Today's recommended reading: The Liberal Order remarks about the "fight" between parents and their children for material possessions.
We shouldn't be surprised that a generation of people, led by a government that is passing on to its children trillions of dollars in debt, is rearing that generation to be impulsive spendthrifts who know no limits. We're doing a pretty poor job of teaching our kids values of temperance and thrift.
My daughter, who is eight, is already asking when she can have a cell phone. Please understand that at no time is she out of the presence of a responsible adult in her whole day (most with their own cell phones strapped to their belts). Yet she claims many of her fellow students own phones, and her time ought to come sooner rather than later.
I have no problem with a cell phone for a teenager, but when the time comes to take on this expense - and others such as a car! - I hope to remember some of the points in this blog post. It's better to draw the children into the household decision-making process, and teach that privileges come with a cost that responsible people always bear. Better this than to set myself up to "battle" her for control over my budget.
Our eight year old has been complaining non-stop about the unfairness of the labor laws. He seems to think it should OK for him, at least, to go to work NOW. He figured out a long time ago that there would be no negotiating on certain items, no whinging about the latest toy, etc... so he figures if he works he can pay for it. But a cell phone for an eight year old? I think not. I don't have even have one, which gives me the upper hand on this battle at least. Of course, the reasoning of "You can't have one until I do" won't hold when he gets to hankering for a car.
Posted by: Wende | May 30, 2005 at 12:43 PM
Just a cell phone?
Where's the non-nogtiable demands for a cell phone AND an iPod?
Posted by: pops | May 30, 2005 at 07:12 PM
More like a cell phone and a PlayStation. She's the only kid she knows who doesn't even own a Gameboy. Eeeevil parents.
Posted by: pam | May 30, 2005 at 08:51 PM
No Game Boy? Good lord, woman, do you eat cooked food? Do your clothes have labels?
Posted by: Jo | May 31, 2005 at 07:30 AM
My oldest (14) got a cell phone for her 13th birthday. She was very excited because 'all the other kids have them'. We bought her one of the pre-pay phones and $20 to start her off. She had to earn the money to buy more cards/time by working and doing extra chores. She figured out REAL QUICK the relationship between her time working and the time talking. It has worked out: she has a phone, we don't have to worry about big bills each month and she is learning the value of $.
Posted by: kristal | June 01, 2005 at 06:46 AM
I love it.
Posted by: pam | June 01, 2005 at 06:52 AM
I think kids today are spoiled. Hell, I was spoiled as a kid, but even if they could have afforded it, I cannot see my parents buying me designer jeans, a cell phone (actually, they might have done that if it would have kept the house lines free) an Ipod or half the junk kids seem to think are their Eris-given right to own these days. Or maybe I'm just jealous that when I was a snotty teen I only had Deep Purple albums and Selmer saxophones to covet!
Posted by: Anthony | June 01, 2005 at 08:06 AM
Oh and Wende:
Another few years of the Bush adminstration and your eight-year old WILL be working a full-time job, mark my words...
Posted by: Anthony | June 01, 2005 at 08:07 AM