When I was three years old I spent my days doing what three year olds are supposed to do.
I was lucky when I was that young as our house had a back gate which led onto a big field with trees and a stream.
Almost every day I would skip around that field that seemed endless to my childish eyes and I would name the trees only to forget them a day later and name them all over again and then I’d walk up to the stream and look for fish.
I never did see any fish and years later I found out why. The stream was completely polluted with chemicals and oil. No fish on God’s Earth would’ve lasted a minute in those corrupted waters.
But before I knew the truth, I was happy. Naive but happy, and I spent those precious few years of childhood, those years that we are never truly grateful for until they are gone, with a big smile on my face.
Some children, however, don’t have the same sort of childhood as me. Three-year-old North West (the name should probably give it away that this gal isn’t having a normal life) is one of them.
Last Thursday, the world giggled when North West, dressed like a pricey accessory for Kim to hold, screamed at a group of photographers ‘no pictures, no pictures’ while holding her mother’s, Kim Kardashian’s, hand.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure this isn’t normal behaviour for a kid that age.
North West had been on a day trip to the Museum of Ice Cream in Los Angeles with Kim. But what would appear to have been a beautiful innocent day out was tinged with dejection the second the duo stood outside and North West had her outburst.
And the worst thing, this isn’t even the first time it’s happened.
Now I’m no expert when it comes to the psychology of children. I’m no expert in knowing what is right and wrong for children to do. But surely a kid shouldn’t be brought up in an environment where at just three they know who the paparazzi are, nevermind how to confront them.
Ah well – nothing to be done. The world will continue to spin and Kim will continue to make bucketloads of cash by flaunting herself and her children in front of the flash of expensive cameras.
In years to come, people will probably deride North West for no other reason than the world she was born into. Until she courts media attention the way her mother and father have done, she is just a child, no different to you or I at that age, and so should be protected from the media’s attention – especially when she’s on a day out to the Museum of Ice Cream with her mum.
Every kid’s childhood is precious. It’s no different for the children of the rich and famous.
