I remember when those book orders that schools sent home actually had books. Oh the books are still there in boxed sets designed to be attractive to adults, but my kids never covet the books. My kids always want the “miniature dragon painting kit” or the “SECRET CODE door alarm” or the “Super Secret Diary Kit with Charm”. (These book order people really know the “hot” words for kids.) My kids want the overpriced kitch. I have continued to pay them allowances despite our tighter finances and what they do with their allowance is their choice, but I cringe whenever those book orders come home. All I can really do is force them to think it through before they plunk their money down. I make them sleep before deciding. Sometimes this causes them to forget the essential item completely. I try to remind them of the things they were planning to save money for. But if all my tactics don’t work, then I let them spend the money. They may regret it, but buyers remorse is an important learning experience and it is better to have it over something small and kitchy than over something large and expensive. Of course they frequently aren’t remorseful at all. In which case maybe the money they spent is worth it to them even though it seems a waste to me.
4 thoughts on “Book Orders”
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I was terribly disappointed when the Scholastic Book order came home with my stepson last spring. I remember when they used to have dozens of books, and I was excited when I initially saw it, planning to introduce Alian to some good stuff. As you say, however, there were mostly cheezy little plastic things and lots of hype.
Ah, well, we went to the library and I got him hooked on some good stuff anyway. For free!
As for spending them wasting their money… you’re doing the right thing, IMHO, trying to teach them the value of their money, and to encourage them to save it for big things they *really* want. But still.. they’re kids, and they may as well learn now that impulse spending can be e-v-i-l. Heck, I’m 34, and I sometimes forget that!
I understand! I give them money for books… but books are usually not what we get. The world seems to have changed an awful lot since I was little… you couldn’t have made me spend my book money on anything else. Except possibly music but that was mostly later.
Or, more likely, I was just a weird kid.
My favorite thing from those back then was the 2 disks they had at the bottom of the back for various 8bit computer systems. Always had a few cheesy but entertaining/educational games on them. Most of the rest was books… There were some books with audio books included too though.
But … but … kids ARE impulse! That’s part of the specifications!
Man, things sure have changed. I remember those Scholastic orders used to be *books*, boring books that adults wanted us to read … I didn’t have an allowance, but I wasn’t about to spend my errand/bottle/fish money on books I could get from the library if I really had to read them!
The library was this great wonderful place where books were FREE!!! I could have LOTS of them at one time! Why spend my money on books when books were free and *candy* I still had to pay for? Plus, Mom would always give me a dollar for bus fare that was only 35 cents, so there was 65 cents of free candy just for saying “I want to go to the library after school”.
I see all this “SECRET!!!” and “SUPER!” “COOL!” “MEGA!” advertising geared at kids, and think … “what’s so secret about that?”.
Heck … Kiki could take her allowance to the $1 store or what passes for your “Tuesday morning” chain there, buy herself a really nice blank journal with a lock, and some beads/charm … and make herself a secret diary with charm that cost her maybe 1/5th the kitsch version. And, it would be something she made and personalized and stuff, while still having money left over for other things.