Money Smart Kids
Don't Give in to Nagging
By Janet Bodnar, Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
June 27, 2002
A new poll attempts to quantify what parents know from long-suffering experience: Kids will nag as often as they can to get something they want.
How often will they nag? Nine times, on average, according to a poll of 12-to-17-year-olds by the Center for a New American Dream. Kids ages 12 and 13 are a particularly pesky bunch: Eleven percent admit to asking their parents more than 50 times for products they've seen advertised.
Now, I'm a little skeptical about polls like this. Why nine nags? Why not a round ten? And why stop at 50? Do teenagers really keep count?
Be that as it may, I'm sympathetic to the center's point -- that kids, particularly those 12- and 13-year-olds, are vulnerable to the barrage of advertising pitches for products that promise to make them fit in. But I'm optimistic about the ability of children and parents to withstand the pressure. Here's how to neutralize your kids' nagging:
- Say no early and often. Younger children especially have short memories. What they ask for today, they will likely have forgotten tomorrow.
Kids won't always take "no" for an answer, so follow up with a plausible "because." "No, you can't have a new racing-car set because you've already had two, and they break in three days." "No, you can't have a [fill-in-the-blank] because we're not in the market for any new toys right now." "No, you can't have $150 sneakers because we think $50 is plenty to pay for a pair of shoes. Now, if you want to kick in your own money ..."
- Watch TV ads with your children, so you can explain what's going on. They won't understand, unless you tell them, that all those lights and visual effects are intended to sell them something that may not be that much fun at home. Does Pepsi really taste better because Britney Spears is hawking it? Does she even drink the stuff -- or is she being paid to say so?
- Make the kids pay. Readers of this column know I'm a big proponent of giving kids a consistent allowance, and tying it to financial responsibilities. If your 12-year-old hangs out at the mall with her friends, she should be budgeting her own money for snacks and other 12-year-old stuff, instead of hitting you up for $20 every time she goes out the door.