Customer Reviews

The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Again, Brother and Sister are in a fix and this time, they've got the galloping greedy gimmies. They want everything is sight when they go to the store and throw tantrums whenever mama and papa protest. One thing particularly interesting here is at one point, mama says no and then papa interrupts her and give the cubs what they were whining for. He just taught them to not pay any attention to their mother and that they can have anything they want or do what they please. How many adults can see themselves in that picture? However, mama is patient and tells papa that they are to blame for the cubs' greedy behavior and he finally sees the error of his ways. When grandma and grandpa come over, they offer a plan which is to have the cubs decide what they want before going to the store. I heartily disagree with the other reviewers which indicate that the child will get something each time they go to the store. That's not what they're teaching here in this book at all. What the Berenstain's are saying is to get the kids to think about what they actually need and buy that if they are allowed an item and nothing else. Not only does this get rid of the gimmies, but it also teaches them how to manage their money and not just grab everything they see off the shelf. In our house, we take it a step further and look for the best price on the item and if it is too expensive, we leave that store without the item and go to another one that is close by and purchase the item if we are going there anyway. Great lesson plan in spending here in this book, don't pass it by!

As a marketing manager, I found this book to be stellar in teaching management for kids. If there's no boundaries set in even the smallest things like the grocery store, then there will be mayhem on a much larger scale as well. It's up to the parents to instill the rules beforehand and this book definitely comes up with a fair plan. We don't have any trouble with the gimmies in this house after reading, and reading, and reading.... this book. It solves the problem instantly and has a very lasting effect.

Highly recommend!

I would like to express my gratitude to the Berenstains for giving me the perfect antidote to my children's rampant greediness in stores. When my oldest daughter was three she began to be very demanding in stores. If I gave in I felt like a wimp and if I didn't she would disolve into tears (or worse). One day I picked up this book and it taught us both some valuable lessons. I learned to let her know beforehand if she can pick out a little something, and she learned just how unattractive tantrums look to outsiders and why it is wrong to demand everything in sight. Now if she starts to get whiney in a store I just tell her in a nice way to watch out--she's getting the gimmies, and she knows exactly what I mean. It sounds a lot kinder, too, than, "You're a greedy brat." I look forward to reading it to her younger sister who is just about to enter that stage!

Does your child want everything in sight and cries and throws a fit if he or she doesn't get what they want? If so, this is the book for you to read to your child. It also teaches you, the adult, a way to take care of the "galloping gimmies."
It all starts when Sister bear and Brother bear go to the store with their parents. Sister and Brother want everything in sight and throw fits. This is so embarrassing to mama and papa bear so they kept buying things when their cubs throw fits. Big mistake! Now Brother and Sister were spoiled brats and Mama and Papa had to think of a way to solve this problem. That's when Granny and Gramps come over and tell a story about Papa bear when he was younger. Turns out he had the Gimmes too and they had figured out a way to solve it.
I think this story is great for youngsters and adults. It teaches children how to compromise with their parents and teaches the parents ways to stop their children from wanting everything and throwing fits. It also is full of fun just like all books by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Also if your looking for other books like this one, that teaches valuable lessons, you might want to check out some of the other books by these two marvelous writers.

I preface this by saying that my children (5 and 3) love the Berenstain Bears, and this title is no exception. The overall message is good: people who want everything will never be satisfied. The main underlying message is good too: parents get *awfully* annoyed at being nagged for goodies. The plan the parents implement with the help of the grandbears, and the enthusiasm of the cubs works well for them. A similar version works well for my family too.

My only objection is the "superiority" the cubs seem to feel and don't hesitate to express about other "greedy cubs" after they have learned some control over their own greed. They parrot the parents when they see a cub throwing a tantrum and discuss how "embarrassing and awful" that behaviour is. Too bad. I'd rather see the cubs feel empathy for another, to understand how very similar they are to the others, even if they are currently displaying exemplary behaviour.

I love these books..the whole series is great. I send them as gifts to my grand kids and was a nanny before i stared having grand kids and they loved these books also.

The book of Berenstain Bears get the gimmies is about the two berenstain children want everything that there is. The parents of the children are fed up with it and tell the children to go upstairs in thier room when gramdma and gramdpa come. When the grandparents ask why the children have been put upstairs then the parents tell them that the children have a bad case of the gimmies. The grandparents tell the dad that he did too and that they limited what they buy to one a day or else they get nothing and that is what the parents did to stop the kids from getting the kids from getting everything. A good story to tell your kids, I recommend it.

This book works wonders to lose your kid's gimmies! I read this book to my three year old and he not only loved the story, as he does all Berenstain Bears books, but he understood the message.

This has been one of those books that just sort of sat on the shelf and the kids looked at it. But now Mr. Big Reader First Grader is reading everything he can get his hands on to his younger brother, so it got my attention.

First off, and this is not the reason for the two star rating, the vocabulary is adult, the language is very colloquial, and it is DIFFICULT for little readers. I heaped praise on my little guy just for working his way through it.

Secondly, and this goes for all the Berenstain books, Papa Bear is not a calm or rational creature. In this book, he is overly indulgent, quick-tempered, and thoughtless. Mama Bear speaks to him like a child. I don't like the family dynamics.

Last, I was pleased with the lesson about counting our blessings and not demanding more, more, MORE. But that was erased because the family decided that every time they went to the store, Brother and Sister could decide on ONE TREAT EACH. So they cemented the expectation that going to the store equals getting a treat. This is the OPPOSITE of our family's practice, and I think reading this book may have set us back a few paces on family harmony.

The underlying message is one parents and kids can relate to: being tempted by all the goodies at the store. However, the way the authors dealt with this issue is disappointing. Their solution is to have the parents buy something for each child at every trip to the grocery store. Bribery, essentially.

When I read this book to my daughter, we talk afterwards about why this is a really bad solution to their problem: it teaches the cubs that they should get something every time they go to the store, it DOESN'T teach the cubs to be aware that the store wants to tempt them to want stuff so their parents will spend more money, and it's completely lacking in empathy for the other parents who appear in the store with their own gimmie-afflicted cub at the end of the story.

This book has value as a discussion tool about what NOT to do.

My daughter LOVES this book, and it has helped us curb her growing case of the gimmes. Now, if she starts to whine at a store we just remind her that if she gets the gimmes, than the solution is the get nones - she won't get anything at all.

I understand the concerns expressed by those who object to the plan of each cub picking just one thing. We have gotten around this by having the "prize" be to pick out the kind of cereal we buy (among choices we offer), or a trip to the playground after the store, or what we make for lunch, or other things that don't cost any money. That way we can reward her good behavior and encourage her to continue behaving well. Another solution is that if she really wants something that I don't want to buy, I let her hold it during the shopping trip, and we put it back on the shelf just before we check out. This usually works like a charm.