I assume many of you that are posting "dumbasses" don't have kids?
Quiet honestly getting your kids what they asked for, and making their Christmas "wishes" come true is what Christmas is about as a parent, and some parents will go to great lengths (including standing in line for 2hrs in 20 degree weather) to give that incredible feeling to their children (and in turn themselves) on Christmas morning.
Who here has never stood in line for tickets for a concert, or a sports event or for some LCD TV on Black Friday? Get over yourselves.
Children need to be taught to resist consumerist brainwashing. A parent indulging a child's unreasonable needs will only create larger future needs and decreased enjoyment. As teenagers, they will not understand their unhappiness even though they possess all the current hot and trendy products.
A parent's role is to teach a child, not indulge.
Holy shit... Merry Christmas dude. You must be a blast.
Christmas is the one time of the year to indulge kids. I have 364 other days (well maybe 363 if I don't try to teach them lessons on their birthdays too) to worry about that.
Join Date: Mar 2001That toy would be boring after about 10 minutes
Fine, indulge them a bit. It's still kind of silly to stand in line for hours and hours for a toy.Holy shit... Merry Christmas dude. You must be a blast.
Christmas is the one time of the year to indulge kids. I have 364 other days (well maybe 363 if I don't try to teach them lessons on their birthdays too) to worry about that.
Children need to be taught to resist consumerist brainwashing. A parent indulging a child's unreasonable needs will only create larger future needs and decreased enjoyment. As teenagers, they will not understand their unhappiness even though they possess all the current hot and trendy products.
A parent's role is to teach a child, not indulge.
Well technically, it's not a "need" at all. It is, as was indicated, a want, an indulgence.Getting a toy for a child on Christmas is not an "unreasonable need" comrade.
Well technically, it's not a "need" at all. It is, as was indicated, a want, an indulgence.
It isn't a bad little toy. I got 3 of them for $24 for gifts. It has two little wheels on the bottom and 2 switches on top and one on the nose. Push the button on the back and set it on the floor and it runs around for a bit, then reverses and goes another direction, repeats, if it runs into the wall it turns around, if it gets stuck it has a little flipper underneath that it uses to try to free itself, works about 50% of the time. It moves randomly and plays cute sounds. I expect some complaints though, it is marked clearly several times Keep Away from Hair !
Having an EE background I already did an autopsy on it. It is 3 mechanical switches,motor+gears, a small microprocessor, piezoelectric speaker, and two switches underneath that are used to tell it what accessory it is being used with. That part was pretty interesting because they are using two switches connected via small levers. It uses a system like left switch + right switch = one function, so you could do L,R,L,L,L,R pattern by having it run over the correct little bumps on an accessory. For $8 that is a lot of hardware. I plan on modding one with a more powerful cpu and adding wireless control.
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Having an EE background I already did an autopsy on it. It is 3 mechanical switches,motor+gears, a small microprocessor, piezoelectric speaker, and two switches underneath that are used to tell it what accessory it is being used with. That part was pretty interesting because they are using two switches connected via small levers. It uses a system like left switch + right switch = one function, so you could do L,R,L,L,L,R pattern by having it run over the correct little bumps on an accessory. For $8 that is a lot of hardware. I plan on modding one with a more powerful cpu and adding wireless control.
I was tasked with finding one for my niece a couple months ago. Amazon was the only place that had them. Guess I should have stocked up.
Yeah, they are dumbasses. Just buy them a real hamster for less. Plus with any luck it will teach them how to take care of it. Then of course, instead of waiting until nearly the last minute, which most of these idiots do year after year, they could have bought them ahead of time. I'm certainly not rich, but if waiting in line for the possibility of being able to buy one (sorry, but if they're that rare, stores are going to be limit you to buying one) to resell is worth your time, then maybe you should look into getting a better job. I have no sympathy for people whining about finances and the job market if they're dumb enough to keep doing stupid shit like this.
And I know what its like to be on both sides. In fact, I was a spoiled brat when it came to stuff like this. My parents would do whatever they could to get me what I wanted. Looking back now, I'm appalled that they did that. There was so much junk that I got that I wanted so badly at the time, but barely played with, and realize is complete crap now. Recently, I've had 3 nephews, and they're going through the same thing. Fortunately my family learned its lesson and now doesn't buy all the junk toys pushed out today. Funny thing is, they're just as happy with what we do buy them for Christmas, and they don't even remember 95% of the stuff they wanted before. If its something that they really want, then we'll get it for them when there isn't so much stupidity (waiting in lines with crazy assholes, resellers). Most of the time, if you wait a week or two after Christmas you can bypass that.
There's a bit of a difference between going out and purchasing a zhu-zhu for your kid at the retail price vs going out and waiting in line for several hours or purchasing it on Craigslist after its price is marked up 600%. Especially since it shouldn't take a lot of intelligence to realize that it's a cheap piece of crap that's going to be sitting on a shelf in about 2 months - which is one month after your child convinces you that it'll be more fun with the little house and ramp and...
If you really feel compelled to go for quantity of gifts rather than quality of gifts, and are going to indulge your child with 100% of the items on their Christmas list, (and just can't bring yourself to say "I'm sorry, they were sold out at the store.") then why not just get them a real hamster & one of those fancy cages? At least it would teach your child responsibility.
Who here has never stood in line for tickets for a concert, or a sports event or for some LCD TV on Black Friday? Get over yourselves.
There is the opportunity for an individual to define for themselves whether a situation is reasonable or unreasonable. Everything we say here is open to various interpretations depending on the reader. My statement above is one side of an issue where there is much grey area between the opposing viewpoint. Chances are that we all behave similarly within the grey area between our opposing viewpoints by using our own judgement for reasonable child behavior.
Children often do not understand the difference between their wants and needs because most of us are lucky enough to be able to easily satisfy a child's needs in our society. (I am thinking food and shelter.) In a child's undeveloped mind, a want may easily become a need. It is up to the parent to teach the child the difference between a want and a need. By indulging a child's wants, the child may not learn the difference.
Personally, I strive to remain separated from marketing ploys that attempt to create needs out of wants. For me, being manipulated by a company's contrived marketing schemes for a faddish toy with little utility (beyond satisfying the child's "needs" as defined by the child's undeveloped mind) is unreasonable.
I don't think anyone (at least me) was saying or arguing that spending 600% was the wise choice. The OP was talking about standing in line to by the toys at retail price and that those people were "dumbasses". Nothing more. Keep in mind too that many, if not most of these I'd imagine were being given "from Santa". I'd stand in line or even spend A LITTLE over retail to help keep my kids belief in Santa going a little longer and I have.
When they ask for something I know is hard to get I will say "Man, I don't think Mom and Dad can find/afford that.... you're going to have to ask Santa for that one I think" and in turn, when they sit on Santa's lap thats what they ask for...low and behold Christmas morning, it's there for them, through the magic of Santa (and standing in line a little bit or paying a small mark up off of ebay etc). Hell I've probably done that every year for my son as he ALWAYS wants out of products LEGO sets, and Santa ALWAYS finds a way.
You make valid points, but I think you are overthinking the issue here. First, always keep in mind that you were once a little child and didn't know the difference between a need and want. All of us were and the vast majority grow to understand the difference. Second, we are talking one day of the year, a day that children and adults get to indulge in their fancies. It is not unreasonable to allow the line to be blurred for that day.