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Good thing she didn't want a live My Little Pony
By adamg on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 2:12pm
Molly Bench alerts us to this Craigslist posting from Brookline:
Our soon-to-be turning 9 year old daughter wants a butler for her birthday. We are trying to indulge her. She imagines a butler is man she can boss around. He would also be well dressed and have a British accent (or at least a faux British accent).
We're looking for someone who is either a legit Butler or willing to play the role of one for 2-4 hours. We need you on the afternoon of either Sunday June 3rd or Tuesday afternoon June 5th.
You should be professional and playful. Obviously the idea is for her to have some fun with this, but we'll make sure her requests are respectful/appropriate. Interested? If so, please let me know if you are available for which day(s) and a brief description of how you can you can pull this off. I'd like a reference or two, as well. Thanks!
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Comments
(No subject)
Definitely a good idea to
Definitely a good idea to enforce the idea in a 9 year old's mind that you can get anything you want and boss others around.
Peterborough
http://www.bostontipster.com
*headdesk*
How very nice of them to make sure her requests are "respectful/appropriate." Maybe they can also explain to her that a butler is not "a man she can boss around," but an employee who should be treated in a respectful and professional manner.
Of course it's Brookline
Because Preshious Pwincesses are too speshul to do manual labor, they need to get used to the idea of managing a domestic staff at a young age. Lest they degrade their intellectual and social standing by, I don't know, doing their own laundry or raking the yard.
Awful but
when I was a kid I went to a girl's birthday tea party and her father dressed up as a butler who opened the door for us/served us tea and dessert. From what I recall it was super cute and fun, but there was no bossing anyone around.
Wadsworth says...
And what exactly do you do?
I buttle, sir.
Not the first butler who came to my mind
I flashed immediately to Hobson, the John Gielgud character from "Arthur," who knew how to take the piss out of children who didn't know where the boundaries were.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTeDxlknnFo
Live My Little Pony
I think you have it backwards, Adam. The live My Little Pony might knocked some sense into her (her parents, too) with a few well-placed kicks to the head. I don't think the pretend/real butler will be so bold.
How droll
Aside from the British accent, I'm pretty sure this Craigslist posting is evidence that the 9-year old already has a butler...and a maid too: her ever-indulging parents.
Wrong job title
If the daughter thinks of a butler as someone she can boss around, is the point of this exercise to teach her otherwise? If not, why not just hire a clown, but instead of having him wear motley ask him to dress in in a rented morning suit? Surely a professional clown would be better suited to dealing with the inevitable crossing of lines.
What the world needs really isn't more toffs.
Are we maybe overthinking this?
Maybe it's because the kidlet isn't that far removed from being 9, but I'm thinking this isn't quite as evil as we might think. 9-year-olds are quite capable of having a rich play life and being able to realize that is not reality. Some girls play princess and some girls play at having a butler (well, one, anyway - and yes, yes, some girls play at being an astronaut or something less traditionally girly).
What if this had been a boy from Dorchester who wanted a dinosaur to boss around for a couple of hours, and his parents advertised for somebody to dress up like a dinosaur to be told what to do? Unless, of course, the request was for Barney, in which case, off with their heads.
Where's dad
is my question. Like the reader above where dad provided these play services, that seems harmless to me.
Finding a stranger to pay to be the help for a day seems very disconnected with reality to me.
Wanting a butler? Not so weird.
I can totally see wanting a "real" butler when you're nine, but I can't wrap my mind around parents paying hundreds of dollars to hire someone their kid can boss around. It just screams overindulgence. As has been pointed out above, why not have dad or an older brother dress up in a suit and take the part guests' coats as they come in?
For the record: I played Marie Curie as a child. No, I did not have many friends.
A few things that don't pass a smell test
* Why is this child interested in having a butler?
The parent said it was to "boss around" someone.
* How did the parent handle this request from the kid?
The parents chose to spend $100-200 to hire a person to be bossed around by their kid as a way to "indulge" them.
* What does that say about the parents?
That's quite a bit of money and trouble to indulge a fourth grader's fantasy for their birthday. Can we fairly suppose that these parents regularly give the girl what she wants? Are they enablers of the child?
* If they are enablers, then is it reasonable to enable the child to have control over another person, even for a day?
The nine-year old has no concept of why a butler might be of service to someone. She only knows it to be a person who enables their demands no matter what (as seen from every "of course, sir" butler on TV ever).
* How is this different than the dinosaur boy from Dorchester?
A dinosaur isn't laden with the baggage of being in the service industry. The boy presumably wants a dinosaur to boss around because he likes dinosaurs. I'm still not certain I'd be happy with someone willing to "indulge" his demand that the dinosaur be subservient as opposed to just being a dinosaur at the party.
A girl with a fascination with butlers and true appreciation of their profession isn't going to require mom's adjuration that requests will "remain respectful" and might even mention it as an infatuation with the job as opposed to the desire to "boss someone around". The language of the ad colored in the lines.
That girl has no idea what a butler is or does...she wants a slave for a day and that is not a healthy demand (goes to how she's being raised) and certainly not something that should be encouraged or indulged in any way (more example of how she's being raised).
Entirely possible
I probably am overreacting, but something about it rankles on me. Butlers/valets/maids/etc. are professional staff, not entertainers, and are entitled to professional levels of respect and conduct. This request doesn't fit with that. Clowns are professional entertainers, and their particular style allows for a certain liveliness of interaction that I just think would better suit the needs of this girl and her family. At the very least, it seems like a more promising foundation upon which to build, IMHO.
Full disclosure: Even when I was a kid, I was prematurely curmudgeonly. My birthday parties from about age 9 onward involved me and two or three friends bowling or shooting pool. I really don't get the whole idea of theme birthday parties, so this whole thing seems ludicrous to me.
It's gone
It was deleted. Maybe they realized how utterly ridiculous this was.
"Faux British accent" - how offensive.
They should at least find a real Brit instead of having someone tastelessly perform in blokeface.
I've seen this somewhere before...
I think what we're all forgetting is that sometimes this works out as a happy ending.
There is a guy!
Couple of years back I did a job with a party bus where they had rented a butler for the evening. Tux, tails, white gloves and British!
I'm going through my business cards now to see if I can find him!
I'd hope the parents do a CORI check on the 'butler'...
or they may get more than they expected from the guy.
Where
Does a 9 year old girl get exposed to the idea of having a butler? There is a Wii commercial where a butler sings about "Imagination" but other than that what?
Oh, Fibrowitch...
There are these things -- you might have heard of them -- called books.
Any Nickelodeon show. Any
Any Nickelodeon show. Any Disney show. etc...
More specifically...
Springing immediately to mind: Annie, Beauty and the Beast, Batman, oh heck, here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_but...
No, it's not sorted for appropriateness for a 9-year-old, but there are plenty of butlers on there that your average 9-year-old may have seen or read about.
Where
Does a 9 year old girl get exposed to the idea of having a butler? There is a Wii commercial where a butler sings about "Imagination" but other than that what?
A pony would be a great idea, just not indoors. Shoveling warm shit on a cold day build character.
This is not real.
This is some sick bastard who wants to solicit an online conversation with an adult male that likes to be bossed around by small female children.
That's my two cents anyway
Opportunity
I wonder if they would accept a sixteen year old who likes being bossed around by young kids, can do a most foppish Brit accent just to be prententious, and would welcome the excuse to go to Keizer's and buy the required clothing?
how about one of the asshole parents be one.
a reference or two? "Yeah, Dave is really good at being disrespected by an asshole 9 year old." "Dave is a real piece of shit." Then you can teach her about how slavery is wrong. do you live in brookline?
Um, yeah
Removing the bile here, I can't figure out why they don't get a a family friend or relative to help out and exchange a favor.
On the flip side, I'm sure
On the flip side, I'm sure there are plenty of actors out there who would welcome the opportunity to make some money.
butler
a friend of mine got into a car accident and he didnt have any insurance. the judge ordered him to become butler to the person whose car he hit. pretty funny situation.
Because he's my butler!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWTXcb8W4zU
Have you ever said "No" to
Have you ever said "No" to your daughter? It would be a good time to start.