Tuesday, January 13, 2009

All we could have hoped for...

Writing the previous post about my son got me thinking about my daughter as well. Alot of people have asked whether my kids are on board with the concept of not buying anything new for a year. My 2-year-old is oblivious. Nothing has changed in his world. And my daughter, surprisingly, is even more gung-ho about this than we are! She gets an allowance, but she is responsible for buying anything beyond the necessities. After a big disappointment with some Blendy Pens and one overpriced jumbo pencil that she regretted buying, she learned a good lesson. Stuff is usually not as great as it looks on the box. She has figured out that a Barbie costs $10 at the store and 50 cents at a garage sale. She has also learned than when she saves up for something, she waits for it to go on sale before she buys it. I'd say she's very responsible with her money. So the other day, she came to me and told me she'd been saving and had $50 she wanted to use for something. I cringed. I couldn't imagine what it was. And then she explained--she wanted to donate it to help save gorillas. She'd seen a special on PBS about their plight, and wanted to help. We located a charitable organization and she begged to donate to them. I gave her a week to cool her heels. I made sure she understood that this was ALL her money. What if she later wanted something else? "I don't need anything else". And she means it. She's not a trendy kid. She's goodhearted and kind, and would give the shirt off her back to help someone else. In this day and age, a kid with $50 could buy alot of fun and useless things. But she wants to donate it. So as far as wondering if she's wishing we could be out buying new things??? I'd have to say no. Not at all.

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