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NOT A BAD IDEA!
Published On 05-17-2009 , 12:13 AM
MARIAM said money was short in her household. So short, she said, that planning, shopping and preparing meals had become classified as drudgery.
The good stuff just doesn't get into her shopping cart anymore and so Mariam decided something had to change. Something had to give she decided. But not being in charge of her hourly pay nor having any say when it came to the upward spiraling prices at the grocery store, Mariam took the matter to those who really were in charge of where the household money went.
Not a bad idea as the members of her household were more than willing to take a look at the big picture and offer up suggestions that would make the little picture more palatable. But was mom really willing to sit everybody down to talk about the budget and then listen to recommendations coming from the kids?
Uh, no. Mariam wasn't as willing as the kids were. Her hesitation is somewhat understandable as listening to the kids when it comes to household spending wouldn't have made its way to a list of things to be considered in days gone by.
But why not listen to the kids?
There's nothing to lose since a bulk of what we spend has something to do with both our little and not so little crumb snatchers.
Cath Hogwarth, teacher at the Temple City Education Center, knows listening to young folks has a lot of merit. Believing in her students and always stressing that they do have power, and, in particular, that there is power in the pen, she sent me copies of her students' papers that were written with a focus on the economy. The following are excerpts from some of the papers:
Fourth-grader Casey Wong suggests among other things that kids "don't beg parents to buy this or buy that." Wong goes on to say, "Our parents have to save money."
Christina Guo wants kids to stop using money on brand-name clothing. Grace Xian thinks we should stop using our cars so much and should make a list of where we need to go so the car would only have to be used once.
Raymond Leong takes the car savings idea a step further, "You can save gas by using a bike or by walking and that can save a lot of money," he says. "And can make the merchants lower the price of gas."
Gefen Wang writes, "If you're tired of the same lunch over and over again, just tell your mom or dad that you want to eat something else. The more you waste, the dirtier the Earth gets."
Lu Jiang says, "Not wasting is a way to save money. A person can waste a lot of things in just one day. We can waste food. Supplies that are not completely used can be reused in many ways. Some paper can be used for crafts. Some clothes can be donated for people who have lost their jobs."
And there's this from Jefferson B. Dai, one of Hogwarth's seventh-grade students: "My fellow countrymen, we'll have to do things such as ... help each other out. Why help out one another? The answer is this: If we fight among ourselves, we all lose. If we support one another, we will stand victorious."
A long time ago, Art Linkletter told us "Kids say the darndest things." And year after year, our little darlings prove him right.
Mariam and those by all other names stand to benefit by following Hogwarth's lead in getting children to offer up money-saving suggestions and then putting the suggestions into practice.
This blog can be found in our column section where you can print a copy or e-mail to someone
http://talkaboutparenting.org/pages/articles.php
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Comment
| | 1. | Great ideas. I remember back when we were "Po", my sister and I gladly suggested to our Mama that we wanted to go to Salvation Army to buy clothes - used - rather than to the more expensive stuff on East Colorado Blvd.,in Pasadena. And, we walked just about EVERYWHERE or took our bike. Face it, much of the waste and abuse many kids pick up comes directly from their parents!
- by Hank Wilfong, 00-00-0000, 12:00 AM
| | 2. | Another money-saver for my family has been renting books instead of buying - my kids are avid readers, which is truly fantastic, but we don't have the budget to keep buying everything they want and the library isn't convenient to us, really. Using BookSwim has helped us with our budgeting, and the kids can go on the website and pick them out themselves. Has been awesome!
- by Ms Johnson, 00-00-0000, 12:00 AM
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