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The fluorescent coloring, the jumping cartoon characters, the dancing girls, the talking robots, all of it bombards my four and six-year old girls every time they turn on the television or computer. The Disney Channel, Nick, Jr., Cartoon Network, PBS Kids, Build-a-Bear Workshop.com, Barbie.com, ad nauseum. These pretty little milk chocolate drops are walking, talking magazine pages for advertisers and marketers to dump subtle, 30-seconds commands to BUY, BUY, BUY! They are told over and over how smart, how pretty, how popular, and how much fun they will have with the latest doll, bike, baking set, or CD. What is an at-home mom to do!?!

I step back, take a breath and pull out my adjunct professor, MBA in marketing, career in product marketing toolbox and analyze the commercials with the girls. They are smart to understand the difference between need and want. The baby girl, newly minted four-year-old, is more into instant gratification and is less resistant in the toy aisle at Target when confronted with a singing Dora. Fortunately, the older and wiser six-year-old is more like her mother and thinks as rationally as she can so has learned to politicize her requests!

The analysis goes a little something like, "why we REAALLLLY want another doll?" or "tell me what makes that cool?" or "how much money do you think it will take to get that?" We begin a dialog about the item and if it is related to a television show, I ask her if she wants it because she saw it on TV. We then talk about how she didn't want it until it was on TV and what does she think will happen to her once she gets the item. It works pretty well on the big girl, the younger girl tries to follow suit but is helpless against Dora. I resort to my code for NO, and that is the #1. I can now just hold up the finger and my daughter resists her impulses and puts the offending item back. This is also coupled with promises of a big gift on her birthday and Christmas. Her patience was rewarded with a huge birthday party a few weeks ago with lots of attention on her and the joy of a Dora tent from her aunt. The girls have learned to ask for the big gifts like a new bike (the six-year-old in September for her birthday), new clothes (the six-year-old for Christmas), a computer (the four-year-old for Christmas) and interactive toys like games and crayons.

I have taught my children the difference between needs and wants from the moments they could utter requests. I have five living children that range in age from

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