Dear Mothers Everywhere,
Hopefully you will agree that you are
the role models for your children, particularly the female ones.
So if you go off the rails there is
every chance that they will do the same thing.
Celeste Barlow is one Mom
who doesn’t seem to be able to appreciate this aspect of parenting. To make
matters worse she advertises the fact on her blog for the whole world as well
as her three small children to see.
If she was single her behaviour wouldn’t
matter so much, but there are four others (husband/partner - if she
still has one - and her three children), who are being tarnished by her
apparent inability to recognize the harm that she is doing.
I appreciate that judging by what she
writes on her The
reluctant mom’s
blog; sub titled, I am still saying FK a bit more than I should she is probably
suffering from the after affects of
postnatal depression.
In 2011 she wrote: “I struggle to keep sane in my insanity. Right now I am a
*yellow lifeboat
bobbing along quite nicely with my bottle of Chenin Blanc.”
 |
* The Beetle's 1966 hit Yellow Submarine
was said to be a symbol of the way they
were isolated from the world by their fame.
There are various other interpretations as well. |
Currently
from what she says she is being
treated for depression.
Is this an acceptable reason for her to put her three
children, the oldest of whom must be
in his early teens, through the embarrassment her blog must be causing them? Children
these days are very tech savvy almost from
birth so hers are no doubt well aware of what Mom
gets up to on her blog.
She even has pictures of them all with
this caption: “I
am the person most likely to be voted: ‘she who does not want children’
– straight shit happens when you are hopped up on estrogen.”
Her well presented blog hit the
Twitter fan after she wrote a post complaining
about Pick n Pay’s latest promotion
in which they give away one little rubber toy called a Stikeez for every R150
spent.
The tongue in cheek side of her rant was very much
overshadowed by the unacceptable (to most people anyway) language she used
about this very successful campaign that has kids clamouring to collect them.
If you are able to ignore the filth she
has some goods points, particularly
for mothers of more than one child, like how difficult it is if you have three
children and you have only spent R300. Two Stikeez
don’t divide into three without some
heartache.
Celeste won the Kidz World best Mommy Blogger in 2012 and 2013 and had the top Best
Parenting Blog in the South African Blog Awards for 2010.
Kidz World is an online resource
directory. Its founder Cara Mullin told me that they never endorsed the views
of any of the participating bloggers. The winner with the most votes was
chosen by their own readers and Mullin said they never received any complaints about the content of any of the blogs.
It’s not surprising that Celeste won
because her Blog has clocked up an impressive total of nearly one million page
views. So I can’t tell you if her Stikeez
muck was the norm without going through all her many posts or whether she
only used this kind of shock tactic for this one.
What is certain is
that judging by the pictures of this glamorous Mom
she definitely doesn’t need to stoop to profanities to attract attention.
Headed: “Larry at Pick n Pay and my wishes around
venereal disease” it contained a liberal use of that FK word
she talks about as well as other dirty language.
Larry was evidently a fictitious
character she claimed had come up
with the Stikeez idea at this
supermarket group.
It ended with this obscene message: “I hope you get
a chlamydia – and your entire team. And it is drug resistant.”
But not before she had referred to her
youngest daughter, who looks about five, as an “ungrateful little bitch”
because she cried when she unwrapped a Stikeez
which her mother had spent “R150 on crap to get” only to find it was not
the one she wanted.
“She has 14 Stikeez,”
her mother went on. “Quick Maths. 14xR150 = fuck load of money.
“She
seriously burst into tears.
“I seriously
lost the last bit of shit on this subject.”
In the middle of it all Celeste had a
Side Bar about her ex-husband’s girlfriend “who died tragically and suddenly last week.”
Talk about bad taste, actually no taste at all.
Journalist and a mother herself Louise
Marsland tweeted, “Funniest thing I’ve
read all week. Esp for parents who shop at Pick n Pay.” She included the
link to Celeste’s post.
Pick n Pay instructed her to, “kindly remove your tweet as the content
is highly inappropriate.”
The
supermarket chain was absolutely right. Barlow’s post is extremely
inappropriate especially as she has three small children and the promotion is for fun things for kids.
However instead of dealing with this
aspect Louise took Pick n Pay to task in an article on Bizcommunity.com
headed “How to blow your brand in five minutes,” for having the
temerity to ask her to remove the offending tweet.
She accused the company of shaming its brand “with one stupid tweet.”
Louise and many other women had nothing but praise for Celeste’s sick post.
The questions I would like to ask
them are these:
Would they think it’s still okay if
their own children were habitually using the same kind of obscene language that
Celeste advocates?
Do Celeste and the rest of you think
her boy and her girls are proud to have a mother who swears like a trooper indelibly
in public because that’s what a blog effectively is?
Do you all think they like her
bragging about the amount she drinks?
Do you and her think that her rock
bottom standards are a good example
for children to follow?
Has it ever occurred to all of you
that if her children get told off at school for swearing they might justify it
by saying, “My Mom does it and she
says it’s alright?”
Has it ever dawned on any of you that
they could be ridiculed at school about their Mom’s
blog?
Louise and everybody else who thought
this was so funny should read Celeste’s entire blog, not just the controversial
Stikeez post. Then they will
realise that her life is not a bit funny at all.
It’s a constant battle. It follows
that her unhappiness must have affected her children and those closest to her.
Her misery appears to have been compounded by her divorce.
Even her own conscience pricks her now
and again into thinking; “Some days I
am really proud of the shit I say - some
days I am embarrassed - some days I
have no recall of what happened yesterday.”
If it embarrasses her what does it do
to her kids, the rest of her family and her friends?
The seriousness of her condition can
be judged from some of the other frank admissions on her blog.
Like: “In June 2011 I opted back on as
much medication as my pharmacist and friendly pill doctor would legally allow.
So far so good.”
And: “I am partial to Chenin Blanc. Okay a lot
of Chenin Blanc.” What on top
of all that medication?
Her
tell tale blog paints a very depressing picture. Her situation is exactly the
opposite of “good.”
To me
her blog is a plaintive cry for help. She is like a child swearing at the top
of its voice in a shop’s isle to get its mother’s attention.
It’s
a long way from being a joke. That
post is not really about what she called that “8
cents crap toy.” It’s a lot, lot more important than that could ever be.
Somebody desperately needs to
step in urgently to get that yellow lifeboat she’s in safely to shore and to
give her the support she so clearly needs.
Where
are the parents or other close relatives of this 39 year old when they are so
badly needed?
All
those who are in a position to do so will you now please, please rally round
this obviously talented woman to get
her back on the right track where she belongs.
There
must be a much more personal way to get her over her depression than bottles of
wine and piles of pills.
My immediate suggestion, which I
accept is a frivolous one that will not in any way solve the real issue, is for
Pick n Pay to give all her children a complete
24 piece Stikeez set right now.
 |
| David North |
So I put the idea to the Group’s CEO
Richard Brasher. David North, the Group’s Executive for Corporate Affairs
replied on his behalf and I sent him a draft of this post.
Initially he said: “It’s a nice idea
which various people have suggested to us and my colleagues are following up.”
Pressed for a more definite answer he
made it clear that Pick n Pay was not prepared to play ball with the Mommy Blogger story anymore.
“I am not keen for Pick n Pay to be
involved in a continuation of the controversy of last week. As you know we
apologised for the tweet that caused the furore.
“I ask that you write your
piece without referring to the question of whether we sent extra Stikeez to the family or not. I
genuinely do not want us caught up in another social media discussion, this
time not of our making.”
So the “nice idea” which I felt would
have done his firm far more good than any possible harm didn’t stikeezy with
this corporate giant.
Celeste
I hope you get better soon and no longer feel the urge to make these ugly
personal protests on the internet.
They just shatter the beautiful image that your photograph portrays.
Regards,
Jon, a
Consumer Watchdog who unfortunately doesn’t get it right all the time.
 |
| Raymond Ackerman |
P.S. Sorry *Raymond we might have been at the same school together and in the same house at
Bishops, but when it comes to this
sort of thing ‘Business is Business’ I’m afraid. I couldn’t agree to David’s
request not to mention his response to my proposal. I merely told him that I
would quote what he said.
*He is Pick n Pay’s founder
who stepped down as Chairman in 2010.
