toy advertisements, how much of an impact do they have?
By serenidity
@serenidity (641)
India
December 5, 2007 3:30pm CST
My daughter is not yet 2 and still enjoys watching cartoons. I do let her for 30 minutes or so in a day and I am so shocked by the number of advertisements of toys that come on that channel. I am even kind of scared that once she grows up a bit she is going to ask for all those toys coming on television. At the risk of sounding very narrow minded, i am of the opinion that too many advertisements all the time on the network that kids watch is harmful. It does make parenting more difficult. Kids will look at it and be tempted and keep on asking, it is on us parents than to deal with them. I am not saying, there should be no publicity, they are after all doing business, exposure for kids is also good, but too much exposure is trouble.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
6 Dec 07
They don't bother me at all. The kids can want things all they want but that doesn't mean I am going to buy them anything and if they keep whining about I take away stuff they already have. My kids rarely ask for stuff they see on TV. They might say they would like to have it but they just leave it at that.
When we go into stores they are not crying and screaming for stuff they see and we ALWAYS go down the toy aisle. They look around, point out stuff they find interesting and we leave. There is no tantrums and never have been. They don't get something every time we are in a store and know that. To get a candy at the check out is a big treat and they know to even have a chance they have to be super behaved in the store.
My kids are 7, 6, 5 and 20 months and don't do those things and know they don't get what they want. And I have no problem telling them I can't afford to get them something (like my kids want a Wii for Christmas which I can't afford to get them so I told them that). Life goes on, they will get over it, but if you give in just once they will know it will happen again and keep throwing fits about it.
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
6 Dec 07
We had cable for a while; the kids would fight over the channels, yadda yadda and I got mad and had it disconnected! And guess what? To my surprise, my kids started asking for less stuff! No longer were they harrassing me for this toy or that movie -- I didn't expect it, didn't even realise it would happen, but it did. So I never did have the cable reconnected, and we go to the store and purchase movies or rent some -- we enjoy the time spent reading what they're about, picking and choosing, and I really enjoy the fact that I don't get harassed for all this junk anymore!
Yeah, my youngest still asks for stuff, but not like she used to. It was a side effect of disconnecting the cable service I never expected! So yes, I do believe that your child will eventually learn to ask for those things. Mine did, and I didn't realise how annoying it was until it was gone.
Peace, Lynda
