Have you ever read Berenstain Bears?
One of the books I read to my kids was Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmes. The story is about Brother and Sister Bear throwing a temper tantrum every time they don't get their way. In the book they call in the Galloping Greedy Gimmes for grownups it's called Keeping up with the Jones.
Once upon a time "Keeping up with the Jones" was OK because the people we based our life style on was the people living next to us. Unfortunately now-a-days we base it on the things we see on TV. We ask ourselves why we can't have all the things the characters on TV have? All those commercials trying to get us to buy buy buy because we just can't live without some doodad or another. Right now I'm watching a movie where the rich guy has a marble bathtub with a flat screen TV in and enormous bathroom. Good God who wouldn't want to soak in that bath?
Give me an hour Please!
Now if I had never seen this I wouldn't want it I wouldn't even think about it. Every day we are exposed to tons of products we would have never even considered because we didn't know about it and we were getting alone just fine not knowing about it.
Where am I going with this? Well January 1st starts my galloping greedy gimmes. HGTV has their Dream Home Giveaway. It is highly unlikely that I will ever win this enormous monstrosity and even if I did I couldn't afford the taxes to keep it. But every year I go to HGTV's website and check out the new house and enter everyday. Sometimes I don't even like the houses. They had one where the Master Suite was disconnected from the main house. This means leaving the kids in the house all by themselves but still I entered. I'll be entering this year too. I usually watch HGTV to get ideas on how to fix things up or get organized but every year this contest gives me the gimmes.
I think TV give us the gimmes, yes it may entertain us, make us laugh (though with the flood of reality tv shows I've been watching less and less) but it also makes us want stuff we can't afford and if we didn't know about it (through tv) would be perfectly happy without. Does this make me get rid of the TV .... well no but I watch with my kids and talk to them about the things they see. If you asked my daughter about the toys in Happy Meals she would most definitely tell you about how they are just there to make kids bug their parent to eat at McDonalds and how that good ol clown cares more about your cash then your nutrition. Do we still eat at McDonalds? Yes.. once in a while we eat there because I want my daughter to understand that on occasion it ok to eat a little junk food....
Ok I think I'm ranting LOL so to wrap this up answer me this What give you the gimmies? Something you've seen on TV in a newspaper or magazine? Something your friend told you about? What do you do to fight off the gimmes when it's something you know you don't need and cant afford or don't want to waste your hard earned cash on?
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