Is Consumerism Affecting Your Children?

Research by the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, has warned UK parents that ‘compulsive consumerism’ is a damaging the quality of British family life for our children. The report is a follow up to Unicef’s pioneering investigation from 2007 into child welfare across 21 industrialised countries in which Britain ranked 21st forchild well being.

The new study asked hundreds of children from across Britain, Sweden and Spain about their ideas on happiness and success. The reports asserted that in the UK we buy gifts for our children to make up for the long hours we work and low levels of quality time we spend with them, whilst also finding found that children are happiest when spending time with their families.

But what are the answers to this problem? The report juxtaposed the situation in Sweden where family time is embedded in daily routine as a priority, with parents regularly sharing meals and activities with their brood. In Spain the situation is slightly different where fathers regularly work longer hours, but children received much more attention from their mothers and wider family circle.

So how, in an age where two working parents is a matter of fact necessity, can we improve our children’s wellbeing and is showering children with guilt ridden gifts the best answer?

Let us know, do you treat your children outside of normal celebrations like Christmas and birthdays with gifts and is consumerism the problem? And how do you spend quality time with your family after work?