Gen-X Parents "R" Us
Marketers say we're trying to redeem our lousy '70s childhoods.
by Susan Gregory Thomas
April 30, 2007
Look at the main photograph featured on the packaging of just about any infant and toddler toy today, from Fisher-Price, LeapFrog or any other. Chances are, it depicts a smiling mother looking on as her baby happily investigates the features of the bouncy seat, exer-saucer, electronic "book" — whatever toy or gizmo is inside said box. Marketers have made this photograph an archetype of baby toy packaging because it capitalizes on the Gen-X paradox. Go ahead — leave the baby alone for a moment, the photograph urges wordlessly: This toy is making learning fun for him, an experience you shouldn't interfere with. Furthermore, the picture suggests, the reason he looks so happy and secure is because this toy embodies the same hopes and values you have: He can feel you there, even if you're not right by his side when he plays with it.
But the most enduring parental surrogate for Generation X is still TV, whether in the form of cable, video or DVD. Of course, Gen-X kids were in grade school when they bonded with the electronic sitter, but marketers note that their sense of security with television trumps qualms they might have about letting their babies and toddlers watch it. In spite of the growing evidence suggesting that early TV-watching may be correlated with Attention Deficit Disorder, and even autism, Gen-X parents' consumer habits have made baby videos and preschool TV big business, with cable and satellite channels now pumping out toddler programming twelve to twenty-four hours a day, and preschool television characters such as Dora the Explorer raking in billions from licensed items ranging from board books to bath bubbles.
Self-deception #2: While Gen-Xers think of themselves as being down-to-earth, and The most enduring parental surrogate for Generation X is still TV.disparaging of commercial come-ons, they are actually shopoholics. Generation X railed against Yuppie materialism, but the average Gen-X adult actually spends nearly twenty percent more on luxury goods than the average Baby Boomer. Indeed, according to marketers, it is a generation that has integrated lifestyle brands into their identities: Volkswagen, Pottery Barn, Starbucks, Gap. And Generation X spends money it may not even have on making the most comfortable, beautiful, high-quality "homey" homes to make up for a lack in childhood (think: the ubiquitous kitchen renovation). Marketing studies also show that Gen-X parents are also determined to transform their relationship with their young children through the shopping experiences that were a source of such conflict but also attention in their own childhoods. In fact, it seems that Gen-X parents often seem to bring attachment parenting to the mall and supermarket.
©2007 Susan Gregory Thomas and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Susan Gregory Thomas is an investigative journalist, broadcaster and the author of Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds. She has written for U.S. News & World Report, Time, the Washington Post and Glamour. She has two children, seven and five years old. |
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