BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Commercials and the child-bearing message.

This will sound weird, but I pay attention to commercials, I mean to the point where I can sing the Truvia song and recite the Fage Yougert poem. Fact is, I like commercials, I have since I was a child and continues on till today.

So I've been paying a little more attention lately, for what ever to the Rice Krispy treats commercials. They always feature kids with their grandparents or mother and father making treats. Tonight was no exception, when I saw the one with the grandmother and two boys making them.

Lets not forget the Walmart commercial where the kids are singing: "Wake up it's christmas, come see the tree, there's presents underneath and I know that there's some for me. Get moving mom and dad, wake up already please, how can you still be sleeping when it's 6am at least! Come with me downstairs, and make it fast, I've waited weeks, I've waited months, and christmas mornings here at last"

So I gathered from these commercials, that 1. Adults don't eat Rice Krispy treats unless their kids want them and 2. Christmas isn't a time for cheer and laughter for all, it's a time for kids to get as much stuff as they can from their parents.

You know I'm usually not one to get all up in arms over things, but REALLY?! I love christmas and Rice Krispy treats, and it's not just those commercials that peddle the fact that you can't enjoy these things without kids. Lets not forget adults don't get sick (just about every medicine commercial features a mother/father sick, except nyquil right now who is pushing football athletes.)

Yet it seems to me, that they push the facts that parents are the ones who can't afford to get sick for instance. Or that unless you have children you can't appreciate the simple things from your childhood, like christmas or rice krispy treats (or even rock candy). It just seems that people are convinced that you can't enjoy life, unless you have a child for which you can live through.

Why do you need a child in order to justify enjoying something that seems less than mature? I mean, I can't count how many of my ex-lovers have asked me the same question, "When will you grow up?"

Since I was 12, I have collected Pokemon cards, it's been an on going hobby which I enjoy tremendously. Yet I'm viewed as being less than mature because I won't produce any offspring to pass it down too, and two I'm not a child. I also get quite worked up over Christmas, it's my second favorite holiday of the season (My first being Halloween). So when people ask about my Christmas preparations, it's often followed with "Do you have kids?"

I don't understand this...need to live our nostalgia through children. Why is children the prerequisite of enjoy Christmas or sweets? Why is it viewed as childish when we enjoy something as a child would when we don't have kids, but yet when we become parents, it's alright? I've never quite figured this out, to me Christmas is Christmas. Also a Rice Krispy treat can be made and enjoyed by anyone, child-free or child-bearing.

I would love to see a Rice Krispy treat commercial with a husband and wife making them together. Being silly while feeding each other bits of the batter, and maybe a couple of stolen kisses. It would seem more like everyone can enjoy them and not just kids and parents. It's terrible how adults get excluded from things unless their parents. That doesn't seem very fair to me.

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I noticed that too, Jennifer. I guess it is also a way for these companies to make more money. You will sell more to a family of four than you will to a family of two when you have a product to sell.

But the message is very one sided, I agree. Holidays and treats are not just for kids like they make it out to be. There is a kid in all of us, and we enjoy simple pleasures just like the kids do, and we probably get more out of these things because we have memories and life experiences to tap into while enjoying these pleasures.

The companies targeting the adults either have cars or diamonds to sell in their commercials.

I just can't stand that they all make Christmas out to be simply for mommies and daddies with little kids. Seriously, every commercial you see is a mom with little kids or a mom and dad with a bunch of kids and they're all just so happy because mom got everything everyone wanted. Then the season becomes all about getting as much as you can. It's supposed to be about spending whatever holiday you may celebrate with your loved ones, no matter if that's your fiancee and animals, your aunt and uncle or your grandmother. Christmas isn't just for little kids to collect their spoils. Families can enjoy the holidays too, whether or not they are a family with kids. It would just be great to see even one commercial for the Christmas season with two happy, child-free people opening presents on Christmas morning (or at least, the perception of two people who are child-free and happy that way, having an awesome Christmas together.) And I would like it to not be just some party with a bunch of alcohol and loud Christmas music, as it seems to create the delusion that all couples without children to pamper spend the holidays getting drunk and having parties, like they have no one else to buy things for or just have a limitless budget because there are no kids sucking their money down the drain.

Another thing that bothers me a little is how when the holidays come around, some relatives will expect you to buy things for kids that you either don't know well enough to buy something for and/or have never even met at all. First of all, I don't want to be the distant relative sending all the toys someone else's child won't even like. Secondly, I do have a budget to think about. I'm just starting out and I don't have an unlimited supply of cash. And lastly, why should I have to buy gifts for the children of some relative I don't even see that often? It's just stupid. Adults make this holiday all about how much their children get out of it.

Hi Sam B.,

I love your post about: I just can't stand that they all make Christmas out to be simply for mommies and daddies with little kids.

That is a well-oiled marketing machine that makes everyone think if I buy what they are selling, then maybe my family will be the perfect family on TV.

Reality and statistics prove otherwise -- more ugliness and family violence and suicide occur during this 'joyous' season.

It's the materialistic culture.

You're not a person, you're a bank account.

You can have a great deal of joy in your heart with your partner by spending time together. Connie and I have some relation over but only for 2 days. After that, it's just her and I... peace, quiet and what we like to do -- not what others demand you do!

The whole guilt thing about relatives kids rings a bell with me too...

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was a marketing campaign created by an employee of Montgomery Ward.

You and your partner be strong and think for yourselves !!!

Because when you get my age 50, nobody gives a damn if you can keep the lights on -- nobody.

It's easier to sell stuff to kids without critical thinking skills so they can whine to their parents who have the money to spend. Marketshare, Marketshare, Stockholders, Stockholders !!

I absolutely adore Christmas... It's fun at any age !!!

Until human egos stop feeding the lies... we will keep getting them.

Very true Burt B., very true. It's all commercialized now. The Holidays, especially Christmas is just about the companies making money anymore. Sales, sales, sales. And it's all aimed at mothers with kids. Anyone else like people who are child-free by choice for example, are inadvertently and inevitably excluded from "Christmas", or at least, the image of what the perfect Christmas is these days.

I agree. Christmas is too commercialized today, and it is a big turn-off to me. My family keeps the gift giving very small scale, or in some cases there are no gifts exchanged at all except for maybe something baked or made. We respect each other's budgets and have no expectations of gifts. Spending time with the ones you love is more important, and remembering the true meaning of Christmas is paramount. Does anyone remember the true meaning anymore?

I stay out of the stores as much as possible during this chaotic time of year for my own sanity. It seems that there is no holiday joy to be found in these places of money, money, money....

Thank GOD for Amazon !!!