MARK MY WORD: KIDS PROVE TO BE MASTER SHOPPERS EVEN WHEN DAD'S ALONG

It's not easy walking through a major discount store with Becca and Bailey.

They're girls. What can I say? They have their mom's shopping genes and would buy up a whole lot of the denim kind too if they had a bigger allowance.

With Joni out of town on business the other day, I bravely took my daughters shopping.

No sooner did we get in the front doors of one of their favorite discount stores then they started browsing. Girls love to look around. Becca talked of getting a CD, but she and Bailey had to first stop and look at sandals and sunglasses. Not that they really wanted to buy them. They just wanted to touch all the merchandise and admire themselves in the mirror wearing stylish shades.

At age 9, Becca has even started scouting out future purchases. Five-year-old Bailey walks through the Barbie aisle intent on having one of everything. As a dad, I have the duty of bringing her back to Earth.

Guys aren't like that. We like to get in and get out, as if we were on a mission behind enemy lines.

My kids still don't quite grasp the money thing. They know it takes money, but they view our bank account has a free pass to shop until you drop. Like government bureaucrats, they don't do the math.

As a dad, it's dangerous to try to herd your children through a discount store. Joni routinely does it, although even she admits it can be a tough task.

But Joni, like all moms, seems to have a knack for finding half-off merchandise while making sure the kids don't turn over the shopping cart.

I have trouble just trying to carry on an intelligent shopping conversation with Becca and Bailey, particularly since they both want to talk to me at the same time in the middle of a crowded store aisle.

Becca routinely is amazed that I don't know about some toy or other kid thing that she has seen hawked on TV.

Kids are magnets for advertising. Even Bailey knows the names of brand-name stores. "Look, there's Sam's," she excitedly tells me as we drive by the giant discount store.

Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise that children are born shoppers these days. According to news accounts, $3 billion annually is spent on advertising that is directed at kids.

But all that advertising hits mom and dad in the pocketbook. At this rate, the next generation of parents will be bankrupt before their children graduate from pre-school.

When I take the kids shopping, I try to get through a store in 20 minutes, half an hour at most. Any longer and you're in danger of having to sell the farm.

Now we have a cover story from Time magazine that talks of our nation's spoiled children. Do kids have too much power? Time thinks so. It points to the horror stories, young kids with Cartier watches and $10,000 bedroom makeovers.

But not everyone is living in the lap of luxury. It may just seem that way. At any rate, my kids haven't even seen a Cartier watch. The only bedroom makeover they know about is the one that involves picking up their clothes.

Of course, they still long for plenty of name-brand merchandise. Becca would live in the clothing aisle if she could.

Time's recent cover story included a quiz so parents could see if they were drill sergeants or pushovers when it came to policing their children.

I took the quiz. I'm apparently not a drill sergeant or a pushover. I'm somewhere in the middle, like most parents.

Our Sunday school class has spent months studying how to implement boundaries for kids. The trouble is there are no easy answers, particularly when it comes to getting through the Barbie aisle.

But if you can just keep walking, sooner or later you'll exit the store. If you can get past the candy vending machines.

I never said it was easy.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.