Parents Beg Companies To Free Them Of Responsibility

Vegan Stewart sent me this article wondering about my response. Because I could not survive my head exploding, I instead decided to try to capture my response.

First
The article discusses a movement initiated by The Campaign For A Commercial Free Childhood, in which companies are being asked to stop marketing products to children. Why? Because the economy is in bad shape, and if kids see things on television that they’ll want and inevitably ask for, their financially strapped parents are going to be forced to say, “No.”

Second
Got that? Companies should stop advertising products to children because it might force parents to be parents.

Third
Parents! Can you believe that? The notion that children would be forced to teach their children important life lessons like, “You can’t have everything you want,” and “Money’s tight right now, and that’s going to affect what you get Christmas,” and “You stupid little brat, stop asking for every damned thing you see on the television and grow up! Times are tough! We’re cutting back as a family!”

Fourth
Parenting isn’t that difficult, but parenting today become acting as a blank check for your horribly behaved children. I guess if you subscribe to the belief that you as a parent shouldn’t have to ever tell your children no, the CCFC’s movement makes a bit of sense, but if you’re one of the rest of us - a loving parent who understands that kids do not benefit from learning that everything wanted should be given instead of earned - this is outrageous.

Fifth
Lest this be mistakenly read as a defense of the aforementioned marketers, it isn’t. Those marketers are selling terrible toys that don’t teach anything useful to the children playing with them. Even Legos are coming preassembled.

Sixth
Children are not made of glass. They can deal with bad news. They can deal with disappointment. They can deal with reality. Shielding them from it by pretending that the economy isn’t in terrible shape is a horrible lesson to teach. Then, proceeding to blame the marketers teaches an even worse lesson. Children will respect a parent who sits them down and explains them that the reason they can’t have their every wished for product is a bad economy, even if they don’t understand the economy itself. Besides not being glass, they’re not dumb. They’ll understand that money is limited. They’ll understand that things aren’t the way they once were.

Seventh
Parents should be parents. It’s as simple as that.

Eighth
I’m done.

Technorati Tags: CCFC, Christmas, Parenting