Parents, Get a Spine

Here's a nomination for understatement of the year:

"Parents have trouble saying no," said Allison Pugh, a University of Virginia sociology professor. She says parents often buy toys to avoid guilt and ensure their children feel in sync with school classmates.

This bit is from the AP article "Meltdown Fallout: Some Parents Rethink Toy-buying," which came out midday yesterday. The jist of it is that a bunch of parents who apparently are described by Professor Pugh in the above quotation are writing to toy makers demanding that they stop advertising their wares to children because, to paraphrase on the sample arguments presented in the article, it's just not fair that these toy makers advertise to kids during kids' programming and make them want toys that parents can't afford, putting the burden on parents to tell those kids that no, they won't be getting Polly Pees A Lot this Christmas because the parent(s) can't afford it.

Golly, what a burden indeed! How dare those profit-seeking meanies make a parent say no to a child! Because, hey, those meanies are to blame for this problem. Not the parents. Not the parents who allow their kids to watch kids' programming that's clogged with schlocky commercials for these crappy toys. Parents are absolutely blameless.

If the boy had a dime for every time one of his parents told him no, he could buy many of the toys he sees when we're at Wally World or Target (we don't allow him to watch kids' programming--or much TV anyway) and decides instantly that he wants because, hello, he's a child still in his self-centered stage.

Ugh....