Producers, not consumers. Citizens, not divas.

Affluenza.org and Kids and Commercialism
Check this place out!
I hope my children never grow up to be 'consumers.' At least, not the kind I'm seeing all this advertising and commercialism directed at.

Heard on the radio: Buy these shoes - they're half-off, even without knowing any math you know that's a good deal!

No, I'd like our kids to be producers. I'd like them to be capable and confident that they can do things for themselves and their community.

Credit Card Kids and the Buy-Me Generation

---

I am extremely peeved at my generation, and the generations that are growing up right now - with their credit cards, 'I want everything mentalities', cell phones and ipods.

My niece still thinks she can grow up to be a rockstar or a diva, because of too much Nickolodeon, Disney Channel and no discipline. Rockstars and divas don't need school, didn't you know? They don't have to concentrate on that boring homework or even crack a book. They can quit in high school, walk out on the street and become 'discovered'.. never working a day in their life. They swim in cash and spend it on all sort of fabulous (unnecessary) things such as diamond tiaras and cars they can't drive yet! Sheesh!

Where are the people that are going to be the future's scientists and artisans? Where are the thinkers, inventors and great community leaders? Well, they certainly aren't growing up on my street... not unless somebody starts turning this around and fighting back at the media mentality.

Children need to learn to grow their own food, make things with their hands, balance wants and needs and realize that all of the 'new gadgets' in this world have very little to do with the path to happiness. They need to network with other people - learn skills and seek knowledge.

A person who is afraid to get their hands in the dirt or take the time to cook a meal ? I see way too many of them. Or, 'It takes too much time to read a book - why not page through a magazine or watch a movie?'

Sure, maybe technology is changing - we are in the Information Age - but the needs of the human mind should pretty much stay the same. We need to do things, see cause and effect, and know the value of our participation physically, mentally and socially at an early age. Kids need to understand everything won't be handed to them - they have to work to make it happen. This makes productive adults who put value back into their community.

Would you rather have this generation sitting out on the street wondering why nobody talked some sense into them? Or, worse, (and some already have seen this) living in Mom and Dad's basements until they are forty because they can't figure out what went wrong with all their plans to become rich and famous?

My husband and I will start having our children next year - on a farm with sheep and a large garden, far away from the lights of the city. We're not survivalists.. but we are survivors. We have a room full of books on "archaic" subjects such as physics, geometry, botany and philosophy. We hope our children will become smart intelligent citizens by watching how much their parents are intersted in and value their accomplishments.