See It, Want It, Buy It!

The Proven Method To Teach Kids (And Adults) Impulse Control Without Losing Your Sanity In The Process

Every parent dreads the grocery store candy gauntlet of the checkout aisle. It’s like an episode of American Ninja except you are negotiating the gauntlet with a toddler, a pre-K, and a cart full of groceries. You know you’re going to have to deal with the persistent nagging the moment your child sees the candy. Immediately they go into what I call the see it, want it, buy it mode.

The impulse buy is the marketer’s mission. Amazon’s “Epic Daily Deal’’ screams at us to buy it NOW at this great low price, or forever regret your dithering. Just last week I went to IKEA to replace two broken green plates from my dishware set, a shopping trip that should have cost me six dollars. At checkout I shelled out $57 to cover the perfect plant stand for my porch that I didn’t know I needed before I saw it on display.

Excuse me, but haven’t I earned the right to impulse buy when I want to?

The crucial question is, can we walk away without buying, and how do we learn that? How do we teach that to our kids?

Marketers target kids not because they have money to spend, but because kids are natural negotiators. They plead, whine, bargain, and…