Middle class gifts for middle class children

[Catherine468]

Light hearted, please don’t get ranty. I’m not interested enough to argue.

Have you ever seen a more middle class gift for a middle class child in a toy shop than this? Made me chuckle…
photo pending

My DS would actually love this book, but I would want to check whether 'lichens of the world' means he wouldn't be able to find many of the types in the book in our local area, because what he'd enjoy most would be going out and spotting them.

Isn’t lichen what reindeer eat?

@SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter Li ken

Quite. Working class kids should just read superhero tie-ins, right?

For those who have never heard of Lichen, please do google, it’s fascinating; a very important part of our eco system.

Brilliant 😂

I have several ND children in my family and my first thought was that this was written with ND kids in mind.

I pronounce it

Lie-chen

Middle class and Scottish 😂

Then he could join this...
https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/

DS2 would have absolutely loved this when he was little. We're most definitely not middle class!

Lie Ken is the correct pronunciation , no chh sound

Yes I feel like of all the plants lichen is definitely a working class one! 😉

I don't know. My kids only get one present for Christmas from us, but they also get a stocking full of presents from Father Christmas and presents from other family members (and each other). And that's how we and the whole extended family did it growing up and we were certainly working class.

No, you’re thinking of carrots 🎅🏼🦌🥕

Ah Ok - the joke element passed me by. It was very early/late.

It wasn’t very funny to be fair

Agree with this - there's probably better books for spotting lichen locally. They are fascinating, and you get different types in different places - at the seaside black lower down then orange in the splash zone. Different ones like different rocks or trees. Natural Navigator book interesting on that.

I say liken, but I do know other wildlife-y types who say litchen.

Tempted to buy that for my DS, he’d love it. As would at least one other kid I know, not wealthy at all, just interested in the world. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I know this is lighthearted but the undertone is that working class kids aren’t cultured or interested in learning. I’m from a working class family and grew up behind my dad’s corner shop. I loved nerdy books like that. 😂

No child wants this, certainly not any child who does not have an autistic special interest in lichen which is maybe one child in the UK. This is for parents who like to refer to their "little bookworm" or "little explorer" and post profound quotes about nature that their child apparently said.

This is nonsense.

More nonsense 🙄

And here we have exhibit 1.

Let me guess, your little Autumn Breeze and Amethyst Starshine just adore nature and will spend hours in the woods quietly sketching mushrooms and taking bark rubbings to store in their scrapbook.

They were so excited to give out their grow your own chickpea kits complete with compostable houmous recipes at their forest school birthday party- no plastic gifts please!

I know lots of children who would enjoy this book - I agree with those who say that the assumption that an interest in the natural world is somehow exclusive to middle classes aka snobbish is unfunny. No wonder we are the most nature depleted country in Europe.

@ImImmortalNowBabyDoll

Wow.

I don't really care what you think but just for clarity:

My children don’t have those type of names you have referenced (very childish on your part if I can say so).

We had loads of plastic “tat” at one stage as it made my DC happy. I will say I got rid of it as soon as it was outgrown - donated to another friend with a younger child as we needed the space back.

I do have one child who is very interested in nature, the environment, birds, trees and the sheep in the field next to us. She does bird watch with binoculars that I bought for her but she also watches K-pop and makes slime. She is also the Eco Prefect at her school.

She would love a book on lichen and I’d buy it for her, because I am not an ignorant, assumptive, classist, reverse snob.

I am a parent who pays attention
to what my DC are interested in and support them as best I can.

FYI I am interested in lichen and I might buy that book for myself if I saw it.