From the toys Lucas lusts after, the food he’ll tolerate, the books he begs to be read over and over and even his toothpaste, it’s all character driven…
Just to name a few in our house:
- Sponge Bob Squarepants yogurt sticks
- Clifford the Big Red Dog juice boxes
- Monsters University Cheez-Its
- Star Wars Angry Birds water bottle, board game
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clothing, dishes, Band-Aids
- Cars bedding, clothing, macaroni & cheese, soup, fruit chews, cutlery, dishes, napkins, tissues, Band-Aids, (clearly his favorite, but Ill take Lightening over Elmo any day!)
- Thomas the Train toothpaste
- Dora the Explorer hand soap
And I know I’m missing at least a dozen other items.
Every show Lucas enjoys watching, there’s a toy or other product available. I get it, it’s marketing, brand recognition, merchandising, cross promotion, product tie-ins, etc. but it’s too much.
I know I’m partly to blame because I buy the crap for him, but whenever possible, I do try to steer him towards the classics or something unknown, when it comes to books and everyday products and screen time (TV watching, iPhone or iPad play) is very limited in our house. 1-2 hours per day and sometimes none at all.
My own weakness aside, I blame television commercials. I read recently that advertisers spend more than $12 billion annually to gear commercials to children. The average American child watches more than 40,000 television commercials per year, and their ability to recall commercials is extremely strong. Studies show that children only need to see a commercial one time to develop a preference for the particular product, and that preference is strengthened with repeated exposure.
TV commercials also create something called the “nag factor,” when a child will cry, complain and nag his or her parent to buy a particular product seen on TV. The nagging continues until the sucker parent purchases the product. According to research, 2- to 12-year-olds indirectly impacted another $320 billion in household purchases. Over the past five years, children have had a bigger influence on the purchase of durable goods due to the nag factor.
When I four, I knew about Holly Hobbie, Mickey Mouse, the Sesame Street crew and Raggedy Ann and Andy. There were only four channels on TV, my parents couldn’t afford to take me to the latest kid movie the minute it came out, I wore mostly hand-me-downs and there was zero screen time except for a few precious hours on Saturday mornings. There was too much fun to be had outside! It was a simpler time. How do we get back there?
Is your house full of TV driven products? How do you limit your kids screen time?
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How DO we get back there? It involves a herculean effort.
My kids used to tell me, “Mom, you need to buy (some product they saw on TV).” They’d try to convince me to buy it using the verbatim text from the commercial. It was cute, but a little frightening.
I’m pretty lucky that my kids don’t beg/ nag us to buy stuff. We take them to the toy store, and they both grab things that interest them, but they don’t whine when we put them back.
I know it won’t always be like this, but one can hope!
One thing I do that helps a *little* (and only a little) is that I limit the variety of shows they watch, and generally only on Sprout or Disney Jr. and use the On Demand option. That limits commercials, which helps (again, a LITTLE.)
Of course, there are generally sports on at night when Ryan is home, which means they are exposed to things like the “French the Rainbow” commercial from Skittles, so I am going to go lock them in their rooms now…
This is a tough one and I think it warrants a longer conversation. We make the kids save up for those items and they get points for doing things around the house and such. I think with things like toothpaste it doesn’t matter. The important thing there is brushing your teeth! Limiting screen time is pretty easy for us as the kids watch all of 15 minutes of a show during breakfast and the other 15 minutes while we are starting dinner clean up and they are finishing their food. They are terribly slow eaters! What the older 2 beg for is club penguin time on the computer, which they can have for the 15 minutes while the other one practices piano but they can earn more for the weekends. As they get older the character stuff dies down a little. Except for boys who are into legos. Star Wars and Lego means BIG MONEY. Though at least they are building something. Overall, I guess I’m not too concerned here in my house. I was just as obsessed with Barbie as my almost 4 year old is!
My kids have outgrown the Spongebob/Cars/Dora phase and have moved on to Vine/Minecraft/Youtube. There may not be as many products out there, but it’s just as recognizable (in that age group, I guess).
All I can really say that yes, there is a huge influence of the media and I think that’s just how the world works nowadays and part of what keeps it going – but they are all just phases, that are eventually outgrown…
(my kids still have limited “screen” time, 1-2 hours a day, maybe a bit more on the weekends)
I used to always wonder who infomercials were made for. Now I know. Kids. My kids LOVE infomercials.
I’ll admit that I don’t do a good job of limiting screen time. I’ve always loved TV and that has carried over to my kids. This past week I actually started making them turn the TV off when we got home. My plan is to just keep telling them, “TV off until we XYZ…” And hope that eventually it becomes a habit.
No TV during the week. Moderate computer use (30 minutes while I cook) unless for homework. There are days when this is lifted though it’s not frequent. Typically Monday through Thursday is no TV (off at 5 on Sundays) and Tues and Wed is computer time. I will allow the boy to watch sometimes though just because it’s easy. The girls hate that but it’s just how it is some nights. As for characters, we have lots of hand me down toys so many of them aren’t on TV anymore like Arthur. But he still watches that and plays with them so we’re good. I hate WITH A PASSION character shoes. I can deal with a character on a shirt but a whole outfit works my nerves. Pajamas maybe. Shoes NO. I hate those damn light up character sneakers (sorry if I’m offending anyone. I did break down and get them once but technically he bought them for himself because he had birthday money).
It’s tough when watching a show and then you’re bombarded with ads for Stompeez and every character you like has a toy out. Usually I just agree that it’s cute, say no we can’t get it, and that’s that (for me. He’ll keep asking but I have no problem moving on).
I tried to limit character products for my boys, but it is harder once they get older. Also, especially with things like toothbrushes and toothpaste – most of the products do have a character on them, so it is hard to avoid it. We limit screens and most of the time they are understanding when we don’t bring every appealing thing they see home.
$12 billion annually to gear commercials to children?! That’s insane! But I guess it’s working so they clearly know what they are doing.
With all the fun stuff and activities that you do all the time, it’s very obvious that Lucas doesn’t spend a lot of time in front of the TV.