Just Say No

I was reading through the headlines on iGoogle (woohoo, love iGoogle), when I encountered this article. It left me shaking my head at our society.

Parents want toy companies to stop marketing products at children. Not because of any of the myriad reasons sociologists and psychologist have suggested marketing for children should not happen. No. These parents want toy companies to stop marketing to children because it makes the children want things the families cannot afford to buy them this year.

Ooooookay.

It is time the parents in the US pony up to their responsibilities. It is okay to say No to our children. It is okay to teach them to budget and prioritize. It is okay for our kids to have different things or fewer things or handmade things. Voluntary simplicity is okay. Even better, turn off the bloody TV and prevent the kids from seeing the ads in the first place. Spend the time playing card games or putting together tomorrow's dinner together (since too many families claim to be too busy to cook). Stop the recreational shopping so that the kids are not faced with all the "I wants" in the stores. Spend the weekends playing at the park or getting together with friends or gardening or doing the housework and the homework.

Toy companies market the way that they do because it works. Well, if we as parents in this country start to say No, the toy company marketing strategies will no longer work.

That will get the toy companies to change their marketing much more quickly than any letter writing campaign asking.