My daughter has a birthday coming up and family member's have been asking me what she wants for a present. She's certainly old enough now to voice her wants, so I've started asking her what she'd like for a gift. She knows that birthdays equal cake so she wants a special cake. Sometimes it's a princess cake. Sometimes it's an astronaut cake. Sometimes it's a veterinarian cake. Other times it's a princess-astronaut cake.
But, for presents, she doesn't say much. Though we're not as "screen free" as I'd like at this point (I admit to letting her watch classic Sesame Street episodes from the '80's) she is not exposed to commercials. In particular, she's not exposed to commercials targeting children. She doesn't know she "needs" the latest plastic toy from China. There isn't a screen telling her she needs it. In her world, she's pretty content to play with her "spice people" (jars of spices in the pantry that come out to play and have parties while I'm cooking) and the toys she already has.
Nonetheless, I let her browse through a few natural toy catalogs and asked her what toys she wanted for her birthday. Wouldn't you know, she opened the Palumba catalog and saw two boys playing on the first pages. She cried out excitedly, "Oh, Momma! I want a brother for my birthday!" She held up the catalog and pointed to the models in the picture. Having totally missed my attempts to push consumerism on her, she surprised me with what I was warned about by the likes of Kim John Payne and other natural parenting experts. These kiddos tend to be more people-oriented vs. stuff-oriented and don't place a lot of value in materialism. I have to admit, I'm so thankful that she hasn't started the "Mommy-I-want-this-toy" whining yet. I'm relieved that she's showing evidence of a commercial-free childhood. That was one of the goals I had when we first started out with her and one that I pray will continue.
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