Last week, I was driving home from a business trip, listening to satellite radio.  Madonna’s Material Girl came on, so of course I became overcome with excitement and turned the volume up to sing along.  As I’m singing the words, the question popped in to my head, are we the reason why our children are becoming more and more materialistic?  I challenge you to turn on any channel, including the Disney Channel, and try to find a childrens show that doesn’t have children dressed up in the latest and greatest.  MTV Cribs now features teenagers showing off their bedrooms, their homes (sponsored of course by their wealthy parents), and their newest toys.  This is crazy.  I certainly am not one to talk and here’s why.

I thought back to a few weeks ago when my husband drove my son into the daycare the morning I was to arrive back from a different trip.  This was before my realization of how I’m contributing to my son’s future focus on brand name clothes and such.   Anyway, I walked into the center and my immediate reaction was complete horror when I saw the outfit my husband put my son in that morning.  Kai looked like a blueberry explosion from head to toe.  None of the patterns or shades of blue matched.  Even Kai’s teacher giggled and said I can always tell when the dads dress the children.  My face was completely red.   I was embarrassed, but why?  I can’t help be feel some kind of pressure to have my son dressed in cute outfits if we are going anywhere in public.  I can’t help but notice how the moms dress the other babies in Kai’s class.  All of them make such great effort to match their outfits.  They even have the most adorable, matching shoes.  My son is not currently wearing shoes because, for one, he’s not walking.  From everything I’ve read they should be barefoot at this age to strengthen their feet.  I’m going to be completely honest. The real reason he’s not in shoes, is because I can’t find any shoes reasonably priced that actually fit his chubby little feet.

I don’t want to limit this statement to just fashion.  If you look around, more and more moms are pushing around expensive strollers with their expensive diaper bags.  I’ve even seen women that don’t even walk, let alone run, spend close to five hundred dollars on an elite jogging stroller.  I was lucky enough to get hand-me-downs by my brother that saved me a ridiculous amount of money.  I’ll be the first to admit that before Kai was born, I too wanted the best of everything.  Now that I see how fast he’s grown out of things, I’m really glad I didn’t spend the money.

If my child grows up to think the world owes him and he deserves the latest and greatest with having to work for it, I know I’m to blame. My goal is to have a happy, healthy, well-adjusted child.  Maybe I should be taking lessons from my husband and stop paying attention and stop caring what others may think.  When it’s all said and done, material items don’t make you happy.  Having a loving family and happy home is the key to happiness!

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