Raising a Brand-Free Kid
October 31st, 2007Brands are everywhere, eh? Let me look around the farmlet… Cows: yes. Goats: yes. Gardens: yes. Trees: yes. Stream: yes. Brands? Nope.
Becky and I have been discussing this issue and we’re taking it very seriously. (Our child hasn’t even been born yet.) We’re already wondering if we will be able to find other homeschooling-no-tv parents around here. It’s probably not going to be easy. But then again, nobody said it was going to be easy.
Via: The Tyee:
Parents, be warned: It takes only a single visit to McDonald’s for your child to get hooked on the greasy stuff for life.
Okay, so that’s an exaggeration. But the three-year-old son of Angela Verbrugge still remembers his one and only meal under the golden arches. Which has Verbrugge worried.
And Kyla Epstein swears if her young son Max ever wants to eat there, he’ll be doing it on his own dime.
These parents aren’t raging against the health detriments of fast food. Instead, they are making a conscious effort to limit the amount of branding and advertising their kids are exposed to in all aspects of their lives; what they eat, wear, watch and play with.
It’s not easy. Brands are everywhere — literally.
Worst branding still for young girls is Disney’s “Princess” line:
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2004/11/24/princesses/index.html
“The Princess brand, which groups together eight of the studio’s animated film heroines — Belle (“Beauty and the Beast”), Ariel (“The Little Mermaid”), Jasmine (“Aladdin”), Pocahontas, Mulan, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty — into one big tea party posse, was an instant success.”
This thing is described as “crack for five year olds” –
“”We’ve gone beyond the dress-up and toys, and begun to look at the brand as a lifestyle, filling out all the other things girls need in life,” says Mary Beech, director of franchise management for Disney Consumer Products. Indeed. In addition to the official Disney Princess merchandise for the home — beds, comforters, cereal, toothbrushes, dolls, castle tents, storybooks, TVs, DVD players — parents can throw their daughters an official Hallmark Disney Princess party complete with a cake that has a few regal beauties waltzing on top; they can take them for breakfast with the princesses at Disney World in Florida; And they can enroll them in a princess class at the recently opened World of Disney store in New York. There Cinderella’s beautiful friend, Lady Seraphina, will educate starry-eyed youngsters in the four Princess Principles — intelligence, grace, thoughtfulness and honesty — through lessons involving everything from “teamwork, table manners, and truthfulness to courtesy, compassion, curtseys and kindness.””
Ah, the sweet musk of evil:
“The ease and rapidity with which a princess obsession can take hold of a young girl’s psyche is mind-blowing. Josh Levine, a Brooklyn, N.Y., writer/photographer, says he and his wife made a decisive effort to keep their daughter, Sasha, away from anything Disney. But when she was a little over 2 she watched a video of “Sleeping Beauty” at a friend’s house and was immediately hooked. Soon the accoutrements of princess-hood started to fill the Levine home and Sasha began to insist upon wearing ball gowns as her everyday wardrobe. While decked out in her full Snow White regalia in early October, a woman on the street asked the 3-year-old if she was going to dress as a princess for Halloween, to which Sasha responded, “No, I am a princess.” “I became more and more conscious of the fact that she was always in character,” says Levine. “It’s like dating an actress.””
The bad psychological implications of this:
” Disney, she believes, “capitalizes on the worst parts of the fairy tales.” By celebrating the ugly duckling scenario of overnight transformation, she says, most of Disney’s princess tales reinforce the idea of achieving power through fabulous clothing and great wealth. The problem as she sums it up: “They don’t work for it.””
I grew up brandless, but I remember when brands “designer this, designer that” first appeared. I regarded them as preposterous, and the people who fell for them as ridiculous and feeble.
How times have changed.
I heard an Irish guy on the radio – he’s written a book about how he burned everything he owned that had a brand on it, following his realisation that he had become a slave to them.
Once he saw a beautiful girl on the bus, but became revolted by her when he saw that she was wearing a pair of PUMA (TM) sneakers – a brand that he hated!
I think something similar has toxified many people – the adoption of TV show behaviour from shows such as “Ally McBeal” and “Sex and the city” – how many young women today have modelled themselves on those (revolting) fictional characters?
Ditto with men – taking their character cues from yobbo anti-heroes on TV…
A generation of minds screwed by their food, and force-fed “role models” who would be better placed in a padded cell.
Now, we begin the process even younger – five years olds are having their neurons re-programmed by corporations.
It’s Satanic.
kevin,
from my own experience, there are some pretty basic rules for very young children (up to 3 or 4) that should eliminate exposure to most of this shit.
1. no tv (doh!)
2. no supermarkets or petrol stations (this is crucial)
3. no fast food hell holes (obviously)
4. no sweat-shop clothes with mickey et al on them
as far as like-minded parents are concerned, maybe try forming/finding a rudolph steiner group in your area. the trouble is of course that steiner attracts all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons, and some of these reasons are not really ideal. in my experience, about 50% of steiner-interested parents have a reasonable grip on things and are not overly simplistic/dogmatic. good luck!
farmlet is a brand 😉
Kevin, there’s actually a large bunch of people homeschooling up your way, although I think the nearest people who are un-schooling are in Kerikeri.
I have some info about how to find some of them but it’s on my computer at work so I’ll send that to you later if you want.
If you’re keen on raising kids who are strong, can think for themselves and don’t bow down to authority then no TV and no school is excellent but I’d also suggest some other stuff which we have done which is to avoid leaving the baby to cry, maybe even bring it into your bed and to read a couple of books (don’t know if you’ve heard of them) The Continuum Concept, by Jean Liedloff and Hold onto Your Kids by Gordon Nuefeld.
We’ve attempted a kind of non-coercive form of parenting using a lot of the techniques/books I mentioned above and the difference between our 5 year old daughter and other children is already very obvious. Whenever she’s playing with other kids she is usually the one who takes charge, even when some of the other kids are as old as 8 or 9. The other kids just seem so soft and pliable.
She won’t take crap from adults who don’t treat her right either. Recently I was at public swimming pool with our two kids and the ‘instructor’ who was just there to keep an eye on everything had been told by someone else that our oldest wanted to learn to swim so she came over to find out what level she was at. Instead of introducing herself or explaining what she was going to do she just went straight up to my daughter and instructed her to try to float on her back.
My daughter gave me the 5-year-old equivalent of a ‘what the fuck?’ look and moved away from the instructor and around behind me. The instructor had of course been expecting my daughter to just dumbly follow any instruction she decided to give but that’s not how kids naturally behave – only the ones who have been broken by our culture’s system of child rearing.
I just told the instructor my daughter was shy, but I thought that even by normal standards she was kind of rude. Anyway, what we’re doing is clearly having an effect.
ha, i forgot:
5. no stoopid branded toys
even if your are not into steiner, their ideas on toys and story telling is worth seriously considering…the imagination and creativity of kids not corrupted by the branded shit is absolutely amazing.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why anybody has kids these days. Because people with kids sure make it sound like a nonstop pain-in-the-ass raising them.
Gotta worry about them watching TV. Gotta fret over what they’re eating. Gotta be concerned about what toys and games they’re playing. Gotta be a nervous wreck the moment they step out the front door.
Jeez, I’m glad I never had any of the little bastards.
Brand-free. The farmlet really does sound like paradise! I too take the issue very seriously. My partner knows my views very well on kids’ exposure to TV, advertising, etc. I’ve noticed that some supermarkets around here give out “free” childrens’ colouring books. The great part about it – on each page that has a cute cartoon animal or something attractive to colour in, a brand logo is featured very, very prominently. It makes me sick to hear dopes cackling on about how nice it is of the supermarket to be thinking of the kids by giving out free stuff for the kids. More insidious product association. When I point it out to ppl, the response is usually something like, “So what? What’s wrong with that?” Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
@ t.miller:
For the life of me, I don’t understand why anybody had kids since adam was a boy. Because people with kids sure make it sound like a nonstop pain-in-the-ass raising them.
Gotta worry about them getting eaten by a sabre-tooth tiger. Gotta fret over them eating poisonous betties or mushrooms when you’re not looking. Gotta be concerned about them falling down a ravine when they’re playing outside the cave. Gotta be a nervous wreck the moment they step out the cave.
Jeez, we’re glad you never had any of the little bastards.
@dermot
“Ah, the sweet musk of evil”
HAHAHAHA. That’s excellent.
@Aaron
We’re definitely thinking along the same lines. Bex has sewn about 50 different slings for us to use. Well, maybe not 50. 😉
Oh, and if we left him to cry for very long, grandma (who’s only 20 minutes away out at the coast) would detect a disturbance in the force and descend upon moko.
@Tochigi
I think the Steiner stuff is very good. There’s none of that up where we are, though. I’m sure the Kerifarian$ have more options. But there seems to be lots of Waldorf homeschool materials out there. Thankfully, we have some time to consider the options.
@t.miller
When I was back in the U.S., I actually thought, “Only a madman would want to have children in this horror show.” Indeed, my hat is off to sane parents who want to try to do the right thing back there.
There was NO WAY that Becky and I would have wanted to have a child in the U.S. Becky handled life there much better than I did. I was not doing well there.
NZ has many of the same issues in terms of mind control branding as the U.S., but our isolation here on the farmlet will allow us to exclude all of that crap from the picture for his early years, at least. It’s like you said: No exposure to the red shed, McDonalds, petrol stations, etc. None.
Probably, the most important factor is that neither Becky nor I watch any TV. We don’t have one. And I’ve moved my computer into a back room, away from the living space, so he won’t see me sitting in front of the screen. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep that aspect hidden… But I’ve read that they absorb EVERYTHING. So it’s probably not good for him to see daddy in front of the computer for so long. Ah well, we’ll see how we go.
@il
“When I point it out to ppl, the response is usually something like, “So what? What’s wrong with that?†Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!”
You know… Becky and I just keep our mouths shut about all of this stuff. Cotton nappies. (We’re going to try for the no nappy tricks!) Keeping baby in the bed with us. No tv. No sugar. The vaccination thing. Fizzy lolly water. Etc. Etc. It’s just easier not to get into it. It’s not like we’re going to change anyone’s mind.
I was was driving thru town with my grandson {2.5}, when he actually got perturbed as I made a turn towards my house instead of going straight {toward McDonalds}. Frustrated anticipation.