Saturday, January 5, 2008

Through the eyes of a child...

I took my family to dinner tonight at a local restaurant and my six year old daughter was looking at the light fixtures and she asked me how much they cost. I told her I didn't know. The fixture in question was a ship made from some kind of glass. It was an attractive piece and looked very nice when lit up with some built in lighting.
My daughter said " I bet it cost $10,000!" I told her I thought that may be a bit high - but I'm not in the lighting business so who knows...
My daughter then pointed to the light at our table, which was also made of glass and said - "I bet that costs $100 and I bet that boat costs $10,000."

I thought it was interesting her perception of value. If you ask a child how much something costs - I will bet you good money they will ALWAYS give a price well above what the item is worth. Children just see more value in something than adults. I think really due to what they see on TV or in a catalog. They are led to believe they just cannot live another day without this game or toy, etc. from the commercials and ads. (Chalk one up for marketers -eh?)Then as they get older, children see that things are not worth what they thought as a child. I guess you could call that getting "worldly-wise".

Anyway, I thought that was interesting and wanted to share. More later...