A recent pole was conducted that shows teens just want to be rich!  These polls show that the obsession with material items is growing and that being rich is more important to today’s youth than in the past.

UCLA’s annual survey of college freshman, found that nearly 75% of those surveyed in 2006 thought it was essential or very important to be "very well off financially".  Compare that to the 62.5% that said that in 1980 and the 42% from 1966 and you can see the rate these kids are changing their priorities to making the finer things in life their own.

Pew Research Center also did a similar poll that showed 80% of the 18-25 year olds in this country see getting rich as a top life goal for their generation.  What’s a mother to do?

There are no easy answers.  Materialism is an obsession in epidemic proportions that cuts across socio-economic lines for all American kids. According to David Walsh, Psychologist from the National Institute on Media and the Family, parents have an integral role in encouraging their children’s materialism.  Walsh explains in his new book that kids need to hear the word "NO" and parents need to find some ways to say it.

Saying no is not all that easy in this day and age. Kids have a very different idea of what’s a necessity and what’s not.  Most kids think a cell phone, ipod, and Gameboy are all normal everyday things a kid should not be without. 

Sharla from Raindrops of Sunshine made a really good point in response to a blogpost about parenting,

"Knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to is critical to the future success of a family, organization, etc…"

This is quite an enlightening statement when you think about it. With all the bling bling available to kids nowadays and parents spending 500 percent more money on kids today than just one generation earlier, it might just be a good idea to reenlist the word "NO" into our vocabularies and make it a meaningful concept in our homes.  Say yes to NO.