Material Possessions: A Detrimental Focus of Society

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Material Possessions: A Detrimental Focus of Society

Our society is framing the mind of younger generations to believe that your possessions reflect the value and quality of your life. Society is also going as far as to dictate what items these are that make life so much better. I think most parents try to deter their children and teenagers away from this way of thinking. However, it seems that at these ages our children's peers are a more dominant influence.

Our children enter elementary school innocently, instilled with the ideas and disciplines we, as parents, have taught them. However, in this environment they do not have the security of home and they feel a stronger need to belong and fit in. They are pressured to have what is popular, such as the newest toy to bring to show and tell. When I was seven years old, Cabbage Patch Dolls were the popular, new item on the market for kids my age. I had never liked to play with dolls and did not want to start now, but in order to have something in common with the other children, I added Cabbage Patch Dolls to my Christmas list. I was determined to have the most and the best dolls of all the kids, and with the help of Santa Claus I succeeded. The demand of having certain toys puts the negative idea in children's heads that in order to have good friends they must have what other children have.

As children become teenagers and move on to junior high school, the pressure only worsens. The pressure now is not what to have, but what to wear. Unfortunately, at this age most kids lose their ability to make their own statement and instead follow the latest trends. I can remember vividly a gorgeous leather outfit, that at age 13, I had to have. Being that it was leather, it was ...

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...be for their parents to provide for them. Is there a way to change this? Maybe not, but parents can certainly try. My husband and I always put our children's focus on more important things, such as the beauty and fun of the outdoors. We go on fishing trips, camping trips, and hunting trips as a family. Now, after every school vacation, when other children return to classes bragging about the new toys they have, our children brag about the neat animals they saw, the pretty flowers they picked, or how cool it was to jump in the lake.

Parents need to be a constant part of their children's lives. They need to encourage children to be who they want to be, helping teenagers become their own decision makers by not looking to others. Taking the time to do this will give our children more confidence in themselves and help them grow up to be stronger teenagers and adults.

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