My girlies don’t yet watch TV, and at least part of my
hesitation is that they would be exposed to advertising.
It may sound a little funny, given my years spent in the
marketing field, but the idea of marketing and advertising being directed towards my children just
gives me the willies.
I’ve read that until the age of six or seven, most children
aren’t able to discern between the presentation of facts and advertising. That, against the likes of Disney and McDonald’s,
who begin marketing to babies virtually in utero? No, thanks.
I do look at magazines with the girls, and I’ve been
pointing out the advertisements to them since they were about two years
old. “This company wants to sell us
shampoo. They are saying that using it
will make our hair look thick and shiny, but we don't know if that would really happen. We like the shampoo that we use, so we don’t need to try this.”
I flippantly commented on a milk ad one time, “Now here’s an
advertisement that we agree with. Milk
is very good for our bodies.”
The girls always make me laugh when they see an ad for milk. “Mommy!
We agree with this advertisement!
Milk is good!”
We don’t do TV, and we don’t do fast food. Flippantly, once again, in the middle of
1,001 questions one day, I told the girls of a fast food restaurant in Walmart,
“They put chemicals in their food.” The
girls latched onto that [of course], and they love to point out restaurants as
we drive through town. “Mommy! That restaurant puts chemicals in their food!”
I’ve further explained to the girls that some people eat
fast food. I told them that Mommy and
Daddy have done a lot of reading, and we also work with their pediatrician and
our doctors to know what’s best for our bodies.
“Some people may not have the same information that we do, or they may
make different choices. It’s our job to
make the best choices we can to take care of our bodies.”
I laughed so hard a couple of days ago. We were stopped next to a fast food
restaurant at an intersection. They had
scrumptious-looking pictures on the side of their building. From the backseat, Baby A said, “Mommy! That restaurant has quesadillas! And they look GOOOOOOD! But we wouldn’t eat them because they have chemicals!” Hahaha!
All of this in a sing-song voice.
I hope I’m positioning the girls to recognize fact from
persuasion. And I hope I’m raising them
to have strong minds and make good choices…choices that are right for them, not
necessarily what’s right for someone else.
It’s definitely a tall order when messages are everywhere we
look.
3 comments:
Ok, you are a way better person than me.
I admire the commitment to no tv and no fast food. I try to limit both but certainly don't admit to abstaining from either with our kids. As you know, we talk about healthy choices both in food and what we do with our bodies (exercise and being active vs sitting around all day with tv and video games).
I will say, most of the 'tv' our kids watch is either by DVD or shows DVRd and we always skip commercials so that helps limit their exposure to ads. J has even learned how to fast forward through commercials (and he loves to get to do it!) so they'd rather hurry through them than watch. :-)
My limits have certainly become looser as the babies have aged. Some of that is fatigue, I guess, but for me, it is also taking the approach of moderation, conversation, and evaluation.
I think the most important thing we can do as parents is have a game plan, an approach we can live with and support.
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