Raising Kids to be Less Stuff-Centered

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August 14, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

I wish we didn't live in a world where buying and selling things seems to have become almost more important than either producing or using them.

- C. S. Lewis -

Raising Kids to be Less Stuff-Centered

"Too often, we turn to acquiring stuff to meet our emotional, social, recreational and other needs. This consumer-mania isn't good for our resource-stressed planet, isn't good for our family budgets and ultimately doesn't work. We have more stuff than previous generations could have dreamed of, but we also have less leisure time, fewer friends and spend less time with our kids." Annie Leonard, author of the book, "The Story of Stuff," offers tips from her own experience in parenting, as well as from thousands of other parents. She offers suggestions on developing family traditions around creative time together; creating communities with similar, character-based values; nurturing kids' non-product-based identities; sharing stuff with local communities; and helping kids cultivate a resistance to the constant barrage of commercial messages. { read more }