I went grocery shopping with my 4-year-old niece last week. I was pleasantly surprised to find mini shopping carts available for her. There she was proudly pushing her own mini shopping cart alongside my regular adult size shopping cart. When she saw me putting things into my cart, she mimicked me. The mini shopping cart does make my grocery shopping easier as I can quickly pick up the stuff I need while my niece is distracted by the decisions she has to make about what she wants to buy and put in her cart. Of course at such a young age, all the items in her cart were her favorite snacks. At the cashier, she obediently asked her mother if she could have the snacks in her cart.
I find this an interesting phenomenon. Children are being molded to follow adult commercial activities, such as shopping at a very young age. I consider 4 years old a very young age! Is this a good thing? I remember clearly that when I was her age, there were no mini shopping carts available in the market. My era is now considered a dinosaur era, the era before personal computers.
(Japanese version coming soon).
The Little Adult
Reflections of Seto 