A Child Was Ridiculed By Her Classmates Because She Didn't Have Branded Stationery
Specifically, stationery from a popular Australian brand.
By Tang Ruxyn — 12 Jan 2018, 01:30 PM
A man recently revealed that his daughter had complained that her friends said that she's poor for not having stationery from a popular Australian brand
Facebook user Hazrezal Ahmad shared on Wednesday, 10 January, that his daughter came home from school and told him, "Babah, my friends called me poor."
When pressed further, she replied with a sad face, "Many friends in class have Smiggle stationery. When they see that I don't have any, they said that I am poor."
Smiggle was established in Melbourne in 2003 and in recent years, the stationery retailer has been extremely popular with more than 320 stores across several countries including Malaysia as of 2017.
It has become like a fashion item for kids with its bright-coloured products ranging from pens to schoolbags. However, Smiggle products are not exactly cheap.
Hazrezal said that he felt sad after listening to his child's complaint
"I'm not sad because of the insults of being poor, but it's sad to see that there are school children who judge their friends just by looking at what their friends have," he said in his post.
Hazrezal said that parents are entitled to buy anything they want for their child, but stressed that they should not let the child have a wrong mindset.
"Those children whose friends are poor because they do not have Smiggle, it is their parents who are poor. They are the kind of poor-minded people."
He pointed out that parents play an important role in shaping children's perception
Hazrezal gave a scenario where parents get shocked when they enter the outlet and see the prices. Then, they would tell their child that there's no need to buy things there because "only rich people could afford it", among other things.
However, in the end, the parents would give in and buy something for their children.
"The child who just went through that process will not understand at all that only people with money could buy it. So when they see their friends without Smiggle, they think they are poor," Hazrezal said.
"When they grow up, they will make a lot of wrong assessment on many things," he added.
While most netizens agree that there's nothing wrong in buying branded goods for children, they agree that parents must instil good values in their children instead of making them brand-conscious
There were also comments saying that Hazrezal shouldn't have "blamed" other parents and instead use the situation as an opportunity to educate his own daughter
