Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Poverty Watch

I can't believe this article.  It's a NYT bit about how moms are giving up their shopping to buy Christmas for their kids.  You really need to visit the article to see the picture, but the mother quoted here actually says:
“I want her to be able to look back,” Ms. Hunt declared, “and say, ‘Even though they were tough times, my mom was still able to give me stuff.’ ”
Yep, you were able to giver her a WHOLE BUNCH of plastic junk while looking like a martyr for the whole world to see.  Good Lord.

Look.  I have kids, so I have about eighteen million little plastic pieces of stuff, everything from Legos to Polly Pockets, around the house.  This year we are cutting back, and I have cut back for myself, too.  But, ick.  I haven't made a big deal about it and you sure won't find me grinning like that with a big bunch of plastic stuff.  Why not an article about doing things at Christmas, establishing some sort of new Christmas Day traditions of doing something together, rather than show the self-satisfied martyr-mom of some pampered preschooler?  Oh, wait, then no one will blog about it.  Nevermind...thanks, NYT!

1 comment:

ZipperTPartee said...

It's always hard for me to imagine how I ever develope the character of my grandparents after listening to stories of their life in the early 1900's, the great depression, world war II etc. After reading the story about the Mom giving up designer jeans for stuff, stories from my grandmother came to mind of she and her sisters always wondering how their mother could like the chicken neck when the family would bake a chicken for dinner and then realizing as they got older that she didn't prefer it, she just wanted her children to eat well and she was willing to sacrifice food or even entire meals to see that they were fed. Kind of puts it all in perspective for me.