Do Commercials Make You Feel Like A Lousy Parent?

Why to so many commercials aimed at families, namely moms, portray an unrealistic view?

This is going sound like a grip, but the commercials I love to hate the most are paper towel commercials. There is a spill by a careless child on a beautifully cleaned floor, the mom smiles, reaches for the paper towel and wipes up it – still smiling. No fuss, no telling the kid they were careless, no dirty looks and no mom saying – get the paper towel and clean up the mess you just made. I actually boycott any paper towel brand that has those types of commercials.

The worst is the one with the tween/teen girls dancing while cooking and the parents are just smiling away while their daughters make a huge preventable mess. The announcer says “dance cooking, bring it on. You’ve got …” No one is telling these girls what they are doing could be dangerous? And how good is it for the environment to keep throwing paper towels in the trash?

Toilet paper commercials are close behind (pun intended). The one when the kid stretches the roll all over the house and the mom just smiles. My daughter did this once, only kept it in the bathroom. I made her roll it right back up, a chore she did not much careful.

Then there are the diapers commercials that promise no leaks. If your baby’s diaper is leaking, you need to check it and change it more often. We bought store brand the entire time our two daughters were in diapers. The only leak was when they ate watermelon or had diarrhea.

The commercial with the constantly snacking teenage boys not only promote unhealthy eating, but the mom in this commercial must be rich. She just smiles as the boy and his friends eat the rest of the family out of house and home.

There is another with a teenage daughter who is rolling her eyes while the mom talks about the product. The mom just shrugs and takes her daughter’s disrespect in stride. Does this product also get rid of a parent’s backbone?

The reverse mortgage commercials drive me crazy. They show this happy older attractive couple looking over the papers and enjoying life. I know someone who had to get a reverse mortgage. It was very painful for him to admit he needed to do it. However, he could no longer do the needed work on his home and did not have enough in savings to pay someone.

The worst part about the ones involving parents and kids is that I sometimes wonder about my parenting skills. Did I over react my daughter knocked over her milk? In a normal tone of voice, I said dang it and sighed while getting up from my dinner to fetch a paper towel.

I wonder if other parents react the way I did or do they smile while wiping up the spill.