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Friday, June 27, 2008

A Different Perspective?


I like to read the daily newspaper here at the cottage. It is a small town here and you get a whole different feel. Things are much different here than they are at home. Of course, that is my opinion. I'm reading it tonight and there is an article in there about what to get kids for graduation gifts. Honestly, I am shocked at the things that are suggested in this article! In today's economy....where even the middle class are supposed to be suffering from high gas prices and high food prices....the suggestion is to give a CAR for your child's graduation. A freakin' car???? I am not THAT old. Really I'm not. If memory serves me correctly, I think my parents gave me a really nice piece of jewelry to commemorate the occasion. And I didn't expect anything more than that.

Today. Different story apparently. The article states that kids actually EXPECT these types of gifts. How on earth can people afford to give CARS??? Oh. The article said not to give a high end Porsche or something not great on gas. They suggested a Honda Civic or a Toyota. Unfreakinbelievable. The second item on the list....a Sony Viaio or a Mac. Now, I just happened to be browsing in the computer aisle today at Sam's Club and the Sony was $1099. If you have multiple kids graduating....would you be able to afford to give them EACH a top of the line gift such as this?? Even ONE kid...in today's unstable economy.

I just think it is wrong to hand our kids these things on a silver platter....then they just expect that for the rest of their lives, things will be given to them. In my day (I sound like I am a hundred years old!!) we had to work for what we wanted. I got my first real job when I was fourteen. I can still remember when I saved up enough to get a really nice ten speed bike so I could RIDE it to WORK!

But then. I guess I was born in the dark ages.

7 comments:

Kellan said...

Yes - this is crazy. I will have twins graduating at the same time and I don't know what they will be expecting to get as a gift - but I'm telling you - it won't be a Honda Civic or a Toyota or a Porshe!

Have a good Friday, Jeanne - see you soon - Kellan

Hayden said...

yep. It makes me crazy. Many kids I know expect cars - 2nd hand, to be sure, but STILL! - for their 16th birthday! And the SF Bay Area has reasonably good bus/train service. Parents do it because they don't want to ferry the kids around to everything. Of course, parents are at fault for starting the kids off on the path that they are entitled to go anywhere, do anything at any time of day or night, regardless of anyone else's schedule.

I'd hand them a bus schedule. Mean? I don't think so. Teaches them to plan and be responsible.

aims said...

My first job was babysitting - 15 cents an hour. Good lord!

I didn't get anything from my parents when I graduated. In fact - they didn't even let me go to the prom - we were too busy working.

Kids these days? Spoiled. And it will ruin the world.

Brenda said...

I tried my best to teach my kids to be responsible and to work for what they had so I was so amazed that when they left home, they expected to be able to live the way it had taken us 25 years of VERY hard work to be able to.

Katya said...

Well, there you have it. Wonder WHERE disfunctional families come from? Ever wonder what it would feel like to have everything given to you without working for it? Okay, so the kid graduated. Now they need to get a JOB, work HARD, and learn how to make it on their OWN!

Too many parents think they owe their kids EVREYTHING. Guess what? I think kids should even have to help pay for their EDUCATION!!!! (gasp!!!) Why? Well, do you have any idea how many kids end up in the gutter because Mom and Pops gave them everything...even a higher education...where they learned to party like there was NO tomorrow????

Kids need to learn a really BIG word....R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y. Unfortunately, whoever authored that little ditty you read must have a WHOLE lot more $$$ than brains. MHO!!!!!!

Unknown said...

I agree with you, we could not afford to give gifts, times 6, that expensive.

Anonymous said...

I do wonder how they afford such things, but I guess that is why people have one kid and if they have more than one, they are 6 years apart so they can pay off the loans for the graduation car. Despite the focus of the car for a gift, I don't believe that is the problem. I believe there is an underlying problem to begin with. It is like the divorce over the toothpaste being squeezed the wrong way, the problem is not really the toothpaste, but the expectations and the lack of responsibility and work in the marriage. The same is true of the car for a gift situation. The parents of the 'entitled' kids have not raised them correctly in the first place which is why they may not be responsible, may not take care of things and may not know how to work hard. Those things come way before a person is old enough to drive and too many parents are not parenting. Having said that, I distinctly recall my mom saying the same thing so I think it was the same back when I went to high school (not much behind you). I know there was I guy who drove a Porsche to school and many kids whose parents gave them cars. I do know some went on to post secondary. I can't speak for their character, but one friend who got a car at 16 is a very dear friend of mine and was a goody two shoes then, is now, and has teenagers the same, which is why I say it ultimately comes down to parenting.