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Materialism, Moms, Kids

This morning Bean had a very serious look on his face as he told me that he wished he had kept a friend's birthday gift for himself. As I noticed the hurt look I thought of the friend mentioned, and realized that the gift purchased and given was BACK IN DECEMBER. 2013. It was a Lego set of a type that Bean has recently become quite fanatical about, especially since there is a tie-in cartoon of the Lego series now on Netflix. He has been watching it every day when we get home from work and day camp, while I am making dinner.

I try not to get annoyed but I can't help it. The friend who received the toy in question is the kid who seems to have everything. I really like his mom and I always wonder how she gets by as a single mom, with two kids, a mortgage, and under-employment. Every time my kid gets excited about a new toy trend it is because this kid, and a couple of others, brought the toy to school and made it the next big thing. All of these kids have single moms, and I don't know how they do it. Maybe the dads buy the toys out of guilt. I don't know.

When we bought the Lego set for the kid's birthday last year, my son was so proud to give it to him because he said it was "rare." It is really cool to have a "rare" set, and since this kid seems to have everything already, Bean thought it would make this gift special. As it turns out, his friend did not have this set, so it might have been special to him. I don't know for sure. Sometimes the kids get doubles and end up trading half the pieces away anyways.

It really bothers me that my kid is so attached to little bits of plastic. I can't figure out if it is the toy itself, or the status that it gives him amongst his friends that he craves. He is so attached to his friends, and they are pretty good friends, even if they are materialistic.

I wish I could contact the other moms and see if they would be willing to go on a "toy ban" for a few months. It is really hard to teach my kid that material things don't matter when so much of his friendships are based on materialism.

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