Materialism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is: a preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things. As days go by, more and more of our children are becoming materialistic. Influenced by television, movies, and advertisements, children want what they see. They feel that what they want is what they need and unfortunately, parents aren't doing much to stop this. Young adults don't seem to know the value of a dollar. Their continuous wanting is making them more self absorbed and selfish, not caring about issues in the world around them.
Even when parents try and put a stop to their children's obsession, children respond by screaming and telling their parents that they hate them because they aren't giving them what they want. Parents don't like the fact of being hated by their children, so they quickly go and do as their child says, even if that means buying them all the video games that they want, even if it is inappropriate for their age.
Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicin...
Latino Children Play Swing
Children at N.Y. Zoo (LOC)"[Parents] want to say no, but they don't want to have their child be upset with them." (http://www.progress.org/
archive/ethics01.htm). It is more likely to find parents these days that are workaholics. They don't spend too much time with their children, so the hour that they might have on the weekend with them, they give in to their child's desires. Parents feel bad for not being connected with their children and so it feels wrong to say 'No' when their children ask for new toys that they don't need.
Once a child sees that his or her parent is giving in to their demand so easily, they know that they can take advantage. Debbie Mandel wrote an article on this topic and stated: "Children are blatantly letting you know that they...