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I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

wilwheaton.net

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Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#121

Post by prox »

mavhc wrote: post #15
BarryMilo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't want to believe. I try to explain to my friends why I won't watch anything with children as prominent characters, but they generally don't want to hear it, because "Stranger Things is so good" or something. Hollywood is the land of depravity and abuse. It's no place for children.

And Stranger Things isn't good, it's just a mashup of 80s films that are at least twice as old as the actors, no original ideas at all. The problem is more celebrity rather than the filming process. Make it illegal to report any "news", ie gossip, about anyone under 18 for a start.

There are definitely kids who like it and whose parents adopt a healthy attitude towards it as well. I think the problem lies more with the media as you say.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#122

Post by sdoering »

divs1210 wrote: post #62
shkkmo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will specifically calls out The Curse in the article: > the physical and psychological abuse she witnessed firsthand when she made me and my sister do The Curse. So you comment isn't so much off topic, but is a bit tone deaf.

Ouch. I’m sorry he had to go through that.

In his current book 'Still just a geek' he describes the actual experience in more detail. While listening to him reading his book I was torn between wanting to throw up and wanting to punch something.

The cuts on his sisters face in the movie? Actual real cuts. Administered by the crew. Just to summarize one example he describes.

It was heart wrenching.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#123

Post by Gordonjcp »

jerkstate wrote: post #73

Quoted post unavailable.

He's airing a lot of people's family grievances, though, not just his. You're hearing about his because he's the one with an audience.

I'm prepared to bet a bunch of people, some of whose comments you've just read, are gearing up to talk to their families about a similar experience they had, but they have no audience at all.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#124

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

silisili wrote: post #119

I feel really conflicted on this one. On the surface, he's right, let kids be kids. But parents almost always overstep their bounds to do what they think is best for their child. We've all heard of Tiger Moms, and parents basically forcing their kids into being a doctor for their own good. When it fails, it fails spectacularly, but it often doesn't fail. Is it wrong that a child was forced into something that gave th…

“Something he was good at as a child”

You can become good at anything with practice. The standards for a 7-year-old are very low, and the fact he became good at acting is probably because he was forced to do it so much.

I assume he'd rather have had a less traumatic childhood than be a millionaire.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#125

Post by Gordonjcp »

em-bee wrote: post #115
jerkstate wrote: post #73

Quoted post unavailable.

the sad part is that he hasn't found what he needs to forgive his parents. he is still hurting. and he is still searching. i disagree that he would not be as well known now if it wasn't for his parents. are you trying to suggest that he should be thankful for that? most child actors disappear into obscurity when they grow up. will managed to find his way, and that's entirely his own achivement. of course without his…

> the sad part is that he hasn't found what he needs to forgive his parents.

Where do you draw the line beyond which you cannot forgive someone?

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#127

Post by spoiler »

silisili wrote: post #119

I feel really conflicted on this one. On the surface, he's right, let kids be kids. But parents almost always overstep their bounds to do what they think is best for their child. We've all heard of Tiger Moms, and parents basically forcing their kids into being a doctor for their own good. When it fails, it fails spectacularly, but it often doesn't fail. Is it wrong that a child was forced into something that gave th…

> But parents almost always overstep their bounds to do what they think is best for their child.

Most people who believe this have grown up with either narcissistic parents, or just otherwise emotionally (not fiscally or materially, which neglected children often confuse misattribute as love and care) neglectful parents.

The narcissistic ones simply love to fill their children's heads about how self-sacrifical and hard parents they are, yada yada yada.

I strongly encourage anyone to read up on "good enough parenting" and narcissistic family dynamics, especially if you think you had an "overprotective" parent that couldn't respect boundaries.

Edit: here's some links to encourage research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_enough_parent

https://narcissistfamilyfiles.com/2020/03/15/12-unspoken-rul...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_parent

Aside: there's growing research that supports narcissism (especially intergenerational narcissism) and narcissistic abuse has been on the increase, and that roughly 1 in 5 people have suffered from narcissistic abuse at least once in their life (check out Ramani Durvasula's book or literally pick any literature or research on narcissism)

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#128

Post by Krasnol »

silisili wrote: post #119

I feel really conflicted on this one. On the surface, he's right, let kids be kids. But parents almost always overstep their bounds to do what they think is best for their child. We've all heard of Tiger Moms, and parents basically forcing their kids into being a doctor for their own good. When it fails, it fails spectacularly, but it often doesn't fail. Is it wrong that a child was forced into something that gave th…

I know one of those "successful" kids who actually became a wealthy Radiologist.

In the end it's a "ignorance is a bliss". He's missing a significant part of his childhood. He did try to come up with a replacement for a few months during his studies but realised that he was simulating and overdoing it.

I've never seen him "let go" if you understand what I mean. I'd never tell him but seeing that is quite scary and I wouldn't want to exchange my freedom as a kid for all his money.

Also he's married to a person similar to him. They don't have kids.

They are a very boring couple but they try and we try to drag them along sometimes.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#129

Post by paganel »

marto1 wrote: post #68
pvorb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like trying to get your kid into programming, which is a bit more common around here?

Precisely! I always get an eerie feeling seeing threads like "How to get my 4yo into programming?" reach the top of HN.

I've personally chosen to ignore those posts. I say this as a guy who only got into programming when I was 20-21 years of age, and even though at the beginning I felt like an impostor, 20 years after the fact I can say that it was all for the better that my teenager years were spent on stuff that was not related to programming, it gave me (and it still gives me) a much broader perspective on the world.

Re: I was forced to be a child star. It was never my dream or my idea

#130

Post by zasdffaa »

wahern wrote: post #33
irjustin wrote: post #8

Wow Will was such a part of my childhood watching Star Trek. Obviously, he didn't appear often but he was memorable simply because there were so few people as young as him on the show. Sad to hear this all around. This also brought back memories of me being required to play piano growing up. I hated piano, performing (recitals), playing in general. I was terrrribbleee (still am) and was put up in lessons for 12 years…

> Music is a very "asian" or "chinese" thing to put your child through. Asian culture simply adopted American and English culture in this regard. In the United States circa 1950s and 1960s it was very common for children to be taking piano lessons, and owning a piano was also relatively common. Both the lessons and the piano itself were important status symbols, and having both were considered markers of being middle…

I knew a kid whose parents forced him to learn the violin. It was a social status thing, doubtless wrapped up in "it's good for you and you'll thank us" but it really was about them and jacking up their social standing a bit, and he didn't get a choice of instrument because violin had more social cachet so he got a violin and violin lessons. He totally hated it. This was in the UK some decades ago.
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