Cardi B Says ‘Yea Imma Ball’ For Her Kids, Championing a Gen Millennial Plan to Spoil Today’s Kids
Rapper Cardi B is honest on Twitter, sharing her thoughts and feelings with fans without hesitation. Last week, she was
Ivy Griffith
Rapper Cardi B is honest on Twitter, sharing her thoughts and feelings with fans without hesitation.
Last week, she was swept up in speculation and drama after an intense troll suggested her husband Offset had cheated with fellow rapper Saweetie, but Cardi put those rumors to rest.
This week, she's responding to suggestions that she's too over the top with her kids, telling fans that she knows she goes big – and she's going to keep doing it.
See: Cardi B Gets Serious About Divorce Rumors After Speculation of Offset Cheating with Saweetie
Cardi B Says ‘Imma Ball’
I know I can be a little extra when it comes to my kids but I ain’t really had shit growing up soooo yea imma ball
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) September 5, 2022
On Sunday, Cardi and Offset got together with friends and family to celebrate the first birthday of their second child, Wave Set. Their oldest child together, Kulture, is 4. Offset has three children separate from Cardi.
And like all of the events celebrating their children, Wave's first birthday was probably lavish and expensive; the couple is known for having given Kulture $50K cash for her fourth birthday.
Cardi knows it's over the top – and she doesn't care.
The rapper took to Twitter this morning to explain, "I know I can be a little extra when it comes to my kids but I ain’t really had sh– growing up soooo yea imma ball."
While it's easy to focus on stars like Cardi, any of the Kardashians, Lilly Ghalichi and more who throw lavish parties for their children, the truth is that there's a certain subset of parents of young children who believe wholeheartedly in spoiling their children, and it may be a generational thing.
See: See: 'How do People Really Feel?': Cardi B Hints at Divorce from Offset Amid Rumors of Cheating
Millennials Spoiling Their Kids – But Are They Spoiling Them Rotten?
“Millennials have higher rates of anxiety over previous generations”
— Darby Stouffer (@DarbyStouffer) September 3, 2022
My brother in Christ, a defining moment of our childhoods, many of us pre-puberty, was seeing planes crash into buildings. No kidding we have anxiety.
Millennials and Gen Z are the majority of parents of young children (0-10 years) right now, making them the drivers for these over-the-top infant and toddler events. But there may be more psychology to this than simply a spoiled generation passing on the experience.
Millennials are famously blasted by their elders for being "lazy, entitled, spoiled" and other unflattering epithets. In reality, the middling generation survived a number of traumatic childhood events and came to adulthood in the middle of a paralyzing recession which stymied growth and dried up opportunities. Millennials who would have owned their own homes and built up savings by their mid-30's are just now starting to gain financial independence – right as another recession looms.
But instead of building those savings accounts and buying lavish homes, a lot of Millennials are throwing their cash downward – towards their children. It's an abrupt reversal of Generation X parents who pared back family events and birthday parties in defiance of their parents' traditions. Is it just spoiled-begets-spoiled, or is there more to it?
A Business Insider study gathered the way Millennials are parenting differently than their older siblings and parents, generally Generation X and Boomers respectively, and they may surprise you. For instance, Millennials are raising more gender-neutral and less religious children than their older peers, which is not surprising. But they place less value on playtime than their siblings and parents, and spend more time talking to their children about money. Millennial parents also believe they praise their children "too much" at a higher rate than Gen X and Boomer parents.
So why these differences? It may come down to the fact that Millennials have the perception that their childhoods were traumatizing and their coming-of-age stage was unpleasant, so they're trying to cushion the blow for their children. Spending money on their children while simultaneously raising them with greater awareness shows a desire to spare their children the culture shock they experienced upon reaching adulthood and being pushed out into the world.
Cardi B's comment is more focused on her childhood poverty than a generational ethos, but it's part and parcel of the entire mindset that Millennials as a whole are embracing as their children age; they don't want their kids to be as uncomfortable as they were. Unlike Boomers who believe suffering builds character, Millennials seem to believe that a smooth path is the key to sailing further in life.
Regardless of where people fall on agreeing or disagreeing with the overall Millennial ethos, one thing is clear; the generation directly on their heels, Gen Z, is taking what they want from Millennial beliefs and burning the rest – so don't expect all Millennial trends to continue.