Rude & Materialistic Kids in Park Slope?!?!

The GL inbox is smoking with some emails passed on to us about (a). tough little ones at the Harmony Playground in Prospect Park and (b). the Slope's pint-sized, brand-conscious materialists. We begin with the playground tough kids:

I have just moved within Park Slope, and Harmony is now our closest playground. My son loves it there, but we went this afternoon, and being a weekend of course, it was packed. It was to the point where it was stressful for me being there. There were a lot of big kids playing with a football... which hit me ( I'm 6 months pregnant by the way). There were kids running through the playground, pushing my poor 3 year old out of the way, and one child even kicked my son (no sign of that toddlers parents), while many kids pushed past him while he very patiently waited his turn on the slide.

Obviously it's a popular place which everyone has a right to go to, but I also feel that my son and I have a right to play there safely. He shouldn't be disadvantaged because he has nice manners. I want him to be able to interact with other kids, and learn to deal with the bigger kids, but I also want to be able to have fun with him while we are there, instead of stressing about losing him in the crowd, or him
getting pushed around.

From there, we move on to the brand conscious Slope Spawn. The perpetrators are 6 & 7, the victim is four:

We were on our way back from a great afternoon in Prospect park and my son was happily gliding downhill on his "Like-a-bike" type bike that happens to be made by another brand when the above group of boys came streaking down the street on scooters and started yelling "fake bike! fake! fake bike!" at him. At first my husband and I thought they were yelling "brake!" in a harmless attempt to mimic our warnings that he slow down as he occasionally picked up speed. It took us a while to figure out what they were even talking about as the trailed my son, circling around him for several blocks. Luckily my son, who is extremely pleased and proud of his hard won mastery of the bike, was in his own happy gliding world and didn't even notice. I have also recently heard a story about a new kindergartener at [PS] 321 who came home crying about being excluded by a group of girls for not having the right, specific brand shoes!!! At 5!!!

This early awareness of brands is so upsetting. I know this a a heavily commercialized and saturated environment but we have to work hard to instill good values in our children and counter the effects of such commercialism. I find these stories to be utterly disgusting and feel disheartened with the neighborhood. This is not the park slope I grew up in, and would want to raise my child in. Who are these people???

There is also follow-up explanation about:

friends with kids at [PS] 321 who have been ostracized for not having a country home!! Another friends 4th grade son was asked about renovation! And whether they rent or own. This stuff is real and it is happening and I think we as parents should take responsibility for our children's values.

Indeed.