Question

need a detailed chapter 6 summary of Longing and Belonging: parent, children, and consumer culture by Allison Pugh. please and thank you

Answer 1

Chapter 6 - Saying No - Resisting Children's Consumer Desires

Summary

This chapter focuses on how desires spring from children and how quick they keep shifting their desires. It describes in detail about how American parents struggle economically but still wants to fulfill their children's material desires sometimes at the cost of something more important. This specific chapter deals with how parents find it very difficult, almost impossible to say no to the materialistic desires of their children. It provides insights into why parents do not say no, but rather get their children the materialistic things that they desire knowing full well that it might lead to the upbringing of a spoilt child.

The analysis shows that children's desires not only stem mainly from advertisements and fancies but rather from peer groups. At school or daycare, children are often influenced by what their peers use. This leads to the child being attracted to certain things that are of no value to them but make them feel included as part of their social group. Lack of certain products makes the child feel unwanted and left alone in their social groups. This leads them to pressurize their parents to get them the products and parents to fall for it as they do not want the children to be isolated.

But this culture of procuring things for the sake of social groups and inclusion does not bode well in the long run. The child grows up thinking that by getting things, relationships can be bought. This is where the writer stresses the need to say no. The need to resist children's desires and differentiate needs from wants. The writer focusses on how it is possible to resist their desires by being logical and open in communication with the children. Children want to be listened to and accepted. By playing to these qualities, it is possible to say no without saying no. This does not mean lying to the child but actually making the child see the material thing for what it actually is and how it does not serve the purpose of being bought. Examples from the chapter could be Kevin's rules about television for Maggie and Sarah, his reasons for sending his daughter to Arrowhead etc.,