FanPost

When it's okay to teach a child to hate

My daughter has been raised a Bruin, although, like most things we encourage her to make up her own mind on things.  We have, at various times, told her about the virtues of a place like Cal or Stanford, or Ivy League schools.  But there's one thing that's been engrained in her since she was about two, and that is a blatant hatred for all that is the University of Southern California.

To prove her Bruinness, I could certainly post a variety of pictures of her in cheerleader uniforms at the Rose Bowl, UCLA sweatshirts at school, and game jerseys at Pauley Pavilion, but we're among friends here, I'm too lazy to track down the pictures, and I know most of you with kids will understand what I am talking about.  Nestor front-paged her at some point at a UCLA game, but I don't know how to track down the link.

Perhaps my second proudest moment with her as a UCLA fan would be four years ago at the Rose Bowl (the last UCLA/USC game we attended because I just couldn't stomach the beatings anymore and 5 years ago was the last time I will ever, ever make the trip to that disgusting place they call a football stadium over there).  At any rate, we were losing like 89-2 or whatever it was in the 3rd quarter, and the SUC fans were becoming increasingly obnoxious, and having to watch those girly boys in their really pretty white sweaters doing there little dances over and over was becoming too much to take.  I said we should leave, and my daughter, with all seriousness, at age 5, gave me a lecture about having faith in the Bruins, and that if we left we would miss the greatest comeback of all-time.  She was wrong of course, but we did stay a significantly longer time and she did put me in my place for being a whiner.

So what's my proudest moment?  My daughter over the last year or so (I guess?) has, like most pre-teens, become infatuated with this Disney movie phenomenom "High School Musical."  She even plastered her walls with various magazine cutouts and posters, and fell madly in love with some guy named Zac Efron.  Typical, right?

Then all of a sudden a couple months ago she tore everything from her walls that had to do with him down.  When asked why, she declared that she now despises him, and wouldn't ever want anything to do with him.  When asked why, she said because she read in a magazine that he was going to attend.... USC.

I am not sure how healthy it is that she has developed such a hatred, but is it wrong that I love it!?  Sometimes I think she might walk up to someone in a USC shirt and sock them in the nose.  She has only ruled out one college at age 9, and that is of course that disgusting joke of a campus.  

So teach them while they are young, I say.  We have to let our kids learn to think for themselves, but for something as important as the USC/UCLA rivalry, well, nothing wrong with a little nudge along the way.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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