Would you believe us if we told you that just limiting this one thing would help limit tantrums?
It’s true.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In this episode:
- The number one area we limit in order to get the biggest ROI on minimizing tantrums
- 3 tactics for minimizing this area of interest
Items of interest:
- Great resources for finding good children’s literature: Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom, Sarah MacKenzie of Amongst Lovely Things
I loved this episode so much. While we only do Netflix/Roku stuff and feel like we have that whole advertisement thing down, there is so much in this I never thought about . . . like books being advertisements. But it makes total sense. Now I’m assuming you don’t mean book series like Fancy Nancy . . . where they don’t have other stuff to go along with it (like shirts, cups, toys, etc.)? And even this new Kids YouTube app thing . . . my kids love watching these videos where kids play with toys and it’s a TOTAL advertisement tactic. So I’m going to be hated initially but I’m going to block those ones. Now here’s a question for you regarding this whole issue: how do you deal with grandparents with this? My daughter loves the movie Frozen (and now both my kids can’t stop talking about Inside Out). So my mom will buy her Frozen everything (even if we already have 5 Frozen puzzles, for example, we still end up with more). Any tips? :)
Hey Debbie,
Thanks for the comment.
Your assumption is correct – we’re not talking about books that don’t have stuff to go along with them.
I haven’t seen this kids YouTube app. What kinds of toys are the kids playing with? Is it just one channel they’re watching or is watching kids play with toys just a whole thing now?
Oh the grandparents (collective sigh.)
So, our kids are the first grandkids on both sides, so you can only imagine.
We are going to do an episode on this very soon because it’s an issue for many, many families.
One thing that I struggle mightily with is just smiling and nodding and accepting that 6th Frozen puzzle. This is after explaining that we don’t need any more puzzles or that we’re trying to steer clear of heavily marketed characters, etc… Sometimes grandparents will just be grandparents and there’s just no stopping them ;)
I try (read struggle) to remember that children are very adept at editing toys for themselves. As much as I groan when I see a loud, annoying toy sneak into our house, I also know deep down that it will be played with for 2 or 3 days and then start collecting dust and they’ll be back to activities like jumping on the trampoline or making puppet shows. I try to trust my kids more. Especially now that they’re older.
Now, dealing with the guilt of the abandoned toys is a whole other issue – it often feels wasteful and frustrating to me, but I also know that the giving of that toy was something the grandparents were proud of and enjoyed doing – so I try to keep that in mind.
Clearly this is something I struggle with!
Like I said, we’re going to do an episode on it soon with lots more tips so stay tuned!