A long while back, I posted this post about Cedar and commercials at my old school (now defunct) personal blog Balance. Since it pertains to our theme topic of kids and commercialism this week, I figured I’d re-post most of it here. Also, Cedar is typically a pretty green-minded child, so here’s a good example of what even the little greenies act like around commercials.
The original post with some updated wishes:
First off Cedar is allowed to watch TV whenever he wants; which I’ve mentioned before. We just don’t have arbitrary limits on most stuff like food or TV. He typically …read more

This week we’re looking at consumer issues related to kids and the environment. Commercialism and the buying of stuff is huge among kids, and has negative consequences. The Campaign for A Commercial Free Childhood notes the following:

Kids aged 4-12 spent $30 billion on purchases in one year – and that was back in 2002.
The average kid sees about 40,000 ads on television each year, not including ad placement in shows.
Research shows that until about age 8, kids can’t grasp the scope of advertising. I.e. they have no clue they’re being sold to. Some research shows that kids aged 12 and …read more

We’re not going to have a green audit this week. Instead, with Earth Day coming up – only 43 more days, I thought we should start talking about kids and the commercial culture. Earth Day or not, having less stuff, is a greener way to live. More importantly, it’s a less cumbersome way to live – our world doesn’t become all about stuff.
As important as this topic is, many adults can’t even manage to free themselves from commercialism, so how do we also handle kids, who seem almost physically prone to want material items.
That’s what we’ll be covering this …read more