The past couple of days I've been catching up on all the blogs I follow. Not all of them post daily so I have to sorta go through the blog roll periodically because I'm just too lazy to check the email updates. Some of them I've posted on my sidebar. Anyhow, I was reading a "new to me blog" and was nearly busting a gut reading their post http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/2010/11/christmas-toys-from-hell.html. Which got me to thinking about what my kids want for Christmas.
Now, I'm the mom who has been secretly stashing away gifts they've asked for throughout the year since spring. Those same toys I managed to bring over in 14 suitcases when we flew here, yes 14!. So I've got some things already hiding away in various closets, but as I believe in letters to Santa I expect there might be some additional requests for the jolly fat man.
But here's the thing, since we moved, the kids haven't bombarded me with a nonstop list of crap items they've seen on tv. Why? you ask? Because the kid channels here don't show that many toy commercials. Nary a commercial at all. No McDonalds commercials, no aqua sand, no barbie, no crappy, plastic, made in china, breaks in 30 minutes, or never quite works right from the start, toy. The kids only ask for toys when they physically see them. I'm guessing this is because they already own every toy they can think of, and without constant reminders from the toy corporations they can't think of anything they don't have.
This begs the question then, if we turned off the tv permanently (or just eliminated the commercials from their world) would their wish lists be considerably shorter? Would they think harder about the toys they wanted as toys they would TRULY treasure?
I'm sure this comes as no surprise to some people, but I've never lived anywhere where the consumerism wasn't targeted at kids 24/7. Kinda refreshing.
2 comments:
Shannon! So happy to find this (via FB) and get to stay in touch with your crazy life! I love this post, and agree whole-heartedly with your points. We are a very limited TV family and for the past several years, my kids' Christmas "lists" have consisted of things like, "A gumball machine and finger puppets." or "A spy glass and chairs for my little legos". Their wants are simple and sweet. People say, "Oh, your daughter's not into [fill in the blank] yet? Just give her time." And I pity those people, because if they would just turn off the tube, their daughters wouldn't be "into it" either! If I could only get the in laws on board, we could completely do away with the plastic, crappy, made-in-china, breaks in two days stuff at Christmas this year!!
I look forward to keeping up with you...
Thanks Amy. I think I've always known the trouble with corporations and their marketing gimmicks aimed at kids shows and the commercials they pander to them. Even the merchandising linked with new movies is over the top. Unfortunately this sort of stuff is wave one, wave two will be when all their friends start telling them about the latest and greatest new toy.
Glad you like the new blog, keep in touch.
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