Originally published at: This condom commercial is a form of birth control in and of itself | Boing Boing
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It’s kinduva a crap shoot. Our only son was the most beatific baby you could ever hope for. He didn’t get croupy, he slept like a stone (with us - if he got hungry he just had to roll over and grab a boob), and was generally a very pleasant baby.
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I can identify with the kid.
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This excellent commercial is from 2003 (and not 2018). Maybe the article should be corrected.
More information: https://www.adforum.com/talent/38714-frank-devos/work/30167
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If only my Mother had witnessed that, 6 kids later, I guess not….
BTW: Vasectomy is cheap and cheerful when you really look at the presented evidence. Sorta cut the middle man out. Pun intended.
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I have a 21 year old daughter who has Asperger’s Syndrome which is on the Austism Spectrem. She is very bright and is a Science major at a major university. My daughter at that age acted like this little boy every day of the week. We tried everything to stop that behavior but there was nothing that could help and finally the doctors indicated that she had something called Aspergers. It was very difficult time in my life. There is a lot of stress on both parents dealing with an Aspergers child and there is no cure for Aspergers. I can’t tell you how many nasty looks and comments I recieved from other adults saying “control your child”, “take your child away”, “you don’t know how to parent”, “a good slap on her behind would cure the screaming”, “can’t you be a better parent”. The list goes on and on. I love my daughter and I just wanted to say that a child behaving like this is not always the fault of the parent due to bad parenting.
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Seeing other people with screaming, ill-behaved kids was absolutely a form of ‘birth control’ back in the day before I had my daughter.
After I had her, it became my job to make sure that my own kid wasn’t such “a cautionary tale.”
ETA:
Also, I could have sworn that the original version of this ad had the unfortunate dad longingly looking at a conveniently placed display of condoms at the end, before the text was added…
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Agreed; it’s also a bit tasteless to suggest a misbehaving child never should have been born, even in jest.
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It’s not that the kids shouldn’t be born; it’s that everyone should take proper precautions, but especially if they don’t want to deal with all the possible consequences and repercussions of being sexually active.
That said, I fully grok why this ad was banned.
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I really feel for you. I have three very intense kids and although incidents of this almost never happened, I am still the dad occasionally having to pick someone up from pre-k for hitting or acting out. The oldest finally kind of aged out of it (with lots of help and loving attention), but the youngest is still going through it. There are lots of external factors (we’re officially without a home for the moment, for instance; we’re ok, just can’t move into our new home until next week). This has had a tremendous negative impact on him where previously he had pretty much eliminated incidents of acting out after returning to school after the long pandemic break.
Point is, kids aren’t property and they aren’t their parents. They are fully independent humans who have their own fears, anxieties and loads of personality. There seems to be some correlation between parental disposition and their children (guess who was the “you have so much potential!” kid in my school?), and of course there is plenty of trauma imparted no matter how hard you work at it, but ultimately most of what makes a child is well beyond a parent’s control. In fact, the attempt to control them is one of the biggest contributing factors to negative behavior.
But let’s be honest. Adults are far worse behaved than children on the balance.
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Sending Dad hug from another Dad, you should feel its effect shortly. Hope your housing/home gets straightened out soon, I don’t like that either, and I’m a full grown mutant meat popsicle.
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I thought that was the message of that commercial. Some amount of what it shows is a natural and inevitable part of parenting and ultimately beyond your control at that point.
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Only one among my GFs/fairly close female acquaintances (between high school and our 20s) ever expressed a longing for motherhood. We had heavy duty conversations in school and club bathrooms about such things, including contraception, abortion, and giving up babies for adoption. A few did have kids, but many of us, myself and my BFF included, chose not to breed.
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my father told a story when i acted like that at 4 or 5 in a grocery store. he slapped me and said “i’ll be in the car when u are done here” and left. i continued my screaming until i saw the embarrassed faces on the onlookers. i summoned up my pride and went out to get in the car. that was the last time .
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I came here to say this… it’s still great after 18 years tho
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When I was in high school, unwanted/unplanned pregnancy was seen as the ‘kiss of death’ amongst me and my friends; it meant you weren’t ever gonna make it out of our hometown.
My core group of friends and I all avoided falling into that trap, and I was nearly 30 before I finally had a kid.
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So that’s what that was! Received.
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Similar situation here. A few comments over the years. Luckily, I was ready. “Thanks, random helpful stranger.”
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At a birthday party this evening (outside, socially distanced and masked) we were discussing kids, and I still can’t fathom why people in Mexico say “embarasada” instead of “pregnata”. SMDH.
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