Are Your Children Consumer Kids?

Alas, a little member of the consumer society is one of the very common types of modern children. Let’s see how we can improve the situation.

Recognize a consumer kid

The young consumer is easy to recognize according to the daily routine.

• The child wakes up and stands up extremely reluctantly and demands breakfast.
• Goes to kindergarten or school and is an average pupil there.
• As the child returns home, he/she sits down to the computer, TV, or tablet.
• Requires something to eat from time to time.
• Reluctantly agrees to run to the store provided that he/she can spend the change on snacks.
• The child performs useful housework (cleaning his/her own room and table, washing dishes) only after repeated reminders, or even after a scandal.
• Recalls that he/she has to do homework at 21 o’clock and manages a half of it in a hurry.
• Refuses to go to bed until 23 p.m. or even longer.
• During the communication, such a child imposes his/her topic of conversation: if you try to talk about the grandmother’s health, the child will cut you short describing some online games. Parents will always fight for the child’s cleanliness and hygiene.

Another symptom is that consumers cannot stand reading books, as it involves some thoughts. They prefer to receive the information that is completely processed – in the form of a comic book or cartoon. This does not affect the intellectual development in a good way.

Awareness of the problem

You do not have to think that this is a one hundred percent monster. After all, to achieve such an enviable position you need to apply a lot of effort. The typical tools of a consumer kid will inevitably include tenderness and affection, amazing charisma, and touching fears. The consumer is loved in the family – otherwise he/she would not be allowed to become a consumer.

Another issue is that even parental love may weaken if exploited too blatantly. At such moments, mum and dad begin to wonder how to bring the child back to the right path.

Nine times out of ten, it comes to short-term repressive measures. Depriving the child of sweets, ridding him/her of the computer, not taking the child to movies… However, the young manipulator pretends to show remorse and willingness to cooperate; so the parents’ hearts melt. Moreover, there is a high probability of the conflict between the parents – a weaker person blames the initiator of the punishment for cruelty and callousness.

The plan of work with the child

• The main thing that must be understood before the struggle with the consumer is that it will be a long campaign, not a battle. You will not succeed if you do not manage to agree on a plan of this campaign and if you do not adhere to it. Complete unity of parents is not only a great weapon against child consumerism, but also the sample of constructing family relationship for the child: someday he/she will grow up.
• Great chess player Emanuel Lasker has repeatedly stressed that it is better to stick to the failed game plan, than not to have any at all. This thesis fits upbringing perfectly well.
• The work plan should be created with a cool head. To exclude your own emotions, try to limit and depersonalize the wording. The first step is to formulate the goal: what functional goals should the child reach in six months, for instance? As an example: washing dishes twice a day, keeping the room clean, cleaning after the cat without reminders, going to bed at 21:00.
• Next, we need to outline the goals, starting with the ones that must be achieved first. It is important to understand that the consumer baby has taken root in his/her carefree life and he/she will not be able to suddenly switch to a normal life. It will be a real shock for his/her obese psyche. So we will be humane: let us start, for example, with simply taking away the garbage.
• The next section of the plan should be a set of incentives and repressive measures. Incentives tend to be complex: the consumer is likely to already have everything he needs, and some items from his/her global wish list are both expensive and anti-pedagogical. Do not get involved in bargaining. You still have to go the way of limiting consumption. But it is not the only time when you need it. Emotional, well-developed and consistent work plan is expected.
• The main and at the same time the most harmful thing for the modern child is the glowing computer screen, tablet, or TV. Any restrictions are absolute good for the child and his/her future (unless, of course, the seven-year prodigy does not spend all day on the principles of programming – then it is better not to interfere). Even blackmailing similar to “If you do not take the rubbish away, I will take away the plate” is an educational tool that has the right to exist.
• As a positive example, pick up a set of good old stories for children, which deal with the concept of debt in one form or another (the choice of such literature is huge). Read aloud to your child a fairy tale or induce him to read independently.
• If a baby watches movies or cartoons, try to choose the subjects that will be useful to him/her to make the child a less significant consumer.

The aim

Do not forget that the main goal you have is to make sure that the child began to appreciate what he has. It is very easy to achieve it in the situation when the child makes an effort to get any benefit. It is essential that the child should understand that nothing should be taken for granted, and that you need to work first, and then enjoy the fruits of the work. Therefore, we must be sure to involve a 4-5-year-old child in cooking, and as a teenager – to fine work for a reward, such as delivering newspapers or mowing the lawn at the neighbors’.

Work on yourself

Assess your strength realistically. If you have set punishment to the child, won’t you quarrel because of this, won’t the compassionate mother stop the fierce dad? Parents are required to create a united front; all the contradictions need to be discussed beforehand.
If you reduce your child’s time at the computer to one hour a day, judge whether you are able to control it. Parents who are easily fooled are bad authority in the family.
The process of remedial upbringing of a consumer child will inevitably be nervous and uncomfortable. Get ready for this in advance. It is better if the parents will punish the child, and not life itself – the latter is much crueler.