Raising Kids in a Hostile Environment

[smellincoffee]

Although I am not a parent, I'm old enough or interested enough that thoughts of parenting are never too far from my mind. Recently I read a series of books on advertising's effects on children and adolescents. I doubt I need to say anything more in a forum like this, where most people are probably aware of the degradations of marketing, and hostile toward consumerism. My question to you is: how do you protect kids from, or arm them against, all of the advertising they're apt to be exposed to at school, in society, and so on, and counter the messages adverts encourage, while instilling more positive values (independent thinking, self-reliance, etc) that the predominant media of society pans?

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Though my son is only 15 months old, I've always worried about this. In the face of the sheer volume of marketing and advertising, I guess I'll have to just explain to him when he's old enough why the messages they send out are wrong and hope it takes root. Or keep him in a cocoon of sorts until the revolution comes, but I'll keep that one on the back burner for now.

[ВАЛТЕР]

I guess it really depends on the individual child. I was never a needy child and never bugged my parents to buy me a lot of things. (This may be a result of living under sanctions when I was young.) While my little brother always begged and cried for all the latest things. My youngest brother on the other hand also rarely asks for things from my parents, and when he does it is never in a demanding manner. It depends on the individual child I guess.

[Firebrand]

The most important thing you can do is pay attention to them and talk to them. Don't brainwash them or anything but if they ask you something give the most truthful and detailed explaination you can. Kids tend to pick up their parents views naturally as long as they actually spend proper time with them. Do family outings away from all the consumerist nonsense take them to the park or something.

And I can't stress this enough, restrict their TV watching, don't let the TV take over, if the TV starts mattering more than anything else, remove it completely. The same applies to video games etc. Even if they aren't supposed to be doing something else they shouldn't be spending all their free time with the TV.

[Quail]

I explain to my son what adverts are and that they're trying to sell us things. Quite quickly he's become aware of when adverts are on and when actual tv shows are on. I'm quite worried about the gender stereotypes in tv shows. I will try to talk about them in kid-friendly terms and try to just generally encourage him to question gender stereotypes and things as he gets older. I hope to teach him to think critically and make up his oqn mind about things. It will be hard to go against all the propaganda but I'll do my best.

[#FF0000]

Talk to them and give them context basically. Ads are p. much unavoidable so. Yeah

[smellincoffee]

The most important thing you can do is pay attention to them and talk to them. Don't brainwash them or anything but if they ask you something give the most truthful and detailed explaination you can. Kids tend to pick up their parents views naturally as long as they actually spend proper time with them. Do family outings away from all the consumerist nonsense take them to the park or something.

And I can't stress this enough, restrict their TV watching, don't let the TV take over, if the TV starts mattering more than anything else, remove it completely. The same applies to video games etc. Even if they aren't supposed to be doing something else they shouldn't be spending all their free time with the TV.


I explain to my son what adverts are and that they're trying to sell us things. Quite quickly he's become aware of when adverts are on and when actual tv shows are on. I'm quite worried about the gender stereotypes in tv shows. I will try to talk about them in kid-friendly terms and try to just generally encourage him to question gender stereotypes and things as he gets older. I hope to teach him to think critically and make up his oqn mind about things. It will be hard to go against all the propaganda but I'll do my best.

So you've found that children are receptive to this, even as they grow older? My parents barred television when I was growing up, but for religious reasons. I rejected their ideas, but soon cam to dislike the noise of TVs for my own reasons. Now they watch it and I don't.