On advertising and kids)
(reposted from my Fark comment on this thread)
I have no kids. Everything I know about raising kids comes from what I remember about being raised. But I think my parents did a pretty good job of it, because for us, McD's and Burger King were a rare special treat and not a daily occurrence, and I don't ever remember feeling deprived because of it.
I think the way they did this was to teach me how to watch TV. Specifically, how to watch ads. As best as I can remember, the lesson went something like this:
"Michael, what you just saw is called an ad. It's short for advertisement. Its whole purpose is to tell you lies so that you'll want to buy what it's selling. Don't believe anything you see in ads."
Also, since a lot of kids' programs often end up being feature-length toy ads themselves, you need to teach them that as well. Example: "Power Rangers is fun to watch, but part of the reason they show it on TV is to make you want to buy toys. Watch out for that, it's a trick."
In short: use TV advertising as a teachable moment, to teach kids how to recognize when someone's trying to scam them and be skeptical of it - and that ads are almost always a scam of some sort. Kids understand, and implement, the concept of lying from a very early age; the real cognitive leap you're waiting for is for them to understand that other people can try to do it to them.
To make this strategy work, though, requires three things:
I was lucky in that my mom wasn't working when I was going through those crucial first few years in early elementary school, which was when I was ready to get the "ads are lies" lesson. When my sister hit that age, my mom had started working; so what she did then is to hide the TV cable when she was at work.
Single parents, or parents that need two incomes to support the family, will find this sort of advice a lot harder to implement. On the other hand, if done successfully, it'll reduce family expenses a lot by reducing the amount of expensive kid-whining-driven products you'll have to buy.
Speaking of which: even with this lesson, kids will end up wanting things they saw on the teevee, and you'll still need to say no to a lot of it. I don't know what the best way is to handle that, but what I would try is to ask the kid, "Why do you want that? Is it because you saw it on TV?" And make it a rule that you don't buy anything if the only reason is because it was on TV. Make the little snowflake try to think of some other reason to get what they want - teach them to learn how to generate their own desires instead of copying off the hypnotube. You'll still end up saying no a lot, and they'll still whine and cry about it, but it's always good to have a reason for saying no that's stronger than "because".
Again, all of the above is based on absolutely zero kid-raising experience from the parental end. Take it for what it's worth.
I have no kids. Everything I know about raising kids comes from what I remember about being raised. But I think my parents did a pretty good job of it, because for us, McD's and Burger King were a rare special treat and not a daily occurrence, and I don't ever remember feeling deprived because of it.
I think the way they did this was to teach me how to watch TV. Specifically, how to watch ads. As best as I can remember, the lesson went something like this:
"Michael, what you just saw is called an ad. It's short for advertisement. Its whole purpose is to tell you lies so that you'll want to buy what it's selling. Don't believe anything you see in ads."
Also, since a lot of kids' programs often end up being feature-length toy ads themselves, you need to teach them that as well. Example: "Power Rangers is fun to watch, but part of the reason they show it on TV is to make you want to buy toys. Watch out for that, it's a trick."
In short: use TV advertising as a teachable moment, to teach kids how to recognize when someone's trying to scam them and be skeptical of it - and that ads are almost always a scam of some sort. Kids understand, and implement, the concept of lying from a very early age; the real cognitive leap you're waiting for is for them to understand that other people can try to do it to them.
To make this strategy work, though, requires three things:
- Forbid broadcast and cable TV entirely until the kid is sophisticated enough to understand this lesson.
- Be able to have one parent home to watch TV with them, particularly the cartoon time, so that you have the opportunity to give the lessons.
- The TV-watch-helping parent needs to understand the lesson themselves. It seems to me that a number of parents never quite learned to be skeptical enough of advertising either, and so naturally they won't be as able to pass that on to their kids.
I was lucky in that my mom wasn't working when I was going through those crucial first few years in early elementary school, which was when I was ready to get the "ads are lies" lesson. When my sister hit that age, my mom had started working; so what she did then is to hide the TV cable when she was at work.
Single parents, or parents that need two incomes to support the family, will find this sort of advice a lot harder to implement. On the other hand, if done successfully, it'll reduce family expenses a lot by reducing the amount of expensive kid-whining-driven products you'll have to buy.
Speaking of which: even with this lesson, kids will end up wanting things they saw on the teevee, and you'll still need to say no to a lot of it. I don't know what the best way is to handle that, but what I would try is to ask the kid, "Why do you want that? Is it because you saw it on TV?" And make it a rule that you don't buy anything if the only reason is because it was on TV. Make the little snowflake try to think of some other reason to get what they want - teach them to learn how to generate their own desires instead of copying off the hypnotube. You'll still end up saying no a lot, and they'll still whine and cry about it, but it's always good to have a reason for saying no that's stronger than "because".
Again, all of the above is based on absolutely zero kid-raising experience from the parental end. Take it for what it's worth.