When was the last time you struggled to create some space on your smartphone to download the latest version of your 6 year-old’s favourite game ? When was the last time you gave in your plan of snacking at the neighbourhood restaurant to drive to the burger store your little one voted for ? Well, a survey has confirmed what most parents already knew - Children have been found to influence where to go for casual family meals a whopping 98% of the time and clothing purchases 95% of the time!
For marketing managers, children have always been the most valuable target audience for precisely this reason! Promotional campaigns have been carefully strategised, designed and tailored to appeal to little children, as Barbara A. Martino, an Advertising Executive summed it up perfectly, “We’re relying on the kid to pester the mom to buy the product, rather than going straight to the mom.”
Children are infact, such a popular consumer demographic that entire industries from Baby furniture renting, multifunction toys and storybook apps to virtual reality birthday party entertainment companies have been thriving with a strong child-focussed approach. Moving beyond traditional products like acne creams and video games, children have turned to be the prime focus even of the real estate sector with Kid-centric homes being hailed as the Next Big Thing in realty space!
And yet, for all the importance and prime role that mass media and commerce has been thrusting upon innocent shoulders, how much do we value our children in our own homes? Far too often, we consider them too tiny to be of importance, too naive to have an opinion and too little to make a difference. We dismiss their art works as scribbling and their dreams as fantasies.
We underestimate the potential of the 437 questions they ask each day and overlook the simple, unfiltered approach that they have to the mysteries of the world. As we scamper and rush to help them memorize the Alphabet or the 12 times table, as we reach the ends of our wit trying to get them draw a straight line or identify the parts of the human brain, somewhere down the line we begin to believe that our children are pails that we try to fill in, and in that moment we cease to realise that they are in fact a fire that we needed to light.
After all, Samantha Smith was only 10 when she eased the Cold War tensions between the United States and Russia with a single letter.
Katie Stagliano was just in third grade when she came up with her plan to feed the homeless after growing a 40 pound cabbage in her yard. And Gitanjali Rao was all of 11 years when she invented a device that can detect lead in drinking water. Truly, sometimes all that it takes is a little child with big dreams to make a difference to the world for ever.
From the timeless words of Anne Frank to the relentless crusade of Malala Yousafzai children have repeatedly captured the world’s attention and left an imprint that shook humanity.
Not every child invents a scientific masterpiece as a pre-teen. Not every toddler composes a brilliant melody. Not every high schooler publishes a book or breaks a record in basketball. But every single child offers the world his own unique, unprecedented potential. Every single child is a gift, that was never on this planet since the beginning of the ages.
Millions of children show bravery in their own little ways - dressing to take their monthly injection or sitting in the school bus with a smile on their first day in a new neighbourhood. They show courage - walking up on the stage again despite the previous humiliating episode or simply knocking on the door of a grumpy neighbour to ask for their cricket ball. They show compassion - smiling at the old beggar on a rainy afternoon, offering their red balloon to the street child in the market fair or saving the last piece of cake for their elder brother.
This Children’s Day, as we nostalgically walk down the dusty corners of our own childhood memories, as we decide that broken toys were better than broken hearts and math homework was easier than office deadlines, let’s take a moment to move beyond ourselves. Let’s look at the innocent belief in the eyes of a child and realise our obligation to never betray that faith in goodness that every child is born with.
Let’s look into that tender heart that sees no distinction between colour and creed, and vow to never divide it over narrow boundaries. Most importantly, let’s hold those tiny hands in ours and decide that as teachers, parents and as a society these little hands are in fact, miracles that we hold - the greatest responsibility we accept and the truest impact we make on our future.
As Stacia Tauscher put it so beautifully, “We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
