Comments on: Over-investing in our kids

By: Auntie Janice

Auntie Janice — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:16:09 +0000

In response to the comment by Carly’s ex-boss about the mother calling for her son re a job, the Globe & Mail in a recent article referred to them as “helicopter” parents. It isn’t just the economic spoiling, but the constant need to monitor all of your child’s activities well into their adult years that can create problems.

See I read all of the comments on your blog too.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:11:15 +0000

I totally agree with Tim’s post. I am going to try and not be a “consumer Mom”. It is hard not to though, because you do want to be a kid yourself and play with all the toys, as Mary Lynn noted.

With my son only being 15 months, he isn’t into a certain cartoon character/toy, etc., yet. I am sure that day will come.

My son also gets spoiled enough from the grandparents, why does he need us to do it?

I don’t care about brand names for him, or myself for that matter. I buy him Costco diapers, no name wipes and I will try to continue on this trend.

My parents provided for me very well (and still do!), but did try to teach me the value of money and hard work.

I hope I can teach my son in this way as well.

By: christy

christy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:34:33 +0000

Just the other day, my boss (Carly’s ex-boss) came out from her office, shaking her head. A woman had called about her university graduate son who’s looking for a job. He’s interested in journalism. so his mom was calling us to see if we had any job openings for him. He was probably sleeping in – it was around 11 a.m.

By: Karem Allen

Karem Allen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:08:45 +0000

This one caught my eye, My son is 11 so things here don’t always apply to me.

I recently taught him to wash the dishes and I remember a mother of a teen about 15 years ago told me what she did. Her son did not work part time but did receive an allowance for chores at the house.

When he wanted things over and above the basics he had to pay the rest. She would cover the cost of what running shoes were at Zellers and if he wanted fancy ones, he had to pay the difference.

I plan to do the same thing with my son. He has a Highschool student help him with math because he needs it and does one sport at a time in the winter and summer.

We don’t spend our weekends shopping non stop.

I have listened to endless begging for a game but nope, he has enough and I am limited in the games for him because I actually pay attention to the ratings on them.

This consumer driven economy is falling flat.

By: Mary Lynn

Mary Lynn — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:35:01 +0000

Interesting article…I definitely agree about not putting kids in more than one activity at a time, and I wouldn’t get them tutoring unless there was a drastic need for one–certainly not as a matter of course.

The toys and things…I can see why he’d say it’s guilt, and that probably plays a factor, but speaking for myself, I also there’s something of the kid still in me that just wants to buy the toys that I think would be cool to play with…hence my current quest to find interesting Duplo sets for me…um…I mean for the kids (What? All the neat ones are only in US? Hmmm…can I get them off eBay?). It’s silly, I know. But I certainly don’t give the kids everything they’d want, or else Hana would eat nothing but chocolate ice cream and we’d have every My Little Pony related piece of merchandise available.

That bit about the father handing out his university-aged son’s resume is really quite bizarre.