I Want That! Please, Can I Have That?

I suppose it was inevitable.  My daughter has reached that precious milestone of wanting everything she sees in the store and she believes with the right approach, she’ll get it.  I guess it’s been slowly evolving, but I really noticed it last time we went to the store.  She’s almost 3 years old and firmly has a grasp on the idea that getting more “things” is an enjoyable experience.  We’ve tried not to go overboard with her and in fact have probably bought her a TON less than lots of other parents.  I’m convinced that isn’t enough though.  She is bombarded with marketing everywhere she turns.  She could say “McDonalds” when she was 1 year old.  We had only been there a couple times, but it was firmly entrenched in her brain.

So, the latest episode was at the store a couple days ago.  Like most stores, the local department store strategically places kids items nice and low to the ground where any size squirt can see them.  In this case it was books.  There was a bright pink princess book on the rack and my daughter saw it.  We had to listen to her talk about wanting that princess book all through the store.  We didn’t budge.  We had made up our mind that she wasn’t going to get anything on this trip to the store.  It wasn’t about the money.  Heck, it wasn’t even very expensive.  It was simply principle.  We don’t want our daughter to expect something every time we go shopping.  Sometimes shopping is just to get the essentials.  What we did do is offer her the chance to “earn” it.  If she filled up her “potty chart” (in other words, go potty on the toilet a bunch of times) she could get the princess book with half of the money in the piggy bank.  She could only use half because we are teaching her that she has to save half of all the money she receives.

I may have mentioned it before, but I grew up next door to a kid who was my age.  Every time his mother would get in her car, he would sprint for the driveway yelling, “Mom, get me a toy!!!!!”.  Without fail, and I really mean WITHOUT FAIL, she would come back with something for him.  If she was going to get her hair cut, she would take a detour to the store and find something to buy him.  This kid had EVERY toy that came out.  He had no appreciation for money.  By the time he was in the 10th grade he had dropped out of school.  His mother had done so much of his homework over the years that by the time he hit the 10th grade he didn’t know how to do any of it, and she wasn’t smart enough to do 10th grade level work.  Anyway, I don’t want my daughter to end up not appreciating the value of money and end up like him.  (Yeah, it’s an extreme example and I obviously don’t think my daughter will end up that way)  I still remember when he was about 19.  He had gotten a brand new truck that his mom had co-signed for him.  It was only about 9 months later that it got repossessed.  I lost touch with him years ago so I really don’t know how he is fairing now.  I’m guessing he’s probably struggling.