Pester Power

I posted the below on my personal blog a few years ago. I thought it was pretty relevant to today's lecture, so thought I'd share!

Does anyone else despise going shopping with children? I used to LOVE to go food shopping before I had children! I'd wander the aisles and take my time picking out all the lovely things I like to eat. Now I race up and down the aisles just throwing in anything I can get my hands on, going as fast as I can because I know that my children have about a 2 minute threshold before they go ballistic. And when this happens, I have about a 1.5 minute threshold before I do the same.

What is it about kids in a grocery store? First, they want EVERYTHING they see. In the psychology world, we call this "pester power". Translation: the amazing and mysterious power that children have to maintain a constant whine while asking for at least 1500 random items while simultaneously driving their parents insane. "Mo-om! Can we get ice cream?" No, we've got some at home. "Mo-om, can we get a giant 20 pound bag of lollipops" I don't think so. "Mo-om can we get some dog food" We don't even have a dog! ARGGGGG!



Secondly, they won't stay in the cart. Yes, I strap them in, but eventually I can't stand the screaming/crying/whining/fighting/death stares from other grocery patrons so I let them out. BIG mistake. Now they can get their hands on the ice cream/lollipops/dog food so I end up spending more time taking things out of the cart than putting things in! Plus, they now have a great need to hang all over the cart. Climb in, climb out, climb in, climb out, fall on head, cry, climb in, climb out, and on and on! Right! Strap the kids back in, and bring on the screaming/crying/whining/death threats from other patrons.

We've tried it all: sitting in the "fun" car shopping cart, bringing toys, giving snacks, letting the kids help pick things out. Nothing seems to work!

Finally, we make it to the finish line....er...check out line and pay. Both kids want to push the buttons to enter my pin, so I end up putting it in 3 separate times. Finally, get all my bags, run out to the parking lot and throw the bags in the car. Phew! One giant sigh of relief.

But here's the kicker. Through this fiasco we call "grocery shopping" I've managed to forget the milk/bread/eggs that I originally went to the store to buy. So we have to do it all again tomorrow!

Though I do have a 40 pound bag of dog food if anyone needs it.

Macey's

Usually I despise shopping. Let's face it, with three young children, I usually leave the store feeling angry, frustrated, and exhausted. Today was different.

We were at Macey's food store in Spanish Fork. I had a complaint about some chicken I had previously bought. The store manager, Bill, came to talk to me. Even though I didn't have the receipt, or the chicken, he completely replaced the product. He even walked me over to the meat aisle, opened a sealed box for me to look in, and then loaded it in my cart. And later at the checkout, they were short on baggers. So Bill pitched in and bagged my groceries for me! I left the store feeling relaxed, taken care of, and a Macey's fan for life!



This is in stark contrast to an experience I had at Walmart about a year ago. In this case, I waited in their customer service line for 30 minutes only to be told that if I didn't have the receipt then it wasn't their problem.

Now why is this about media??? Okay, this is probably a stretch, but after this experience, I wanted to tell everyone I know to shop at Macey's! I posted it on Facebook so my 500+ friends could see it, posted it on my personal blog, and now have posted it here. I also went to the Macey's website and emailed my experience to the corporate office. Isn't technology wonderful that it allows me to reach so many people almost in almost an instant?

GREAT customer service is rare these days, but if you want a truly exceptional shopping experience, then go to Macey's!!!

Pokemon 2000

Well, there is 1 hour and 42 minutes of my life I will never get back!



My 7 year old Nathan is obsessed with Pokemon. It's not my first choice of things for him to become obsessed with, but all his friends love Pokemon, ergo, he loves Pokemon.

Here is a picture of him with the "Pokemon train car" that we made for his 1st grade class.



So, he's been pushing me to get a Pokemon movie from Netflix for a while. Until recently, I was pretty firm about saying no. Why? I think Pokemon are stupid. Pretty harmless, but just really stupid!

But Nate is growing up. As much as I would like him to watch Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Sesame Street that's not realistic. I mean, what 18 year old still watches Curious George every night? There has to be a transition at some point.

So I decided to let Nate has a bit of autonomy within bounds. I told him we would find out about the Pokemon movie by reading about it at www.commonsensemedia.org (website for parents that describes exactly what content a movie has in it) and then we could decide whether we still wanted to get it. So, we looked at the reviews, and they seemed okay. No sex, no profanity, low levels of violence. He made the decision to get the movie and we decided we would watch it together.

Well, it came, and guess what: though it was a really stupid movie (it took me about 45 minutes to figure out the plot!), in fairness it actually wasn't too bad, in terms of content. The violence is mostly these giant bird-like things who breathe different elements (ice, fire, electricty) out. And the main character, Ash, actually shows great sacrifice and perserverance. Plus Pikachu is kind of cute! :) But what was really fun, was that Nathan kept saying, "That's Reshiram. He's a legendary. He's worth 990 points". Or whatever. He really knows his Pokemon!! It was cute, and I loved that I got to share in his excitement over this movie, even though it wasn't my first choice.

I realized that I've been okay when Nathan (or any of my kids) is obsessed with media that I like. I yearn for the Cars days when he was 2 and the Thomas the Tank Engine Days when he was 3 and 4. That kid had almost every single Car and engine on the book!

Age 2 with Cars. Yep, he has Cars pajamas on too.



Age 3 with Thomas the Tank Engine...just realized he is also wearing Thomas pajaams in this picture! Wow, we are total victims of marketing!



But I've got to reazlie that as much as I want him to stay in this safe little media bubble, that is not realistic and he needs room to grow, even in terms of the media. Though, let's just hope he doesn't develop a Spongebob obsession next! :)

Once upon a Time

Since half a dozen of you mentioned this was your favorite show, I decided to check it out over the weekend. And.......LOVE IT!!!! I'm totally hooked and I've only seen the first two episodes. I personally love fairy tales and fantasy so this is right up my alley. I love the main girl, Emma....cause she's Dr. Cameron from House! Plus, she's really good! Some violence, so I had to pause it when my kids came in the room, but no sex or violence to speak of...hopefully it stays that way!



I'm already thinking of my favorite fairy tales and which ones I want them to cover. I really like the story of the girl and the six swans. Her brothers are turned into swans and she has to knit them shirts out of starwort (like nettles) to turn them back into humans. Juliet Marillier wrote a FANTASTIC book series based on this fairy tale (the first in the series is called "Daughter of the Forest". I would HIGHLY recommend it!) and ever since I read these books, I just love this little known fairy tale.



Anyway, this particular tale would be a fun one for them to cover in this show! Thanks for a great recommendation, guys! Hopefully this one is around for a while!

I'm obsessed with the Gilmore Girls!

I posted this on my private blog about a month ago. Given our quick discussion in class, I thought it was relevant so thought I'd repost it!

I cannot even tell you how much I love this show. I am so lame...I study the media, so I really should know better, but I seriously LOVE this show!! For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of the Gilmore experience, the show is about a mom and her teenage daughter, who have a super close relationship. I think it's such a positive portrayal of the teen/parent relationship in the media. Most portrayals are very stereotypical and negative, but this shows that teens/parents can actually be really close! It even coincides with real research that shows that the vast majority of parents and teens have a good, close, loving, relationship!



I really like the mom (Loralei) on this show! She is so funny and such a good mom (though a little lax at times!) She has this on again/off again relationship with Luke, and I have never been as invested in a TV relationship before (akin to the Ross/Rachel relationship of yesteryear's!!) Don't tell me if they end up together....I don't want to ruin the anticipation! But they better end up together!!!

There are seven seasons, and I am now on the last season (we get it from NetFlix). I am purposefully trying to drag things out, only watching an episode occasionally to make the goodness last.



Seriously, I know how SAD I sound! It's a TV show, with fake characters for goodness sake!!! But it's funny, I feel like a part of their lives: in the research world, we call this a "parasocial relationship": a totally non-existent relationship where we still feel connected and get something out of the relationship (even though it doesn't really exist)! I feel like I'm going to go through a mourning period when this is all done! At least I have something to talk about in my media class now, right??

Anyway, if you haven't seen this series, GET IT! All 7 seasons are on NetFlix and I would highly recommend it!! Paul even watches it with me, and he even likes it! And that is saying something! LOVE IT!!!