Outsourcing
Outsourcing drives me nuts. I hate calling Dell and knowing full well that the person I'm going to speak to is not even in the western hemisphere and is not able to be understood.
But this article is somewhat appalling.
Like a stomach virus in a first-grade classroom, outsourcing is now spreading rapidly into other avenues of our society. Recently, I’ve learned about “parental outsourcing” – where parents are hiring others to do what have traditionally been parental chores.
For instance, there is the Booty Camp in Illinois that teaches toddlers to be potty-trained. And no, I’m not making that up – it’s called Booty Camp.
Yes, Booty Camp.
A five-hour session of Booty Camp costs $200. I will now type that again for my own amusement: Booty Camp.
Then there are “personal shoppers” – Moms hire these people for $75 an hour to assist in their daughter’s shopping frenzy.
And then there is SOS (Study and Organizational Skills). You can hire SOS to clean and organize your child’s room while they are away at fencing practice or Booty Camp. Certainly, children can’t be expected to arrange their ascots and jodhpurs by themselves. That should be the work of professionals.
The most intriguing, and perhaps disturbing, of the parental outsourcing services I’ve found is the one where you pay a guy $50 an hour to teach your child to ride a bike.
He's got that right! It IS disturbing! But I wonder if, in several years, the same cry that we homeschoolers hear all the time will be heard by parents who choose to teach their own children how to ride a bike:
"Only a professional can teach a child to ride a bike." 
Perri wrote,
This is so absurd. booty camp. good grief.
Link | June 7th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Dana wrote,
you know — it sounds like another way to make some money, is it wrong to charge for a basic skill? (when I became a sahm 4 years ago, I had to hire a housecleaner and learn how to clean my home).
but it does make you wonder what in the world is going on in this country?
I’m really not seeing all that much wrong with that, especially for someone like me, I could use extra money, and cleaning someone’s kid’s room, wouldn’t be an all day affair. The Booty Camp, I could use that, I’m not all that patient.
I kind of think that some of those ideas are ingenious. Sorry.
Link | June 8th, 2006 at 9:35 am
dollymama wrote,
Well, hey–people pay others to scoop doggie doo–why not take care of that end of things with their kids, too?
(i’m kidding! Don’t shoot me!)
Link | June 8th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Jamie wrote,
That’s unreal! I think parents just tend to be lazy and want to get the easy end of the deal in things and not take care of their children the way they are supposed too. Absurd…booty camp. Nobody ever said parenting is supposed to be easy…
Link | June 8th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Kimberly wrote,
It’s completely ridiculous! But the leap isn’t that far… only the government can teach our kids, right? Isn’t that how public school started? Parents couldn’t teach their children, so they paid someone else too, and now we have to fight for our rights to teach our own children.
Link | June 8th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
PreCISEly my point, m’dear!
Link | June 8th, 2006 at 2:29 pm