tott said:
I agree with everything here... I do try to stay grounded, but it's hard to stay out of the system. It's a struggle...
I think it may depend a lot on your personality and upbringing, the difficulty level of staying out of the "exceeding the Joneses" race.
One thing working in my favor is that I never have any money anyway, and I come from a family that was always on a tight budget, so I was raised to analyze my desires and decide if something I wanted was really important to me, or if it was a snap-judgement whimsy brough on by seeing a shiny advert on TV or admiring something a friend had simply because I admired my friend and wanted to have the same things she did. We also learned about saving, saving just to have money in case something major came up, and saving up for things we wanted. My first thing that I saved up for was a bicycle, bought when I was 13. The bike I'm saving up for now will be my third bike in 14 years. What can I say--I ride hard. My point, however, is that fiscal responsibility starts at home. Parents need to show their kids how to handle money, how to save up, how to find a bargain, and how to determine if something is worth getting at all, and how to budget for it.
I think a BIG problem with children from affluent background is that many parents never discuss money with the kids, and the kids just come up thinking that it's no big deal to have nice things, that it's just something you have. Even middle-class families are often bad about not really discussing money stuff with kids, and children are often rather indulged. When I was growing up, my parents weren't afraid of saying, "no, we can't get that for you, it is too expensive" or telling us that some novelty we craved was a waste of money. For example, the
American Girls Dolls came out back in the mid 1980s, and I was right in the range of their target audience, and I coveted the
Samantha doll with all my childish heart. My mom looked at the catalogue and pointed out that the cost of her entire set (doll, books, clothes, trunk, play food, etc.) came up to the same amount as what Dad paid for the car he drove to work everyday, and that was in no way a reasonable amount to pay for a
doll, especially when you are 9 years old and will have outgrown dolls in just a few short years anyway. A compromise was forged when my great-grandma presented me with the boxed set of Samantha books on my next birthday, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. Incidentally, the illustrations in those books helped me prepare a Samantha-esque wardrobe for one of the dolls I already owned.
But anyway, I think that all of us need to remain critical of all the new stuff coming down the pike daily. Decide what you consider really useful, beautiful, and durable, what fits your life, what you can afford, and how long it is going to be of value to you. For example, my winter coat was actually pretty cheap, about $50 seven years ago, but I constantly get compliments on it, and it's held up amazingly. I've totally got my money's worth out of that all ready, and it was a very cute coat which I would have paid more for if I had to because I really, really wanted it, and I did need a new coat anyway.
Another thing with kids, I'm thinking, is that it's well to teach them the practicalities of criticizing advertising and deciding how important their desires actually are, but I see a lot of value in limiting their exposure to advertising media, too. Less TV, or use channels that don't play ads (or pre-record the shows and edit out commercials). If your kids get magazines, discuss the ads in them with your kids and help them analyze the pitch and determine what, if any, truth is held in the ad.
I think one of the biggest things parents can do to help their kids not be greedy is to just plain say "no" sometimes, though. I see kids with WAY too much stuff, and they don't value their stuff. They think you just have 40 Barbies or a couple hundred Hot Wheels, and you cram 'em under the bed when your Mom tells you to clean up your room. They lose their Pokemon cards at school, drop their down coats on the muddy schoolyard, and believe in the power of pester. Buying kids junk all the time to shut them up only encourages them to be more pesty when they want something, and teaches them nothing about the value of money or how to care for and appreciate their belongings.
) when some guests of mine saw 
...
i may be materialistic but i know somewhere inside me there is a girl who isnt... i dont like being bought... i hate it when girls like guys to buy them everything...
can i use this 'quote' kit? said it all 
