The Beckhams

[Curtainpalm]

So let me start by saying that I actually really like VB (well I like her from her Insta posts) and she looks great. Don't really follow DB but am sure he's fine too but find it really strange the way they've really pushed their children into the spotlight from a very young age, they obviously really love them and seem to especially dote on Harper and this is where I find them quite contradictory.

Brooklyn seems to come up for lots of criticism, rightly or wrongly but he's still very young and maybe just finding his way. Obviously he's had incredible opportunities that most of our DC could only dream of but I can't help but think if he was allowed to do these things out of the spotlight it would have been much better for him. Some of articles I read about him have been awful but some might argue that if V&B had let him grow up in private then he wouldn't be put under such constant scrutiny.

Cruz being on the front cover of a magazine virtually naked at 17 and his failed singing career. I know at 17 it's entirely his choice but seems very young IMHO.

Harper is a gorgeous girl but looking at photos of her yesterday at VB's fashion show I just thought she was dressed so inappropriately, she's 11 (or thereabouts) and was in a dress more suitable for a 20 year old. She's obviously on the cusp of puberty and I can't help but feel it can't be healthy for a young girl to be all over the press and again, maybe not now because she is still a little girl, but at some point become a target for trolls (she may already well be).

Romeo - I don't know much about except he plays for his dad'd club (I think).

As I said above, they're obviously loved but this aspect of their upbringing is quite weird (to me anyway) but I might be just an old fart and this is all very normal 😜

I have nothing against the Beckhams but I have an issue with children being in front of the camera full stop as they can't properly consent with an adult perspective even if they think they want to do something at the time.

Having said that, I think some people are so famous though (think Suri Cruise or the royal dc) that they will very sadly be harassed whatever they do, so it makes sense to try and control the narrative a bit.

I'm not sure you can have a 'failed career' at anything at 17 (other than gymnastics).
I agree - children of famous people have big expectations on them and when they do try something unsuccessfully it gets seen by masses - hardly a way to boost confidence.
Harper goes to my daughter's school and while there is a little bit of excitement about that she is not that recognisable.
Kids of famous parents could have decided to do things that don't generally get attention (a veterinarian rather than a photographer/model/singer/etc). But who wouldn't opt for a more glamorous role? Especially as that's what you have been exposed to all your life.
And you can't lock your kids away, I don't recall seeing that many pics of the Beckham kids when very young.

Totally agree and completely mystified as to why they’d want their kids in the public eye so young. They surely realise that celebrity and fame at a young age seems to almost guarantee mental health struggles in adulthood. Life in the social media age is hard enough for normal kids as it is.

That dress is a bit much for an 11yo but tbf it's the first time I've seen Harper in anything like that. When she was born I kind of assumed VB would attempt to mould her into her mini-me but she just seems like a normal little girl.

But who knows, maybe it'll be her who ends up as an England International!

They sort of fallen off the celeb radar, so I don’t know much about their kids. But I saw a pic of VB yesterday. Her top lip looks most odd.

This is why maybe it’s best not to gift your children Porsches and Ferraris before they’ve achieved anything themselves.
celeb kids who have done well seem to be the Gordon Ramsays and Eminem’s daughter

Money can’t buy you class

There’s a thread on here with 200+ comments on HB’s dress, some good comments and some not. All very easily found via Google when she’s older (if not now). Just feel that can’t be healthy to be have so many people (myself included ) comment on an 11 year olds outfit and they, D&VB, need to take some responsibility for that.

Or maybe people should control themselves and not feel they must offer an opinion, particularly a negative one, on everything they have placed in front of them.

D&VB, need to take some responsibility for that.

No they don't. They really do not.

So why have you added to that. I also don't think HB will search herself on mumsent in a few years to come and end up needing therapy because someone on a parenting forum said her lace dress was inappropriate.

@VladmirsPoutine
I also don't think HB will search herself on mumsent in a few years to come and end up needing therapy because someone on a parenting forum said her lace dress was inappropriate.

But why do so many celebrities really struggle with fame and their mental health? Not saying that particular mumsnet thread is going to be a problem but the overwhelming amount of media coverage and negative opinions that the average celebrity gets is difficult for an adult to cope with never mind a child.

It’s easy to say that people shouldn’t contribute to those threads as they’re making the problem worse. And maybe the media shouldn’t publish so many opinion pieces on celebrities or give them so much coverage. But that’s the reality. If I were a celebrity parent I would want to protect my kids from that as much as I could.

But why do so many celebrities really struggle with fame and their mental health?

This is very true. And I imagine a lot harder felt for perhaps the offspring of said celebs because they really did not choose this life. But I think the OP was being somewhat disingenuous to start a thread expressing how HB's dress was inappropriate, claim David and Victoria have to take responsibility for it and claim it can't be healthy to have started the thread, in other words, invite commentary on a preteen

@VladmirsPoutine
Agreed but they do have to take responsibility generally for promoting their children and making them celebrities in their own right and accept the inevitable downsides that come with that - I.e. potentially negative coverage in the media. I’m sure they are well aware of those downsides and the risks they are taking which makes it surprising they chose that path. Brand Beckham would still have been strong enough to make plenty of money without the kids as part of it.

But why do so many celebrities really struggle with fame and their mental health?

Br size a lot of people struggle with mental health.

Br size = Because

@MissingNashville
Yes but fame/celebrity is a known trigger (e.g. what happened to Caroline Flack). I just think that life is often hard enough with the mental health challenges that can be thrown at us without exposing children (who didn’t choose a life of celebrity exposure) to unnecessary additional stresses.

I don’t put my kids online but many do. It’s ‘normal’ for most people to do it. Non celebs do this knowing they’re exposing their kids to trolls and all sorts of bad people but it doesn’t stop them. Celebs are doing the same just on bigger scale. I don’t pretend to understand the thinking of celebs or non celebs doing it. The need to show your kids off is more important than any potential downsides. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But it’s not something limited to celebs.

The Beckham kids would have probably wanted insta/tiktok like their friends at 13 anyway even if they hadn’t put them online previously. Should they be told they can’t do what the norm is for kids today because of trolls?

I still think the issue is with the public/press. The press whip up the negativity and then the public enjoy making nasty comments for whatever reason. I don’t get it.

I have a famous friend. He’s nice, just lives his life. He has social media for ‘work’, nothing personal. The press still write shit about him and try to dig up dirt, print photos of him out with friends, speculate who the women he is with are. One of our friends, not famous, had horrible things written about her by the public when a photo of her was printed with him walking with her on the street. So keeping his life private hasn’t stopped any of the negativity, it has affected his mental health at times. I don’t think famous people can do much right by some people.

Navigating parenting must be a total nightmare in the public eye. Do you not show your kids faces and make the public even more interested so when they get to 18, there’s more interest? Do you let them have social media like their friends and try to give them a ‘normal’ life? Stopping kids doing normal things could damage your relationship with them. Letting them do it exposes them to trolls.

And I think there’s something very wrong with a society that’s so interested in what an 10/11 year old is wearing. It was just a dress. It doesn’t appear that they were trying to make her appear older, she was just wearing a dress, with braided hair and trainers, surrounded by her mum, dad and brothers. She was dressing up for a special night, she’s safe. People are making it into something it’s not.

I do feel a little sorry for Brooklyn. He clearly aspires to be top of his game in a glamorous career because that's all he knows. But unfortunately it seems as though he's resolutely run of the mill and doesn't have the talent to realise any of these ambitions. If he'd been born to Donna and Steve from Leeds he'd just go and get a job stacking shelves somewhere and probably be reasonably content living an unremarkable life. But what can a boy like Brooklyn do, realistically, born into that kind of fame and wealth?

Marry the dad of a billionaire

Call me cynical but David Beckham queueing to see the queen's coffin certainly had an undertone of self interest there.

I don’t understand. Who married the dad of a billionaire?

It certainly seems to have helped his public image. It may well have been a PR exercise but he still queued so 🤷🏻‍♀️The world is messed up.

silly auto correct
meant daughter