Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Prada-ganda

Article in Newsweek this week on "what to do when you kids want to dress like TV stars." This goes into the category of "helping your kids withstand peer pressure" which is a very sensititve subject with a lot of people. Our approach on this is multifold: we still have young kids, and they haven't quite realized yet what cool is. We use what the article considers one of the most effective approaches, which is to tell the kids, "We can't afford it," which in our case has the added advantage of being true. We're also very restrictive with TV to prevent some of this wantism, and what TV they do watch is accompanied by incessant propagandizing on our parts against anything they see advertised. (Rule of thumb #1 - Don't buy things that are advertised on television! You stay away from a lot of crud this way.) Of course this would be of only limited use if "all the other kids are wearing it". Our kids' school has a school uniform requirement, which also helps, but the middle school doesn't, so I expect to be more challenged on this front in the coming years. And this is Wichita, and not Manhattan, LA or the North Shore of Chicago. So the expectations are, I think, slightly more down-to-earth. At least, I hope so.

2 comments:

nkjvcjs said...

One of my quirks is that I always mute commercials.
It started because they turn the volume up on the commercials and this hurt my ears, but I also like it because I don't like letting these commercials into my life so much.
When we were living with my sister, muting the commercials would often lead to conversation about what we just saw, and often, we would get distracted talking, or going to look something up, and would forget to go back to the show entirely!
This also, I think, helps with the 'I wants.'

rebmoti said...

I do this too, particularly when I'm watching by myself or with DW. But it's less effective with the kids, I find, because a) if they're watching by themselves they don't do it, and b) the commercials are quite visually enticing. Also, c) if we're watching sports, the visuals are often quite sexualized and inappropriate for kids!