Well Christmas is over for another year, but I can't help reflecting on the mountain of presents my kids received. Whether you are celebrating the birth of a baby circa 2000 years ago or see this as a mid winter festival the main drive where ever you look from October on is to buy stuff to show your love. Sadly these days kids seem to value that love in a monetary way as well. So how can we walk the line between the stereotypical "Eco family" who live in an unheated cottage and wear lots of jumpers and the "normal family" who spend all their disposable income on buying into the perfect life? In my experience there isn't a clear route, partly because this is all new and partly because there is more than one way of living a green life.
This year the kids got a present from the local charity shop, though this was only because I didn't see anything they wanted there. We also bought some pre-owned electonic games - this is a new venture for us. If they work then we have saved carbon and money - if they don't we'll have unhappy kids. I had an interesting conversation with the lady infront of me as we were waiting to pay. She had picked up a new game for £14.99 then saw a pre-owned one for £11.99, she found it difficult to decide between the two. What is great is by main stream shops selling pre-owned games and displaying them prominently we are at least slowing the throw away society.
Likewise this year we are looking to replace an old computer. Our son has been keen on an i Pad 2 but other than cost the issue of driving the consumer society raised it's head. Our daughter added to this requesting an iPod classic. Neither were present on Christmas morning but the dialogue was opened on buying refurbished ones from Apple. Again if they work then we have taken from the waste stream. We are still consuming, but for children there is a need to be mainstream enough and they need these skills for adult hood. A compromise, our compromise not everyones.
What this does make me realise is that despite our kids being exposed to minimal advertising it still has an effect on them. Research published this month from WWF-UK and the Public Research Fund shows that advertising TRIPLES our buying! I'll leave you with that as a New Year thought. See you in 2012.
This year the kids got a present from the local charity shop, though this was only because I didn't see anything they wanted there. We also bought some pre-owned electonic games - this is a new venture for us. If they work then we have saved carbon and money - if they don't we'll have unhappy kids. I had an interesting conversation with the lady infront of me as we were waiting to pay. She had picked up a new game for £14.99 then saw a pre-owned one for £11.99, she found it difficult to decide between the two. What is great is by main stream shops selling pre-owned games and displaying them prominently we are at least slowing the throw away society.
Likewise this year we are looking to replace an old computer. Our son has been keen on an i Pad 2 but other than cost the issue of driving the consumer society raised it's head. Our daughter added to this requesting an iPod classic. Neither were present on Christmas morning but the dialogue was opened on buying refurbished ones from Apple. Again if they work then we have taken from the waste stream. We are still consuming, but for children there is a need to be mainstream enough and they need these skills for adult hood. A compromise, our compromise not everyones.
What this does make me realise is that despite our kids being exposed to minimal advertising it still has an effect on them. Research published this month from WWF-UK and the Public Research Fund shows that advertising TRIPLES our buying! I'll leave you with that as a New Year thought. See you in 2012.
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