So my kids noticed something "off" about a commercial on TV

School doesn't begin in our neck of the woods until after Labor Day. Everyone is in the back to school mode around here so it's been a topic of conversation. This morning my sons were watching TV and called me into the room, "Mom, there is something very wrong with this commercial. Watch." Go ahead, you watch it too and see if you see "the wrong" in it. (answer afer the jump)

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The mom told her son where she would be then she left. Afterwards the sales person calls the child by the mother's term of endearment, asks for his "real name." You then see them both walking into Sears together. The boy's mother never reappears or meets them at the next location. My younger son observed, "That woman in the dressing room doesn't know that boy's real name. She really doesn't know him." My older son threw in, "They should wait for the mom to get back and not go anywhere else without the mom's permission."

I wasn't looking for either to tell me, "Children should never be by themselves in a dressing room" That's really not true, because both of my sons are old enough to hang for a minute while I run and get them another size or color. They both understand an increase in age means an increase in self-responsibility. Figuring out when to relinquish parental controls over our tweens and teens is a tough call for many moms and dads. But if you want your kids to eventually be independent adults, they must learn to make decisions and they cannot make decisions if they are never given any freedom to make them.

I wasn't expecting either to tell me, "He needs to wear whatever his mother says he has to wear." Our kids have been choosing their clothes since they were old enough to point at what they liked and if it was reasonably priced and/or followed the school guidelines for attire more than likely I would say "okay." What I wanted to find out is if the convesations we've had at home, and ones they have had at school, about personal safety had sunk in enough that they could each figure out what "the wrong" in this scenario as it relates to their own world view.

My kids called me into the room because the commercial bothered them. Does the commercial bother you?