Schoolchildren are after more and more expensive gizmos - and their parents are frustrated

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By Leena Maria Aula
     
      Talking, sending text messages, and playing games with mobile phones have been commonplace during recesses in Finnish schoolyards for years.
      Nowadays schoolchildren are begging their parents for trendier phones. They want their mobiles to be small and handy, with plenty of special features - and preferably expensive.
      "That one new Motorola phone, it costs three thousand and you can only get it in the U.S., that would be so cool", Helsinki seventh grader Christopher Boddy gushes.
     
Mobile phones turned out to be the number-one favourite when Helsingin Sanomat asked around in a few junior high schools.
      In addition to mobile phones, 13-year-old seventh graders are after MP3 players. The most fashionable gadgets cost hundreds of euros, but the teens are perfectly happy with more affordable players that cost less than EUR 100 and which they can pay for from their own savings.
      But what on earth do you need an MP3 player for in school?
      "You can listen to music on your way to school!" Saara Heikkilä explains, because during recess "there is always something else to do".
     
One item that is making a comeback among the girls is the electronic pet Tamagotchi, a hit gadget from some years back. The owner must feed his or her Tamagotchi, and in the new model, the pet’s needs can be put on hold with a pause button, thus preventing it from starving to death.
      Currently fashionable in school are things that are comfortable and handy. For example, reason and trends have joined forces in back-packs, as the most popular models have gained their status due to large size and practical features.
      Shoe fashion is also dominated by practical, easy-to-wear styles.
     
Fads are expensive.
      "They are annoying, because they put pressure on parents. No one can afford all the impossible requests", estimates Christopher Boddy’s mother Anni Ahonen. The pressure comes from the claim that "everyone has them".
      Christopher receives a monthly allowance of 20 euros from his parents.
      "On top of that, we help him out with more expensive items, like Nintendo, within reasonable bounds", Ahonen explains.
      Ahonen also says that his parents teach Christopher to save and work for his money. For example, Christopher helps his grandmother clean her house.
     
"I took away her weekly allowance of five euros when chores started to be neglected", Saara Heikkilä’s mother Sari Jeskanen reports.
      "It is no use to appeal to everyone else having something. The girls need to wait before we buy things; all wishes are not granted immediately."
      "In families with boys, there may be more pressure because boys compare their toys more, girls talk about other things as well", muses Jeskanen, a single mother of two girls.
     
The seventh graders themselves report that their weekly allowances are upwards of five euros. They claim that some kids receive up to 50 euros.
      If parents cannot be persuaded to buy something, the teens use their savings to buy the gadgets they want.
      "Then they can’t say anything! My parents do not care what things I buy if I save the money myself", declares Onni Lampi.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.9.2005

More on this subject:
 Boys and the children of single parents receive larger allowances
 FACTFILE: Teen favourites

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