What are we teaching our children?

I was in the grocery this week and spent a while trying to find all the products I could have with my new Weight Watcher’s diet. While roaming I was distracted by a child and mother fighting over cereal.  The seven or eight year old child was arguing her value of getting fruity sugar puffy’s with the prize inside over mom’s choice of a known healthier for kids type cereal. Within a few seconds of the child’s increasingly loud arguments, the mother threw the child’s choice cereal into the cart and rolled her cart up the aisle with the girl skipping behind and wiping away her fake tears.  I pictured this child in twelve years, calling her parents for money from college and crying because she can not make it on the allowance due to “school costs.”  I see the child buying whatever she wants on her parents credit  cards, and her parents working until 75 years old because they are still paying off their daughter’s debt.  I saw this child and mother scenario play over and over in the store with different ages and ethnic groups. Then I happened upon one older mother (probably 40 year old) with a tween daughter. She had a list in her hand and was going up and down the aisles ahead of her mom getting the items from the list and putting it in the cart. When the daughter asked if she could have something, I think it was a boxed cake type desert, the mother said, “Remember, you can choose only one item off the list today and it must be under $5.00- make sure it is what you really want.” Although I never made this type of compromise with my daughter, I was impressed with the idea of making the child think about the importance of need over want within the limits of what one can really afford. One positive effort out of eight that I saw was a little underwhelming in   hopes for the future considering the state of our country right now.  I don’t blame the government or the politicians completely for our economic crisis. We are teaching the majority of our children that what they want can be satisfied immediately with credit cards and dependency upon others. They don’t have to wait or earn anything. These are my opinions, formed as I waited in line watching a ten year old texting on her cell phone.  The list holding mom and tween girl chose to move on up the aisle and picked a half gallon of chocolate chunk ice cream that she could share with the family. One hope in eight.