Kindergarchy

In today's WSJ, Joseph Epstein in his article "Desolate Wilderness" mentions living under the rule of children.

"For some time in America we have, of course, been living under Kindergarchy, or rule by children. If children do not precisely rule us, then certainly all efforts, in families where the smallish creatures still roam, are directed to relieving their boredom if not (hope against hope) actually pleasing them.

Let us be thankful that Thanksgiving has not yet fallen to the Kindergarchy, as has just about every other holiday on the calendar, with the possible exceptions Yom Kippur and Ramadan. Thanksgiving is not about children. It remains resolutely an adult holiday about grown-up food and drink and football."

Sam Levinson, the comedian who died in 1980, first used the word, kindergarchy, but he was referring to the older children--the college student who rules the parents, particularly their purse strings. The age of the ruling class now has dropped about 20 years.

We'll spend our Thanksgiving with adults, but come Christmas we'll be with adults, their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren and a variety of boyfriends and significant others and their little ones. And everyone will be expected to stand transfixed and in awe of their antics. Someone will even be showing video of the next one in the womb.