You know what they sing about Santa: “He knows when you’ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake!”
Well, it’s a good thing Santa’s naughty or nice list only contains the names of children, or many parents would find themselves on the naughty list because of their bad behavior while holiday shopping, according to a recent holiday shopping survey by analytics firm FusionOps.
The survey found that 1 in 4 parents with children younger than 18 admit a willingness to “play dirty” when holiday shopping if it means they could leave the store with this season’s last remaining hot gift for their kids.
This year’s most popular gifts include smartphones, video games like “Guitar Hero Live” and “Star Wars Battlefront,” tablets, Star Wars toys and smartwatches.
This is how low some parents with kids younger than 18 said they’d be willing to go to score a gift their child really wants this holiday season:
- Lie: 17 percent (compared with 7 percent of parents with children older than 18)
- Cut in line: 16 percent (compared with 8 percent)
- Pretend to be a store clerk: 16 percent (compared with 5 percent)
- Knock another adult down: 8 percent (compared with 3 percent)
- Push over a child: 8 percent (compared with 2 percent)
- Trip an elderly person: 7 percent (compared with 2 percent)
Why would parents be so willing to engage in such appalling behavior just to score a popular Christmas present for their child? Parents aren’t crazy, just stressed out, according to MarketWatch.
“Buying our child the perfect gift has its roots in the best of intentions,” psychologist Jude Miller Burke told the public radio show. “But we get confused between love and material things.”
Experts say many parents buy their children a lot of gifts because they feel guilty about missing out on their activities and not spending enough time with them because of work demands.
I don’t know about you, but no gift on a store shelf is worth pushing someone over or lying to them.
What do you think about parents’ willingness to “play dirty” to score a cool toy this Christmas? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.
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