No, I Won’t Buy Your Lousy Souvenirs
The circus is in town, and yesterday morning they had a special free event for children, specifically special needs children, to attend. My son’s preschool went on a field trip to attend the circus (he is in a special education preschool for his speech delay) and I went with him. Although this was a free event, I expected the concessions to be running for profit and for programs to be sold, and even circus souvenirs. I know that the free children’s event wasn’t completely altruistic on their part, but still, I was both amazed and horrified by what I found once we got to the circus.
Every 10 feet, there was some sort of souvenir stand. And not only were the stands filled with some of the lowest-quality souvenirs I have ever seen, they were incredibly overpriced. A small blow-up plastic circus elephant? $5. A glow in the dark stick? $10. Come on now. That elephant probably cost 14 cents to make and I could buy better quality stuff in Walmart even for 99 cents.
My son, being, well, three, was attracted to the stands and did heartily beg for me to buy him things, but I refused and we went on our way. It didn’t help that not only did sellers wander the seating area hawking the items the entire time the circus was going on, but also it seemed every other person there had bought their kid multiple items each. Maybe I’m the meanest mother on the planet, but I had no intention on spending money on overpriced crap that would just be destroyed in a day at home.
Luckily, a clown did give him a balloon. He probably felt bad for the boy with the mean mother. 
If it was just the endless stands of circus merchandise, I probably wouldn’t have been motivated to write this post. But the worst part (to me) was that all during the show, the ringmaster would repeatedly try to get us to buy toys, would talk about how if you didn’t buy a toy, you would be missing out, and how there would be a lightshow at the end of the circus and those who hadn’t bought light-up toys wouldn’t be able to take part. Every time he started talking I just got madder and madder. So much for the free circus performance.
We left before the light show. My son got bored with the acrobats and requested to go to the car. Good riddens.
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January 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Good for you! I think overspending on kids is really damaging to them. I’m a child of indulgent, but not affluent parents, and I find it really stressful. I wish they took care of themselves more. Growing up in at atmosphere of worrying about money (partly because it was being spent on us) was not pleasant.
January 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Wow. That’s really mean for them to do to the kids who have parents like you. By parents like you, I mean ones who won’t buy their kid everything and won’t let themselves be bullied. My mom was frugal/money-smart too and I know it was worst when things were set up so that I couldn’t participate without paying.
It’s one thing to have a show at the end and say “Ok, everyone with lightsticks do this,” but to keep rubbing it in…
January 27th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I hate the circus. Always have, always will. Only took 1 of my kids once. When the bears were dancing backwards standing on their hind legs, he asked to go and I was happy to comply.
I just always figured that trips like that were going to involve spending some money on junk. It’s part of the deal. But I put a limit on it, telling them that they could either pick a specified number of items, limiting them to a particular section of the display or a $$ amount. We still have some of that stuff around the house, actually. Remarkably, they have held on to some of those tacky souvenirs because they represent memories of happy days. But a lot of it either broke and was tossed into the garbage or donated.
Thanks for contributing this post to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Family Life, hosted at Confessions of a Novice. The Carnival will be live on Monday, January 28, 2008, so be sure to stop by and check out all of this week’s excellent submissions!
January 27th, 2008 at 7:50 am
My wife and I were walking with our young nieces in a shopping mall and they spotted balloons and that gravitational field sucked them in. The outfit giving the balloons away was a financial planning service chumming for parents.
I have also been on the other side of this action. In a political booth I was helping run for a our county’s party (which one? I am not telling) we were giving away balloons with our congressional candidate’s name, it works fairly well.
County fairs are the same way, but you are rarely guaranteed anything for your money. Spend five dollars and you may wind up with a dime trinket or a 50 cent prize.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I would have gotten very mad myself. I can understand the stands but not the trying to black mail you into buying an item or you can’t participate in the light show. A certain amount of blatant consumerism is acceptable but when it goes over the top then it very quickly becomes annoying. Good job for not buying your son anything.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I wouldn’t want that type of stuff in my house either. What I hate is promotional stuff like chip clips, pure junk!