I’d like to know more about how Maddie operates financially as well.
From what I can tell, her only income is from selling a small stock of second-hand clothes, or which she may not have paid for herself to begin with, so profits may not be realistic.
Her music ‘career’ is expensive, who pays for her studio recording time? When she had her gig, it appeared to be mostly family etc in the audience, it wasn’t a sell-out and it’s unclear whether she would have got paid for it. The other musicians weren’t there under a band name promoting themselves and it wasn’t likely there would be talent spotters in at what looked like a private, or poorly publicised, event…so they may have even needed to be paid for practice and performance time as sessions musicians.
She isn’t at college(?), and she visits and stays with her boyfriend in another city(?). So she has little income, and plenty of outgoings, trainfares and alcohol likely being the main two. She’s got no prospects, good on her if she ever makes it as a professional musician…but there are so many others out there and although she is good, she is nothing special…I don’t think it’s likely to be more than an hobby, or if there was any commercial success it would be very short-lived.
She’s soon going to be past the age for normal college admissions, then she’d have to go in as a mature student. For young people it is their qualifications that colleges look at, for mature students it is their experience as an equivalent…Maddie has none of these things.
She has no way to even keep up her social life and pay a sensible ‘rent’ for her room without financial support from her parents. I’ve got nothing against wealthy parents helping out their kids, that’s often the benefit of having worked hard to be able to do so, but Nadia and Mark go about it completely the wrong way.
At what point will here be a conversion with her about what her plans are to ensure she becomes financially independent? Music can be there on the sidelines of it, but for it to be the only option isn’t realistic. It’s got to be college leading to a career, or straight into a job ideally with an apprenticeship to give her the basic start she needs in order to live as an adult.
They don’t help her by continuing to refer to her and Kiki as ‘kids’…Maddie is an adult, she shouldn’t be lumped in with Kiki as if they are the same age and at the same stage in life.
Deciding that she doesn’t need GCSEs was beyond stupid. They can surely see that she will never be an actress, she doesn’t even know how to speak properly and prepare herself, evident on the COMP podcast. When she was in the vlogs she came across as sullen and poorly spoken, when she is in popcorn junkies she sits there itching and has no eloquence in how she speaks and offers very little for someone who is supposed to be prepared and analysing ‘yeah, I really liked it’ etc is the best she can manage. These things aren’t really criticisms, not everyone is suited to being on camera, it’s more that is should be obvious to her parents that she will not succeed in that line of work, and especially not when she has no experience or qualifications, her appearances on their channels is detrimental to her if she were building up a portfolio.
Compare Maddie to Carlitos. He’s at college, doing what I think were mentioned as being A-levels including Drama/Media. He is younger than Maddie, yet more eloquent, able to be in the company of older adults very easily and comfortable with talking to the camera. He also speaks clearly, without constantly umms and ahhs and sounds prepared when he has spoken on COMP. Of course his parents are probably still funding him to a massive extent, he may not even have a part-time job…but he’s following an education path that will then give him various options for university or work, plus a work ethic of being consistent with a schedule and the skills to deal with having to work with people other than his direct friends. His parents are setting him up for later success, with the ability to have other options if whatever is his first choice doesn’t pan out.
I had something different at their age. I went out to work at 16, I earned a full wage and it took many years to get up the career ladder, and I paid rent while living with my parents. But…my parents are fairly well-off, they bought me my first car and gifted me the deposit for my first property. Those were gifts that I appreciated but didn’t make me continually dependent on them. Nadia and Mark could learn from that attitude, when your adult ‘kid’ has no clear plan of how to become financially independent through work or education…it is time to cut off the free ride and force them to take responsibility.
If you’re giving cash over to your adult offspring every week, and there is no end in sight to that or logic as to why you are funding them instead of them working (such as they have a high workload at college), then you have a problem with that adult never getting ready to be independent. Maddie could easily be sucking money out of them well into her 30s, and as well as paying her a weekly allowance they will also be called upon to fund any big spending such as holidays, housing, cars or even babies. It’s a slippery slope not to have it clearly defined as to what you will and won’t pay for. For example, I expect Lisa is happy to slip Carlitos some money to fund his social life, but if his socialising became all he did…drinking every night in the park with people who are photographing themselves smoking drugs and giving up on his education…I can’t see her just accepting that and handing over more of her own money to fund what is essentially destructive behaviour. Yet Nadia and Mark are happy to make a conscious decision fund an adult drinking late at night in a public park etc, they don’t seem to care whether what she spends her allowance on is healthy for her.