Mum attacks consumer culture

8:41am Saturday 29th March 2008

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CONSUMERISM and celebrity culture is destroying family life.

Psychologist Dr Maye Taylor, 69, of Holmes Chapel, has written a book to help families learn there are more important things than money.

"What we've got is a consumerist society where it's not about who you are but what you can buy," she said.

"Parents are trying to do right by their child. If you've got money, as many Cheshire families have, the more you succumb to the designer label."

Dr Taylor, who co-wrote the book with friend and fellow psychologist Helen Sanderson, believes parents are unfairly blamed in the media.

"They are getting all the responsibility for what is being claimed as a breakdown in family life and all the experts are telling them they are doing it wrong," she said. "We are both psychologists and both parents and we thought we would fight back."

She gives examples in the book of how the relationships between parents and children have changed because of advertising.

"I saw a little boy in Sainsbury's and he didn't say Mummy I want it' he said Mummy I need it'," she said.

"Parents are caught in the consumer trap."

The solution, argues Dr Taylor, is for families to talk to each other and relate to each other.

"It's about agreeing as a family what is important and what to spend money on," she said. Dr Taylor, who works as an Open University teacher, visits prisons as part of her job.

"I have seen the results of things not going well in families," she said.

"I do think some of the people I see in prison wouldn't be there if they'd been able to talk to their parents."

And she said the central philosophy of consumerism - that money makes you happier - was not true.

"Buying things gives you a mini-lift but it doesn't contribute to any kind of happiness," she said.

"We are a more affluent society but the statistics show that there are more mental health problems."

For information about the book, Celebrating Families, go to mayetaylor.co.uk