In regards to washing the food shopping, that was just a bit of drama for the vlog. I wash mine, have done since March, if it’s a precaution you are taking, it’s one you do for the entire pandemic, not just on a week you feel like acting dramatic and people who take additional self-precaution don’t then flout government infection prevention guidance. The type of who wash groceries don’t also persistently hug people outside their households...the two actions aren’t from the same mindset.
The more I see of Carlitos, the more I find him adorable..and the more I compare him to Maddie. Carlitos is apx 2 years younger, yet is very comfortable in adult company, he is gentle and compassionate (see how he gently touches Lisa on the shoulder to get her attention and how he gently touches her back and warns her not to step back on the ‘artwork’). He is comfortable making jokes and appearing on camera, he looks clean and presentable, he is happy to muck in and help out doing housework even in other people’s houses, and that doesn’t look out on for the camera as he is instigating that when the camera isn’t on him...he is just looking to make himself useful. Compare him at 15/16 to Maddie at 17/18, who we know has ambitions to be an actress/singer. She almost has to be asked to speak on camera, slouches around, doesn’t brush her hair even when they have visitors, makes very little effort to engage with Carlitos and Eddie, leaves them work our how to be in her home and doesn’t take the younger boys under her wing to arrange any teenager entertainment/socialising. Carlitos interacts with the adults and Eddie plays on his phone and with the dogs. Maddie also seems sullen and lacking in enthusiasm for life in general, I think not having to go to school and either wear a uniform or have a standard of dress through peer pressure, has made her standard of personal appearance very low and as per her small scruffy group of friends.
Now I’m not on the attack with these comments about Maddie, she just happens to live there and isn’t instigating the vlogs, but how can we be expected to believe that this girl is going to be able to make a living in the entertainment industry when she just just portrayed as a sullen teenager who hasn’t learnt how to interact with adults properly yet.
Take also for example the earlier vlog where Lisa is making the mars bar/rice crispie tray cake. The vlog was all set up that Nadia was supposed to be the chef’s assistant, but Nadia lost interest in doing that in her own kitchen within 30 seconds, deciding instead she’s rather sit down and stare at her phone. Carlitos them noticed his mother needed some support in presenting her segment , so stepped in without being asked and labelled himself as ‘the temporary assistant’ while Nadia was taking a break, making it clear that he was in tune with the situation and ready to jump aside and let Nadia take that role back anytime in that segment without fuss. While all that was going on, Maddie and Kiki were upstairs ‘asleep’, apparently too rude to come down and say hello to their guests and needing sleep to ready themselves for the eating of the desert cake their guests were making for them.
Not insulting Maddie as a person, her skills and personality are a lot of natural characteristics not all within her control, but what I think comparing her with Carlitos highlights is that she has no ability to interact with adults and host others, and a lack of charisma that is needed for entertaining others...so why are her parents setting her up such a big fall, making out she is an amazing actress and singer, she might scrape by, but it’s a hobby and she’s clearly never going to make a significant impact financially or in terms of achievement in this field. Healthy parents would see that and encourage her to pursue her hobbies as far as they lead her, but also to have an actual career path in mind at age 18 to be working towards. At the moment she is destined to years of slow progress and disappointment, not earning enough to progress into adult life and then a hard adjustment period of working out what she is actually going to do for a career when she hits her early 20s and finding she is years behind achieving it.
I don’t even blame Maddie in the slightest, because they blow smoke up her arse and make her believe success will fall in her lap at some point, she’s a product of her environment in a lot of ways. Compare that with Lisa, who posted a tribute to Carlitos prior to his GCSE results to say how proud she was of the work he put in and the man his is becoming and whatever the grades she is going to be happy with it and his path for the future can change if needed with no problems etc, but read through the lines of that and you can see that she has encouraged and expected him to make a decent amount of effort at school and feels those results are of importance for his future as she wants him to achieve the best he can for himself.