It’s that time of year again. The time of year when summer is sadly winding down and soon our kids will be headed back to school. Schedules will get busier. It’s also the time when we’ll soon be bombarded by messages about getting our “back to school” shopping done and when, of course, our kids will tell us about all of the latest fashions that they “must have” before school starts.
Back to school shopping time can be a fine line between being a satisfied postconsumer and giving your child the life that you want him or her to have. We’re certainly not here to suggest that back to school shopping isn’t important to kids and that it isn’t important for them to have things that will make the often difficult elementary school, junior high and high school years a bit easier for them. However, back to school shopping is also an opportunity for you to teach your children about the media-driven consumerism in America and help them make better choices. Here are three tips on how to do it.
Talk to Your Kid: The most obvious step is simply to talk to your child about media and advertising and its role in the shopping trip (or trips) that the two of you are about to take. Just acting as though excessive back-to-school shopping is standard operating procedure won’t challenge your child to re-examine his or her views on shopping and possessions. Talk about how other kids will respond if your child bypasses buying the hottest new fashion, and ways that your child can respond to that.
Set Incentives: Do you give your child a set back-to-school shopping budget? If so, tell your child that for every dollar of that budget that he or she doesn’t spend, you’ll donate five dollars to a charity of your child’s choice. The two of you can look at possible charities together. You’ll be teaching your child the value of giving back, and you’ll be teaching him or her a lesson about consumerism at the same time.
Visit Stuff Swaps and Vintage Stores: Encourage your kid to visit stuff swaps (or organize his or her own), thrift stores and vintage stores to find truly unique back-to-school items that express his or her personality.
As a bonus tip, consider having your older child keep track of the media he or she sees on tv and make a list of all of the messages he or she sees about the importance of “stuff”. After a week of doing that, your teenager may have a clearer idea of just how bombarded we all are with advertising about “stuff.”
Back-to-school shopping time can be a great opportunity for you to talk to your child about consumerism, but we don’t encourage that you do it by denying them the things that they want. The point is for them to learn where their own level of satisfaction is, and that probably includes some purchasing. It’s a journey, but back-to-school shopping time can be a chance for you to start your child’s journey on figuring out his or her relationship with advertising and consumerism!
