4-yr-old art collectors and the professionalizing of childhood
There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal called Young Collectors about kids as young as age 4 who have multiple-thousand-dollar allowances for art collecting. That got me thinking: what the heck is that about, kids who can barely tie their shoelaces and the parents have them buying art? Then I thought, it’s probably the same reason my young nieces are allowed to “drive” the ranch tractor: because their parents think it’s a good learning experience.
It’s a big issue for parents: how to best prepare a child for adulthood? How to introduce children to adult activities and responsibilities?
In most human societies, children are inevitably exposed to “adult” events like birth, death, sex, work and violence. It’s a fairly recent (and class-privileged) notion that children are inherently different from adults — the concept that children are innocent and malleable and should be protected from damaging adult experiences. (Couple of books on this: Huck’s Raft: 
Today’s American parents have to respond to two contradictory cultural meme sets:
1) childhood as a sheltered phase of life, to be kept separate from adult issues.
2) childhood as the critical foundation for adult success, childhood as a time when adult character and behaviors are rooted. For many parental members of the US middle class or professional class, this meme #2 tends to loom large.
One result is the ongoing professionalization of childhood — meaning both that middle-class and professional-class parents treat child-rearing as a professional discipline (parenting = career, with books to study, experts to consult, skills to master) — and also meaning that the activities offered to children are more adult and professionalized.
Childhood activities are being taken over by adults and made more competitive, structured and performance-driven. Many kids don’t play pick-up games anymore; instead, they have adult-organized youth leagues, fundraisers to pay for uniforms and out-of-town games, pro trainers — and pro sports injuries (as mentioned in this article about the book Revolution in the Bleachers
While childhood activities like sports are being made over into a more serious adult style, previously adult-only activities are being offered to children at ever-younger ages: designer clothing, high-end restaurants, spa treatments, art purchases, etc.
Note that it’s only adult activities that the parents perceive to be respectable, high-status and beneficial that they want their kids exposed to. For some parents, that means competitive sports (with the possibility of a athletic scholarship or career). For other parents (such as in my home state of Texas), it means hunting and gun skills. For other parents (especially some of those in New York and Los Angeles, according to the WSJ article) — it’s art collecting.
Partly it’s good old conspicuous consumption: I’m wealthy enough to afford spa treatments for my 12 yr old. Partly it’s children as status symbols. Partly it’s a well-meaning desire to get kids on the “right” track early, by exposing them to the “right” adult activities. And it’s about identity.
How one raises one’s children in the US is a major signal of the parents’ identity. Adults signal to other adults what they value by the activities they get their kids involved in. Kids’ talents, tastes, skills and intellect are seen as a reflection on their parents’.
As the American professional class has raised its expectations around individual identity — an professional adult these days is expected to have a carefully crafted persona, including success in a profession, the “right” hobbies, informed opinions, intentional attire and appearance, the Brand Called You
Barbara Ehrenreich wrote in Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class about the anxiety of middle/upper-middle Americans over the possibility of their children being unable to maintain their class status — a key part of their identity. So introducing one’s children to the mindset and consumption patterns of one’s class (or one’s aspired class) is one way of addressing that fear.