Tuesday, November 08, 2005

What are we teaching our kids?

Well after watching the news this morning, I discovered that parents are more stupid then I thought. There was a study done where they had kids take Ken and Barbie shopping for a special night in a play store. The parents and researchers were surprised at the results, which I wasn't at all. Am I more observant than most parents, or do parents not understand how smart their kids are? So to the findings...the majority of the kids bought either cigarettes or alcohol, and 24% bought both. I know that those things are highly advertised and shown that they are needed to have a good time, so go figure. But I wouldn't think my toddler would put it in his shopping cart for his Ken and Barbie, or at least I hope. I say that not because I think I'm a better parent, but because of the main reasons why the kids in the study put them in their cart. They put those things in their carts because of their parents example, they either smoke or drink alcohol or both. One mother was surprised that her 6 year old picked out the same brand of cigarettes that she smokes! I don't know why she was so surpised, kids notice everything. Yesterday at the store my 2 and a half year old saw on the bottom shelf a kind of soda his dad likes to drink and pointed to it and said daddy. Now if my son can tell me what kind of drink his dad likes on occasion, why can't a 6 year old tell what brand of cigarettes his mom smokes on a daily basis. If he couldn't I'd wonder if there was some developmental problems. Why do we underestimate our children? I'm guilty of it too. I was surprised when after only going to Alberstons once after they got some new speciality carts, that everytime we would pull out of our driveway, and have to pass the store he would say "frog" or "butterfly", since they are designed like different things. Why was I surprised? Kids have great memories when it comes to things they enjoy. Like my son learned the sounds that all the letters make after watching a video only a couple times. So the lesson is never underestimate what your kids now or can learn. Our kids absorb many things that they see in their environment. Lets be more careful of what we let our chilren see on TV and what they see us do.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to the store on MSNBC.
Link here

Anonymous said...

Humm, Link didn't work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216875/

Try this.

Anonymous said...

This one works.

Anonymous said...

Scary, isn't it? I am so excited to be a mommy one day, but terrified at the same time! There is just so much responsibility on the parents' shoulders, which we all know that going into it, but it can really make you nervous when you sit and think about everything. All of us know that you and Jeremy are a great mommy and daddy, though! I think I'll just stick to raising my four-legged fur children (a.k.a. dogs) until I'm ready to dive in! Ruff, ruff!