A mother, a couple of years ago, was quite grossed out by the latest product for pre-teen girls to hit the stores. At the time it was launched, the brand Bratz featured a quartet of young girls- Chloe, Jade, Sasha and Yasmin who boasted weirdly large heads and skinny bodies. These “teenagers” also had almond-shaped eyes sporting different shades of eye-shadow and made –up lips. Though initially meant for pre-teens, this brand evolved into items for girls of a younger age.
And this mother had an issue with it as she didn’t want her two young daughters purchasing stuff that was so far removed from reality. Sadly, advertising will be a constant in everyday life- especially with the catalogues plastered all over the place. With a little shift in focus, parents can use this to bolster the confidence of their kids and instill some values in them- for the long run.
Hash it out
Use the media as a learning tool for your child. Get your child to assess the message that he or she will be receiving by going through advertisements. Maybe, it could be a project you could do together.
To start with, come up with questions about what they would like, what draws them towards a particular popular personality and what their belief about themselves centers around. Support your child throughout this exercise but at the same time, help them come up with suggestions to fit their beliefs about themselves.
Instill values from young
So your kid comes home from school, upset that some of their classmates are all sporting the latest product in the market. “Everyone has it and I want it,” gets spit out, long face in tow. Some parents may indulge their kid by being up-to-date with offerings but that doesn’t really help the child because they may already have something that can do the job pretty well.
Get them to realise the cost of the products they want in terms they can relate to. Sure, it may not be easy looking your kid square in the eye and turning the request down, for now. Share with them how they can work towards getting the product that they want and then encourage them throughout the process. If necessary, meet them halfway by matching money earned from doing odd-jobs.
Encourage your child
With the amount of advertisements highlighting new items and how essential is it for a person to get it, it’s not an easy time to be a child. Just imagine how confusing it must be for them- people telling them what to get, left, right and center.
Counteract this by always encouraging them to voice out their thoughts and let you as the parent, know what’s going on in their mind. This way it helps build a rapport between parent and child while also equipping the kid for the future.
Kids do like to push the envelope to know what the boundaries are but with a little bit of chit-chat every now and then, the push and pull game may just disappear completely.
Source: Combating Princess Syndrome
