Children and Consumerism
It seems to me that things have changed a lot since I was a kid. There is just more stuff than their used to be. It just keeps piling into our lives and it seems there is nothing we can do about it.
Last week was my son Jake’s 4th birthday. So far, my wife and I have tried hard to keep our kids away, as much as possible, from the constant bombardment of advertising. We don’t let him watch regular tv and we try not to expose him to too much branding. As a result Jake thinks that Ronald McDonald is just a clown and nothing more. In fact we have never been to McDonalds with him and he does not know what it is. When we went out for his 4th birthday last Thursday he asked to go out to our local Thai restaurant. He even likes the spicy asparagas. Hooray for Jake!
Anyway you still can’t escape it advertising is everywhere and Jake has an Achilles heel. He loves trains.
Loving trains you think would be safe. They are a fun environmentally friendly transportation. What could go wrong?
Problem is that there is a multinational corporation ready to capitalize on this innocent love of trains and its name is “Thomas the Tank Engine”. We thought it was a harmless little toy when his grandmother bought his first little train set at the age of 18months or so. It has a few pieces of track, a shed to keep the trains, an engine and a couple of coaches. Jake was in heaven!! he played with the set for 3 hours and did not want to stop.
A small sampling of our metal trains
Since then Jake has become obsessed with trains and by default Thomas the Tank Engine. The marketing is all encompassing for the young budding train geek we now have:
Metal Thomas trains ($10-$15 each)
Wooden Thomas Trains ($20-$30)
Lego Thomas Trains
Miles of Plastic, wood and Lego track
Thomas mining company
Large wooden roundhouse (I think this one alone is more than $100)
Cranky the crane
2 Thomas hats
2 Thomas T-Shirts
Thomas Lunch pail
Thomas Books (about 20 of them)
Thomas Videos
Thomas Video Games (Yes it’s true)
Thomas Shoes (these are coming as a late birthday gift)
My best guess is the cost of the stuff is now best measured in the thousands of dollars!!
Good thing it is his grandparents buying the stuff.
We have come a long way from the days when a slinky was the coolest thing around.
Hey I never got one of those I was deprived!!
This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 11:12 am and is filed under Community, Family, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
14 Responses to “Children and Consumerism”
You’re right - and I know that TV doesn’t help. One thing that might be useful though is that TiVo offers a free service called KidZone. http://www.tivo.com/1.2.17.asp You can record shows that don’t push the “gimmee” buttons and that are best for your children. Then you isolate those shows in a special part of the machine and lock them out of the rest of the recordings including live TV. KidZone even provides recommendation lists from children’s advocacy groups. It can go a long way to reducing kid materialism, and also help find good stuff for the kids to watch when they’ve had enough 3 dimensional Thomas time.
Cynthia
Thanks for stopping by. Others might be able to use tivo but I can’t be trusted. I am too susceptible to the warm glow of television that I don’t even have cable let alone tivo (though of course I want it).
This is so true. I think you and Lisa are right to *try* to manage this. As you know, my kids are just about to fly away from the nest (YES!) and I wish I had given this more thought. If I had, I would not have them watch any television and I would greatly restrict the number of toys they had available. Not only the quantity in their closets but also the quantity they have out at one time (or during one period — like every week, or something.) It gets overwhelming in a hurry and their expectations are ridiculous. Madi and I have started talking about this for her children. I think savings towards college and dinner with Grandma and Grandpa might be better than another toy. Madonna was right about being a material girl - and we all follow along.
Yeah Amy it is one of the curses of the modern age and the digital age. Things do seem to be moving faster and faster. Perhaps we need to reevaluate the need for speed in our lives. (easily said):)
I gotta go and interact with some real live people . . mmmm dinner.
Mike,
We’ll keep trying to protect our kids from all the stuff out there. Although Jake has tons of Thomas stuff, he is innocent about much consumerism and product pushing out there. For example, Santa was a big fat man until last year when he learned about him at daycare. As well, Jake has does not like violence. Other kids his age have no problem watching violence on tv, in ads, etc… Jake can’t handle anything with more conflict than Max and Ruby (”You know Mama,” Jake says, “Ruby is a little but bossy.”) I think managing his tv watching has had a positive impact on his life. Thankfully, trains are a way in which he has done much learning, both concrete (colours, numbers) and imaginative (story telling).
An aside, we have much more Thomas stuff than listed above. Here’s what else I can think of:
thermos
socks
stickers
tatoos
colouring books
paints
halloween costume
pjs
plastic roundhouse
the wooden roundhouse is not Thomas (and therefore was cheap)
Lisa
You are right Lisa. Jake is a sweet and gentle boy who cares for all those around him.
Thanks for the extra thomas stuff but the socks don’t count he just got them yesterday!!
I post the complete list in a new thomas rant.
[...] This is a continuation of the Children and Consumerism. Ok my kid is obsessed with trains and by default Thomas the Tank Engine. We wonder how kids get so into consuming things so quickly? We do it to them. Case and point: Jake’s 4th birthday party last weekend. We had a train themed birthday party because it seemed like the right thing to do. Anyway we did have a great time!! [...]
You two are COOL! You both are thinking about what is right and good and healthy and appropriate for your children but *still* trying to stay grounded in the reality of their world. Your kids are so blessed. And, to share this intimate moment — we are so blessed!
Mike - tell Lisa about the young man you were trying to help with the top menu tonight. Me laughed and laughed! lol…
Amy
Hey - where’s the photo of the Thomas cake? It took at least an hour to decorate it! Becca
Thanks for stopping by and posting Becca.
Ohh, I got a picture of the cake see this:
http://www.rainbowsongs.com/mikeblog/?p=9
Media is a youth killer. you are right about that. and it is not only advertising. Some of the kids programs you find on tv like dragon ball z or pokemon, and a lot of others all is about violance. what happend to the type of shows i wathced while still a kid. Heidi, Remmi, and a whole bunch of other shows more aimed at kids.
Ben thanks for putting your 2-cents in.
You are right about violence on tv. It can’t be good for anybody not just kids.
I completely agree Mike. I came across your blog while researching, I’m actually only 17 but I’m writing a paper for one of my classes on children and the media. I chose to do my thesis on children and consumerism. Children are indocerinated to become consumers. young people have a rather incomplete set of moral values and as such are especially susceptible to the idea impressed upon them. That makes them a great target for advertising. They are made to feel insecure unless they have the latest toys. The media suggests to remedy the emptiness with new luxury goods, but it perpetuates itself since there are always new good available for the child to desire. Case and point: Ever hear for the show “Beyblade”? Marketing dream: the entire show is practically based around the main characters playing with imaginative childrens toys. Shows like this prove that hundreds of marketing hours go into trying to get the child to say “Mommy, PLEASE!”
From what i read, your son sounds to be doing alright, if they are gifts and he’s not demanding to have more toys it’s hardly a problem.
Looks like this guy is setting up an entire site dedicated to the issue of children and consumerism… looks like it might turn out to be pretty good…
http://www.consumerismandkids.com
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