ve murdered more than one guy.”
“I got 003.”
“Lol, he’s literally been around ever since the prison’s been around.”
The prisoner work one is hilarious — as is the public awareness (everyone knows prisoners in China work). But you don't often hear about prisoners in the US, who often (in California at least) do work as forest firefighters.
The prisoners commentary is pretty funny despite how dark it is. Hard to read sarcasm but feels like a lot of posts like the mermaid had loads of it!
Thanks for the post!