Card-carrying kids
By Jon Ortiz -- Bee Staff Writer
A thought-provoking, short article on the trend of buying gift cards for young children:
"I've asked for gift cards this year," said 7-year-old Brandon Kelley, a gift card veteran who attends Rock Creek Elementary School in Rocklin and says that Toys "R" Us is his favorite place to shop. "I want gift cards ... and money."
Brandon got his first gift card about a year-and-a-half ago, said dad Brian Kelley.
"We're comfortable getting them for him," Kelley said. "Brandon asks for them and likes to spend them. He thinks that they're credit cards. He likes them in his wallet."
While some say that gift cards are convenient, practical and a way to teach youngsters to buy on a budget, others say that giving them to children is a mistake and point to larger societal problems.
We've been the grateful recipients of gift cards from friends or business associates. We have also been known to give them in gratitude to those who have tutored or mentored. But, our own children? Hmmm...a couple of questions keep rattling through my mind. Is it that children already have so much, ergo parents don't know what to buy them? Does this stem from a philosophical conviction that children need more choices and less parental control? Or, is this just materialism taking the next giant leap forward (backward)?
I'll go ahead and sound like a snob here. I am grateful for children who ask for duct tape in their stocking and know what a prize it is when they open it. Cardboard becomes a shield; sticks become silver-handled swords and sabers; sons become knights-in-shining-armor when I need a quick fix for my refrigerator door. In my little house on the top of the hill, we won't be opening gift cards from each other for Christmas. It sounds empty and lonely to me.
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