Child Stardom

Just follow my tangent for a minute; I'll get to the punchline soon. I've been playing the violin since I was 5. I've heard stories all my life about what classical musicians endure, and I've got personal stories as well. Some are good, some not so good.

If you're a lousy parent and don't want to interact with your child, you start them on a classical instrument, lock them in their room 4-5 hours a day to practice, and voila! Kid is as good as invisible. I heard of one violinist who slammed his hand in a door frame and broke his fingers at age 17 so he didn't have to prance around like a trained poodle at competitions anymore. Michael Rabin killed himself in his 30s because he's been pushed to hard with the practicing all his life. I've heard stories about high suicide rates in Juilliard also. Not confirmed. I was personally off at summer conservatory, practicing 4-5 hours a day for a month at a time. I'd watch ants on the ground and stare at the trees while I practiced outside, completely bored. At least with the classical music practicing or hard-core studying that parents prescribe to get free babysitting, the child develops useful skills. I'm glad I learned the violin and went to a decent college, but I was pimped out all the same.

The Lohan, Spears, Cyrus, and Simpson clans are a different story. It can be argued that Spears has some talent, but it's a horrifying machine for these children. Arguably worse than mine. At least I wasn't exposed to a huge world of paparazzi, screaming fans, zero privacy, Hollywood vultures, and kitschy artistic mediocrity. I would have more respect for the parents if they pushed their children into high level music/acting lessons, allowed them to dictate their own terms of involvement in the outside world, pushed them to get college educations to develop their minds, or protected them from substances/vultures better. Mediocrity kills, and abolute mediocrity kills absolutely. The Simpson girls know they're lousy, you know? Lousy stupid dad!