Interesting article

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2003
Interesting article
1
Wed, 03-24-2004 - 7:18am
I read an interesting article in a parenting magazine (Parents, I think). Anyway, it said that the 3-5 year old set is a huge consumer market. Kids who can't even read can identify products and have strong preferences at a very early age. The article said that the kids often spend their own money (?) on these products or basically harass the parents into buying them (the cereals, lunchables, etc).

My question is, how often are you influenced by your child's begging? Do you give in? What methods do you have to get around it? Also, do you limit tv (or watch only pbs) so your child is not exposed to ads?

Curious,

m

Meldi
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-25-2003
In reply to: meldi
Wed, 03-24-2004 - 9:32am
From my personal experience, I'd have to agree with what you said about the article. I have a 4 1/2 year old & a 2 year old. My son doesn't spend his own money. Money he gets goes into his piggy bank & then on to a savings acct. But anyway, when we go grocery shopping, I let him pick out 1 box of cereal as does his sister. I of course have to approve it & that is their special "treat." I have noticed that they both tend to pick cereal's with their favorite characters on them. For example, on this last grocery run, my son picked out Honey Bunches of Oats cereal. He would normally not choose that but it had Dale Earnhardt, Jr on the box which is his idol. DD picked outt he Disney princesses cereal! She loves Cinderella & Snow White. There are some things I will allow them to influence my purchasing on but not everything. I'm pretty lucky in that really the only thing they ask for is fruit snacks & cereal so I don't have to deal with begging.

As far as tv, my children get 1 hour a day max except on Sundays! We are huge racefans so we watch the Nascar race after church & that is several hours long. DD usually only watches about 15 minutes of it. DS will watch it off & on the whole race. Other than that, I am pretty strict with that 1 hr amount. And the only other time they are allowed to go over that limit is if they choose a movie, which are generally about an hour & a half long but theyr arely ask to watch a movie. They get to watch whatever shows they want from my approved list. And they are fine with that! And as far as ads go, they really don't pay too much attention to them. They pretty much play during any commercials. The one ad I did catch DS really paying close attention to the other day was one about bikes. He wants a new bike for his birthday.

We'll see if any of this changes in the future!

~Debra