Have you ever had a problem with pester power?

Are you currently cringing every time the ads come on?

What's the big 'mum, mum, mum, I want...' on the list this year?

... and does anybody know much about the legislation somebody wanted to bring in to ban advertising aimed specifically at kids?... or was that just for junk food? :suspect:

It doesnt just work with kids either, Im the proud owner of a new mp4 player because of pester power- I SHOULD have got it for Christmas but pester power got it me a couple of days ago!

As for kids, my OH is a sucker for it each year and Im a sucker for it each time we go to the shops with the kids, the sweeties they have at the checkouts at supermarkets drive me mad because you can garrantee my kids will be going on about them while we`re waiting to be served.

I've trained my eldest (7) to be ultra cynical about the adverts.

He knows:
a) they are never as good as they seem on the advert
b) the best toys aren't actually toys. Toys are made for children, and as such are generally crap. Cardboard boxes, broomsticks, torches and wire strippers are much more fun.
c) if it's got cute babies or scantily clad girls in the advert, they're desperate.
d) advertising is "rattling a stick in a swill bucket"

When I have kids they're not going to have a telly.

I just told my children if they pestered I definitely wouldn't get it. If they asked just the once I would consider it if we could afford it. If I told them we couldn't afford it they knew that they couldn't expect to get it.

can you adopt me please Phan? :D

I was talking about the ads to my husband the other day and we both agreed that we dread the time when Lewis takes notice.

I might just Sky+ all of the TV programmes that Lewis will like to watch and then fast-forward the ads!

You would have to stop them talking to friends or visitings shops as well if you worried about them pestering. You need to be firm from a very early age. Having said that my middle one would occasionally try it no matter what I said.

I'm hoping that Lewis will prefer simple fun things like football, being creative and playing outdoors. We'll see in a couple of years.

My older child is truly bizarre...as well as favouring vegetables over other foods and actively stealing salad from your plate to eat when he's finished his, he pays no attention to adverts (so far), and if you offer to buy him something from the shops that he has been admiring, nine times out of ten he will turn you down, put it back, and never mention it again. A little annoying when you actually want to treat him to something. But I'm enjoying it while I can, believe me! :)

mini wants to ask santa for a barbie scooter and i said to her that he probably would be able to get her a barbie scooter but just a pink scooter and barbie stickers.. well she has asked santa for that and saved him £25!! :hihi::hihi:

toy ads dont bother me, she does as but i just say no and she fogets about it when the cartoons are back on!

Here's my boy's Christmas list (it has since expanded to a slew of other stuff).

Note item 4.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mailmeyoufool/ChristmasList#5269373443485012642

:hihi: I think your son wins the 'Bizarre Christmas Gifts' competition Phan

I wonder where Garry Crimbo's going to get one of those from - with bottom jaw attached :D

When I have kids they're not going to have a telly.

I think that could be the equivalent of bringing them up in a germ and dust free environment, i.e. their immunity will be compromised which could lead to problems later.

Better that they learn from your experience when you're watching TV together, and learn to recognise the tricks the image makers use to manipulate your thoughts and emotions.

If they leave home at 16 having never seen a television, they may just glom onto the first one they see and drink it all in as gospel.

Here's my boy's Christmas list (it has since expanded to a slew of other stuff).

Note item 4.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mailmeyoufool/ChristmasList#5269373443485012642

ok so cats skull but i couldnt make out the bit in brackets, what does he want attached to it?

I think that could be the equivalent of bringing them up in a germ and dust free environment, i.e. their immunity will be compromised which could lead to problems later.

Better that they learn from your experience when you're watching TV together, and learn to recognise the tricks the image makers use to manipulate your thoughts and emotions.

If they leave home at 16 having never seen a television, they may just glom onto the first one they see and drink it all in as gospel.

Perhaps, I think they'd have exposure to adverts without having a television though.

I do mean young children and not teenagers.

I dont know if it would be fair not to let an 11 year old + have a tv if all their mates have got one.

ok so cats skull but i couldnt make out the bit in brackets, what does he want attached to it?

The bottom jaw, I think he's planning some kind of puppet show of death.

I dont know if it would be fair not to let an 11 year old + have a tv if all their mates have got one.:hihi: I refer you to the title of this thread :D

I love irony :hihi:

'all my mates 'av got one' is THE most over used whine used by kids wanting something parents don't think they should have

Advertising is one thing, but peer pressure is a whole other thing. It can be very overwhelming in school. In my experience, as a primary teacher, the most powerful advertising campaigns are those led by children in the playground. Even if you keep your children from exposure to adverts or TV, there are always other ways for the messages to get through. In my opinion it is hard but really important to help children to be critical thinkers and analyse the world around them.

We aren't much into "stuff", so we limit how much extra "stuff" enters our house, not least because we are a hugely tight budget, but because I can no longer really see the point in it. Less stuff helps children to be creative with what stuff they do have. It also helps you to think critcally about what you do choose to buy. I like to buy stuff if I know its uses are open ended and almost endless - get their creative minds going, let those imaginations working overtime....

ok, rant over.... :D

:hihi: I refer you to the title of this thread :D

I love irony :hihi:

'all my mates 'av got one' is THE most over used whine used by kids wanting something parents don't think they should have

Yes I am aware of that but I think sometimes they have a point and sometimes they dont :)

you sound a lot like me treadlightly :D

I flatly refuse to buy any children in our family anything they can't be creative with

I'm a horror :D

I have two much younger brothers, and when one of them went through an ingratious phase, I bought them joint birthday presents of a whole heap of stuff for making warhammer layouts (none branded of course, and such strange things as packets of skewers, glue gun etc). This meant that if the stroppy brother threw aside any of the packages, it became the other's by default - which he wasn't going to allow to happen :P

I have two small young twin cousins who we always take creative materials to. I'm usually up to my elbows in glue and glitter whilst the adults talk about football :hihi:


Anyway - there was a reason for this thread. There are currently radio ads running advertising puppies, in a tone that's way too 'Disney' for my liking, and they've only started for the Christmas period. How do you as parents view such advertising? Would you buy a pup for a child as a present?

I'm appauled that they are advertising dogs in such a way. I remember as a child the campaign of "a dog is for life not just for Christmas" so I think we've gone full circle again - quelle surprise!

Anyway, I would like to think that I would use it as a learning experience so if they heard it tell them about the campaign I knew of as a child, and talk about the consequences. Perhaps go to RSPCA and talk to one of the officiers there about their experiences of Christmas pets. Of course this is in an ideal world, but on such an important issue as this, advertising as well as responsible pet ownership, I am sure I'd make the effort, I do feel extremely strongly about this.