Pitchrate | Tips for Helping Your Child Become a Savvy Consumer

Email:
Password:
or log in with your favorite social network:

NOTE: If you don't have a profile and want to sign up with your social network, please click the appropriate icon in the sign up box!

Connie Hammer

For more than twenty years, Connie Hammer, MSW and PCI Certified Parent Coach has been energetically guiding frustrated, lost and confused parents to achieve their parenting hopes and dreams with her amazing skills. As parent educator, consultant and coach, Hammer is passionate about supporting pare...

Category of Expertise:

Contents is empty

Company:

The Progressive Parent, LLC

User Type:

Expert

Published:

12/02/2011 05:41pm
Tips for Helping Your Child Become a Savvy Consumer

Every holiday from New Year's to Christmas and everything else in between provides opportunities for families and businesses to celebrate. It offers a time for families to gather and do something special and it gives business a chance to increase their revenues. As a result, the holidays and other occasions, such as back to school, are always accompanied by ample media messages in print and on the screen. We have come to know these as commercials and advertisements, and every holiday comes with new enticements to buy, buy, buy!

Commercials and advertisements have been around since the 1950's and every generation has been exposed to the shopping hype during the holiday season. Tis' the season for a constant barrage of media messages from various sources. Everyone that watches receives overt or subliminal messages from businesses that desperately want us to buy their wares - from a company trying to convince you that your child needs a particular item in order to reach his or her potential, to playing upon a parent's fear that their child's safety is at stake and a cell phone is what is needed to bring peace of mind.

As difficult as these messages may be for us adults to sort out and resolve, we are able to filter out what these cooperate conglomerates are attempting to do. We are able to think for ourselves and we have our values to guide us. Most of us are confident about our parenting identity and what we want for our children.

So where does that leave our children? Unfortunately, young children are very easily influenced by media messages, especially television commercials. Young children will use them to determine what is cool and what they think they need. The average child sees more than 40,000 commercials each year. Commercials are quick, fast-paced and entertaining. They are easy to remember with catchy phrases that try to convince your child they can't live without a certain product.

How many of you have experienced a constant request for certain toys, products, or clothing that your children have seen advertised on TV or on the internet? Once a commercial has enticed your child, the nag factor sets in. We have to expect that when kids are bombarded by ads telling them to buy certain products in order to be popular - that nagging will soon follow.

According to a national survey of youth commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream,

• the average American child aged 12-17 will ask their parents for products they've seen advertised on TV an average of nine times until their parents finally give in.

• for parents of so-called "tweens", 12-13 year olds, these children admit to asking their parents more than fifty times for products they've seen advertised.

Ask yourself if this is what you want to deal with when your child is that age?

We may not be able to control the images and enticements our children are bombarded with out there in the community at large but we certainly can maintain some control over which messages creep into our homes. How does a parent in today's media generated culture keep excessive commercialism from negatively impacting their child and the true spirit of the holidays? Here are some tips to help you get started.

Help Your Child Think Critically about TV

Whenever possible, talk to your child about what they see on television. If your child is very young she may not be able to tell the difference between a show, a commercial, a cartoon or real life and that characters on TV are make-believe and not real. For older children you can always turn a commercial or an advertisement into a learning experience by helping your child find the appropriate message. Always remember, if you do not want your child exposed to certain messages, you can either turn off the TV or explain why you object.

Help your child resist commercials

Do not expect your child to be able to resist ads for toys, candy, snacks, cereal, drinks or new programs without your help. When your child asks for products advertised on TV, explain that the purpose of commercials is to make pe

Keywords

black friday, holiday shopping, commercials, advertisements, holiday season, media messages, autism
Please note: Expert must be credited by name when an article is reprinted in part or in full.

Share with your colleagues, friends or anyone

comments on this article

Powered by: www.creativform.com