Quote:
Originally Posted by AcGold
try learning more about adolescent development and advertisements. Completely blaming the parents for what is clearly a societal issue is uninformed.
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I'm going to go with the majority on this one. Of course advertisements are incredibly persuasive (the good ones always are), but to say they have more control than a parent is a little off imo. My kids see cool ads all the time and ask me to buy them x, y, or z. We tell them no and life goes on. Sometimes they get upset and annoying about it, but that's just kids figuring life out.
There isn't a demonic Don Draper hiding in the bushes forcing anybody to do anything. Advertisements attempt to offer an argument for why you should do something, but the decision ultimately falls down to the parent.
My wife talks to parents of teenagers several times a year who are "victims" of video games and tv and it's the same story nearly every single time. The parent talks about how there's just nothing that can be done, and the idea of taking away the games is actually frightening for them.
I play games as do all my friends. Our kids range from being able to play absolutely no games all the way to full blown sessions that make me jealous. The one constant? All kids are active and pretty awesome because the parents in my circle are active and pretty awesome. Regardless of how much time we let our kids partake in activities like that, there are defined boundaries and an expectation of respect coming our way.
I agree with you that as they age you have less and less direct influence over them. I would argue however a child that is well adjusted going into adolescence and understands things like boundaries and respect has a much better chance at being reasonable (well... as reasonable as a teenager can be).