LAST Saturday my wife and I attended a banquet one of her friends held for her newborn son, who is 100 days old.

In China it is a tradition to celebrate a child's first 100 days in this world by feting relatives and friends.

At the banquet, we two sat at a table in the company of her high school roommates and their husbands, all of whom have become parents. We are the only couple with no issue.

At the table the discussion went beyond usual reminiscence of school days and centered on parenting, involving even unabashed talk about breast feeding.

Bombarded by the enthusiastic exchange of the blissful young parents, my wife tried to chime in with some small talk. Feeling ill at ease, I sat silently, tucking into the food.

I waited for a change of topic, but the discussion just got livelier and veered toward money matters.

And when money is at stake, passions can only run high, for a chance to flaunt wealth and outshine others is a blood sport of some women.

One of our table mates, a young mother, railed against the staggering prices - around 3,000 yuan (US$484) - of a training course in which she had enrolled her 4-month-old baby.

The course is said to improve newborns' socializing skills. But she found out that it taught no more than how to crawl, she said with a frown.

Victims of vanity

While her revelation elicited the expected exclamations of disbelief, another mom just smiled, a sign that she knew more than she was letting on.

When prodded, she said she recently paid 5,000 yuan for a program that trained her three-year-old son to construct buildings out of Lego toy bricks, which she said would unleash his architectural genius.

Honestly, I cannot but feel pity for their children.

At a time when so-called early childhood education - nonsense in my view - is hyped as crucial to developing intelligence and character, as well as giving children a boost in future competition, toddlers are just the victims of their parents' gullibility and vanity.

All young parents dote on their children, to be sure, and I have no doubt that one day I might as well. But the state of today's overly pampered generation of children is deeply worrying.

Because of the family planning policy, Chinese newborns are raised mostly as "one versus six," meaning for one infant there are six adults, parents and grandparents, tending to his or her needs.

Ever since birth, before they know what need is, they are prisoners of need, more their parents' needs than their own.

Indulging little emperors' or princesses' every need has a corrosive effect on their ego. Uncontrollable ego is sometimes a giveaway of corruption on their fathers' part.

On the eve of International Children's Day, the Nanjing-based Modern Express newspaper published a revealing story about the tainted innocence of children.

In the report, published on May 26, a primary school teacher described a pupils' conversation that she overheard. It was about Children's Day gifts.

One pupil's father is a deputy director of a government office. The boy proudly declared that a subordinate of his official dad gave him a pocket study kit, a digital device children often use to learn English.

This was described by a pal as a "miserly" gift and laughed off as a sign of the father's low rank.

Comparing dads

By contrast, he said his family was recently paid a visit by a man seeking help from his own powerful father.

The boy shrewdly complained that his iPad was damaged and he could no longer play FruitNinja on it. The visitor immediately got the message, accessed the Internet, and placed an order for an iPad, which was shipped to the boy's home the following day, the report said.

The duo's joust for face was topped by a student cadre whose father gave him 30,000 yuan to buy gifts to give away to orphans.

Mortified at the competition for ostentation, the teacher wondered how a holiday for children turned into an occasion to compare their dads, or in the popular street lingo, pin die.

In my youth, when pin die was less conspicuous, receiving desired books and toys on June 1 was delight that kept me happy for a day. Today, however, children's short attention span and desire for new things, diminishes their euphoria over an iPad, iPhone or other fancy electronic gadgets.

Undoubtedly, it won't be long before we read news that a boy is given a sports car as a Children's Day gift, and smugly shows it off to classmates envious that he has such a hell of a father.

Children in their formative years should be kept away from the insidious intrigues and temptations plaguing the adult world. Alas, too many have learned with their own eyes and from their own parents, how power can be traded for money and coveted items.

Precociously aware that palms need to be greased to grant favors, children are keen to exploit their father's influence and connections to satisfy their own desires.

The result is that children learn to worship power, take unearned comforts for granted, and inherit their official fathers' flamboyance and greed.

Despite disciplinary authorities' edict warning officials to guard against bribes during public holidays, bribe-givers look for every opportunity to bypass any stricture. Children's Day presents itself as one such opportunity.

If watchdogs are alarmed by the reported conversation among greedy boys, they could take the initiative and nab a few bribe-taking official-dads on Children's Day. Xinhua Daily suggested as much on Monday in its editorial "Don't Miss Children's Day in Anti-Graft Crusade."

Commercialized festivals

Festivals in China are highly commercialized.

Savvy businesses now even invent gimmicks for ordinary dates, depending on their potential for stoking consumerist imagination.

For instance, May 20 was interpreted as a day for couples to cherish their love through consumption, simply because the date is phonetically similar to "I love you" in Chinese. And that contrived interpretation means money.

As such, on June 1 there is no escaping the commercial drive. But apart from businesses that target children, there also are shady people who disguise bribes as gifts and corrupt children's minds. It's high time that we restored purity to a festival denigrated to pin die.