To want of things - about children's consumption behavior

Most children like to buy things. Those that do not make parents think useful, but also things they already have in other ways. Buying for the sake of buying and wanting to. This is a challenge especially for parents who are considering their own consumer behavior. Why are kids ticking like that? Author Nils Pickert has watched his children and shares his thoughts on the subject.

My six-year-old daughter likes to buy stuff while I try to stop hher - and has been doing so for a while. The worst time was when we lived for almost two years right next to one of these 1 Euro shops, which I can not enter for reasons of smell, without getting a headache. But sonny pulled it there every week. To buy grossed porcelain gnomes that break as soon as you place them too hard on the table. To buy penknives that do not cut and are not stainless. Always want to have something. Nippes, Tand, non-needed, stuff, bullshit. It was not that she had a desire to buy something because she needed it or wanted it. When I asked her what exactly she wanted to buy in the store, she never knew it before. She was almost always about the act of buying - at the latest from puberty also called shopping. And that's how it is today. So I have some difficulties with my child's consumption behavior and know from friendly parents that they are alike. People on average incomes, passionate flea marketers, people who like to surround themselves with used things - all seem to be more or less faced with the challenge that their offspring react to their consumption-critical behavior with incomprehension and disinterest. A friend recently told me that her nine-year-old daughter wanted a pocket knife for her birthday. One for yourself. So my friend bought a really good Swiss army knife and got the name of her daughter engraved. Accordingly, the joy was great when unpacking. A few days later, however, the daughter bought another penknife at a flea market and a few days later she wanted one that was as blue as that of her best friend. On the well-meaning and somewhat irritated admonition of the mother, they've already got a super-great pocket knife for his birthday, came the no less irritated reply: So what ?!

Why do children want to buy and have - and more and more of them?

What is that? Why does this girl still want a pocket knife more? Why are more and more German children's rooms piling up mountains of stuff, the purpose of which seems only to be pushed from one corner to the other and regularly enlarged? And why does my little girl spend money on things that obviously do not interest her at all?

The answer is as simple as frightening: children and adolescents have been discovered as potential customers and are addressed by industry as such. We live in a social system that aims for economic growth. Even if parents nowadays are increasingly critical of consumption and are increasingly considering what to spend their money in the face of precarious and temporary jobs, goods have to be bought. More goods. Whole industries depend on us for many years to get used to giving gifts to children on holidays and holidays. Easter, birthday, Nicholas, Christmas, relatives visits. At every opportunity the little ones get something. Not because they need something, but because we've gotten so used to it. Giving seems to have become a commitment just like consuming. Before the birthday call the grandparents, uncles and aunts and want to know what you could give the child as, and sound noticeably disappointed, if you do not immediately remember what to buy:
"Clothes, toys, books, electronics ?? Now tell me, what should we buy ?! "
"Um, actually he / she already has everything."
"How everything - and what should we give then?"

Consumption as participation in society

Consumption is identity-creating and participates in our society. We take place because we buy. We stay in places where we pay admission. The question of "my most beautiful holiday experience" is more than ever a question of who can afford to travel abroad. That does not escape our children. That does not escape my son. He imitates my multiple pecuniary entanglements (for which, of course, I have all insanely coherent explanations) simply by buying stuff. And me, when we leave the house together on the weekend, asks how much money I have with me. Which in turn brings me to a question that I never asked myself as a child:
Can you actually do anything outside without paying for it?

Did I forget something? Can you think of any more points?
I´m looking forward to your experiences and additions.

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