By Tom Ryan
In Parenting, Inc, Pamela Paul dissects what she sees as the over-commercialization of parenting and babyhood. The subtitle of the book conveys her concerns: How We Are Sold On $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers - and What It Means for Our Children.
Ms. Paul investigates the marketing hype that pushes parents to spend, according to a Wall Street Journal estimate, over $1 million to raise a child. The over-indulging is driven by a host of factors: the guilt and exhaustion of working parents, the dispersion of family networks that once passed knowledge from generation to generation, the pressure of admissions from preschool to college, and a celebrity-worshipping culture (including its offspring).
"Sometimes, spending a lot on children isn't just unnecessary; it's counterproductive," Paul writes. "Every parent I know is struggling to figure out how to afford a family without succumbing to the spiral of consumption that characterizes modern parenthood."
And it's not just splurges of products (such as the $800 Bugaboo stroller), it's Chinese lessons, baby sign language, music appreciation, BabyWOW 3.0, and assorted parenting coaches.
Writing a review in The New York Times, Kate Zernike believes Ms. Paul "has tapped a real concern. An entire industry preys on parental anxiety, and succumbing to it, we risk raising children who don't know what to do with 'free' time and who will measure their value by what they can buy."
She also agrees that children have become status symbols for some parents, especially in New York City. But Ms. Zernike said Ms. Paul fails to make the case that this over-indulgence is occurring across Middle America. And while parents all over seem more susceptible to peer pressure and guilt buys, most eventually realize that "all your lovingly selected toys pale when the kid discovers he can pull the saucepans out of the cupboard."
Parents eventually trust their own instincts. Said Ms. Zernike, "We hyperventilate, we overbuy, and then we get a talking-to by a friend, a mother or a pediatrician (like the one who told me after we'd spent hundreds of dollars on a changing table that the only place to change the baby was on the floor), and we self-correct."
Discussion Questions: Are marketers and retailers taking advantage of parents' tendency to over-buy? Do you expect a backlash from frivolous baby products and services? How can retailers capitalize on this opportunity responsibly?