Disneyworld advert - not fair...

scottishminnie

it's no different to an advert for Mcdonalds or Burger King. Whatever the reason you can't/don't want to buy/visit wherever you simply explain that to your children.
What are you planning to do if your children are exposed to classmates who go on holiday somewhere similar/have the latest gadgets, clothes etc? You aren't doing them any favours by keeping them detached from the real world.
Personally I think it's vitally important they get in touch with reality sooner rather than later.

Advertising is a fact of life, it's not going to disappear anytime soon and whilst a particular thing may not float your boat it doesn't mean other people should be denied the opportunity. Life wouldn't be worth living if everyone wanted the same things and had the same views.

People in general need to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming external factors (like a simple tv ad) for the world's misfortunes. If you can influence it then do something about it, if it's outside your control then stop wasting energy worrying about it.

Kate78

Jeez, life isn't fair sometimes, get over it. Kids (and adults) can't always get what they want. :mad:

Advertising is designed to manipulate you at an emotional level to buy stuff - looks like it's working very well.

BitterAndTwisted

I think some of the most valuable life-lessons any parent can teach their kids is that:

1) Advertising is the work of the devil to make us want and desire things that we either don't need or can't afford and fretting about it is the finely calculated outcome of the advertisers cynical efforts.

2) That there is so much more to a happy family life than spending money we don't have or aren't able to save up at the moment.

3) That contentment can be achieved by not throwing money at a situation every time the opportunity presents itself.

4) That a normal, well-rounded person doesn't always place the greatest value on the opinions or aspirations of the people around them. Like the OP and her OH who appear to have entirely different priorities.

One only has to be around people who have the most enormous sense of entitlement to understand how obnoxious and dangerous that is. If I were a parent I would consider myself to have failed in that role if I had managed to rear a child with such a quality. Life could only become more and more miserable for them if they cannot or do not provide such a lifestyle for themselves by their own efforts.

My own parents were able to provide very little to us in the way of material wealth despite the contrast of what we saw around us but we're all independent, making our own way in life, are mindful of what we do have rather than do not and appreciate the difficulties they faced and the sacrifices they made for us. In that respect I think they made a huge success of their parenting and I'm grateful for it.