A Mommy Story

Consider this a follow-up to my previous post about advertising.

We have a reward system in our house for good behavior, and the girls can save up their points to trade in for extra TV time, dessert, dinner out, or a toy. Everything has different values and they’re encouraged to save for items they really want.

I’ve been pretty lenient with the requests Cordy and Mira have had for items they’ve seen on TV. Cordy really wanted a Happy Napper after seeing the commercials for it, so she saved up her points for two weeks (with a lot of helping out with chores and good behavior to earn as many as possible) and traded them all in for a ladybug Happy Napper. I think she’s happy with her choice, although I was expecting some letdown afterward.

They’re allowed to make bad choices with their points. Better to learn now what is worth saving up for and what is a disappointment before they start using real money without any guidance from us. And there will be a time when they’ll get excited about a commercial and buy the toy, only to find it not nearly as exciting as the commercial made it out to be.

However, there are limits. We’ve seen this commercial on the Hub network for the past week:

 

They will never have enough points to get this. And they’ve been informed that Santa’s elves are unable to make this particular game.

I don’t care how much Cordy or Mira beg, I draw the line at a pooping dog game.

I’ll buy them a real puppy first.

Have you ever told your child that it was impossible to buy something for them just because you did not want it in your house?