Role Reversal between Children and Adults

#1) There are certain dangers that parents often over look even if they try to pamper their child and one of which is the new culture that has emerged in our very home (Beder, 1998). This brings far more danger to their child than they can imagine. Consumerism is what advertisers teach our children as they bombard them with advertisements of junk foods, toys and basically any product that has children as their target.

They teach children the freedom to choose from tons of flavors of junk foods that they release in the market making the parents obliged to ask the preferences of their children before buying the product. The parents therefore have less or no influence on the food or toys for their children. They buy what their children want to simply avoid the “nagging factor” from their children and to save time in returning food that their children does not want to eat. This in a way reverses the role of the parent and child where the parent ought to decide for their children.

In this generation, parents give in to their children when it comes to food and toys. Children at the age of five now have the freedom to choose what kind of food they want and the toys they want to play with. Since these children have no purchasing power, they turn to their parents who give in to their demands. The parents claim that their children know a lot more of the products than they do. This can be attributed to the fact that magazines for children have most of the pages allotted for junk food and toy advertisements.

At an early age the children are thought about commercialism and the culture of consumerism even if they have no purchasing power, thus the book “Born to Buy” by Juliet Schor is appropriately named. Even kids nowadays have their concept of booze as finding of Wynne Tyree, the director of JustKid incorporated show that kids use sugar instead of caffeine to give then energy for the day. It is used the same way as adults use coffee. #2) Kids nowadays are way different. They tell you what they want and if you don’t give them that they can be a real pain.

I do agree that the new culture that is cultivated in the minds of our children through the media has a lot to do with this behavior. I don’t intend for my kinds to be raised in a culture of consumerism. They will become a slave of capitalism and will buy and spend even if they have no money for such luxury. I believe that parents should still decide what heir children will eat since they know what is best for their child. We should not give in to their demands and prevent the reversal of roles.

Advertisers only encourage, manipulate and persuade these children into a lifestyle of wastefulness and extravagance and what is worst is that it has long term effects on our children. It is a parent’s goal to be a good provider for our children but financing their excessive demands is way out of context. I think responsible parents should think for their children when it comes to the goods that we buy, after all, we are the ones who have the power to but. With that power is the responsibility of buying the right kind of goods for our children.