Banishing the gimmies.
These days, it’s practically impossible for my daughter to be in the toys section of a department store and not ask to buy something. Most times, I deflect her requests successfully; others, she kicks up a fuss, whereupon I remind her of the Berenstain Bears and their gimmies.
I blame the boob tube for this acquisitiveness. If our home had no TV, I think the only toys she’d ask for would be new jars of Playdoh and plastic farm animals to replace missing or broken ones. But with TV, there are requests for popular characters, nifty new toys advertised between programmes, and so much more. It’s never-ending, and it changes from week to week.
Older kids usually understand that a product may not live up to the claims implied in commercials, but younger kids have trouble picking out the hype. “Young children are wide open,” said Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., director of the University of Minnesota’s Children, Youth, and Family Consortium. “Parents need to help them learn to sort out what an advertisement is trying to do.” Limiting a child’s TV viewing, said Erickson, is one of the most effective ways to raise a less materialistic child. Television, she said, is a powerful force that uses not just traditional commercials to encourage buying, but also the programs, which are often tied in to toys, food, and clothing.
The PTA has a great feature on raising non-materialistic kids. It explains the effect that parents who’re so caught up with the attainment of prestige things like career and luxury goods have on their children - not a good one. My husband and I aren’t mired in that, but our couch potato daughter is still very much a consumer. It’s a matter of teaching her that she will not get everything she wants and goes back to the issue of delaying gratification, which I wrote about only too recently, as well.
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POSTED IN: Practicalities
2 opinions for Banishing the gimmies.
Kate
May 25, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I’ve been writing about TV recently too. One of the things I like about DVDs and videos is that commercials are easier to avoid.
One study I read claims that the more commercials a child watches, the more likely they are to be depressed. Wish fulfillment and disappointment is a hard cycle to fall onto.
Kharen
Jul 20, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Tell me all about it ..
I’ve learned to tell my daughter that she can write a wish list for toys she wants to buy. When there’s a special occassion, e.g birthday or Christmas, then she can pick a couple of items from her list based on a budget. She’s old enough to understand and so it works. Thank goodness :)
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